Journey to Kafiristan - a locked in version of life
The movie "Journey to Kafiristan" was the opposite of a happy-go-lucky movie. In fact, it was a highly depressed movie about a love - like no other. The love between the two women - was geniune, deep and unconditional. It was also a mature version of love, because in the end Ella Maillart (played by Nina Petri) ends up sacrificing her love for Annemarie(played by Jeanette Hain). This cross over between unconditional love and sacrifice was like nothing I have ever seen before - something that I have not encountered in a Hollywood movie before.
Throughout the whole movie, there is hardly any mention of the vast beauty, the open roads and colourful tiled impressions on the exotic buildings. The landscape, was so powerful, all-encompassing, and all magnificient - still the main actor i.e. Annemarie (Jeanette Hain) did not notice it. It did not change her - because she was "locked in." Locked into herself - her mind locked her inside herself - she could not "see" nor "experience" life. It was her ideas that seemed to take over her soul. The drugs didn't cause her to wake up ... instead they seemed to grab on her legs and pull her downwards ... even deeper into oblivion. This state-of-mind is a classic example of extentialism and Sartres' idea of "Nothingness".
Annuska