Frosina Krushkarovska

Galloping mind : Aesthetics and weirdness

Director and screenwriter : Wim Vandekeybus

Cinematographer : Gábor Szabó

Fascinating and bizzare. Wim Vandekeybus’ Galloping mind exceeds expectations. It shakes up
the senses and captures the full attention of the audience. An important thing the public should be warned
about is that this movie is definitely not for everyone. A share of those who will decide to watch it will give
up in the middle of it. Its violently disturbing effect and the pressure of the ambivalence will contribute to
that reaction of the audience. The story is about the fateful separations and collisions of the twelve-year-
olds Racha (Zsófia Rea) and Pancho.

First of all, the movie is a confusing braid of violent scenes. The fragmented and atemporal
narrative prevents from seeing the causal relations until deep into the movie. Globally, the story consists
of several stages which are almost individual episodes that unite in the end. Eаch of those stages has its
own point of shocking culmination. The peek is followed by a lull until the next building of pressure. Two
scenes stand out and get engraved in memory. The first one is the ingenious narrative and
cinematographic coordination at pulling the string of events that lead to Lula’s death (Orsi Tóth) – this
results in an especially exciting film experience. The second one is the scene of the horses “being born”
out of the foamy see waves – a scene that looks like taken out of a fairy tale.

The camera is very dynamic and accomplishes a beautiful play of perspective to capture the
atmosphere and successfully communicate with the audience. Excellent visual aesthetics is presented,
inasmuch as, especially in the first half of the movie, each frozen frame could work as an artistic whole in
itself. The many incorporated symbols add to the hermeticism of the story. The domination of water as an
archetypal symbol of birth and death is obvious. Furthermore, the motif of the double is accomplished at
two levels. At the first level there are the character doubles whose paths keep crossing as by obscure
magnetism. Then, the double worlds – the one of the grown-ups and the one of the homeless children
that collide and collapse into each other at crucial moments.

Also, an interesting intertextual aspect is the structure and functioning of the gang of homeless
children that by many things are comparable to Peter Pan’s Lost Boys. It amazes just how much this
parallel world is constructed through that fairy-tale-ish kind of atmosphere, logic, and bizarre social rules.
These elements, together with the unexplained crossings, are not convincing enough for the part of the
audience that still expects a realistically clear and reliable narrative.
Frosina Krushkarovska

What in part imposes as a weakness is a certain slowing down of the dynamics of the action in
the second half of the movie, specifically the lengthening of the events before and after the duel for
supremacy between the boys in the gang. Also up for discussion is the level at which the movie provokes
a conflict between the viewer’s aesthetics and his moral alarm, which, consciously or unconsciously,
creates part of the discomfort and hesitation the viewer feels.

The end of the movie does not provide a rational explanation for the incredible line of events,
except maybe the impression that they are powered by a supernatural mechanism of evil. The conclusion
itself remains slightly bizarre because the feeling of incompatibility of elements and characters continues.
The same goes for the many contradictory impressions and questions that after the ending will continue
to perplex the viewer.