89mm From Europe

An Oscar nominee for Best Documentary Short, Polish filmmaker Marcel Kozinski's black and white metaphorical piece is a non-narrated look at a passenger train arriving at the station in Brest-Litovsk on the border of the former Soviet Union. As the railroad crew works to change the wheels underneath the train (a necessity since the tracks in Europe are a different gauge--exactly 89mm wider), the camera pans over the faces of workers and passengers. The workers appear to be world-weary, hopeless automatons going through the motions of life with none of the fire; the passengers, by contrast, are clearly excited (though also nervous) and eager to be moving forward. 89mm From Europe--in which the wider tracks symbolize the greater freedoms promised in Europe--is an interesting, atmospheric short about the human spirit...both submerged and cautiously emerging. Recommended for larger collections. Aud: J, H, C, P. (R. Pitman)