I walked through this film (which goes in different directions) like through a magic forest. At the beginning the paths are clearly laid out but the further are go, I am in another world. The Fable has many layers and it offers several ideas about storytelling and cinema. I should have watched it more than once. For now, it looks the film tells a quite straightforward story. There is an owner of a huge orchard near the Himalaya. He lives with his wife and his little son in a big house. His teenage daughter visits them while taking holiday from her boarding school. Several villagers are working for him. One day he finds a burned fruit tree and later more trees are burned. There are several suspects, the fat and very seedy policeman, but also some workers or the peaceful silent pilgrims. Reddy manages it from the beginning to capture the spectator´s attention and keeps it awake the whole two hours of its length. And I realize while writing this, that to form a quite usable synopsis is probably a meander. The film seems to me like a strange,wonderfully confusing mesmerizing dream.
What I called a “straightforward story gets some small cracks early in the film. The owner of the orchard has a strange hobby. He constructs wings for human beings and uses it for himself like an Indian Ikarus. I have hardly time to ask myself why, because the film keeps already the next wonder in readiness. As we are captivated by the story, the film offers a beautiful meditation about storytelling. The mother sometimes sings, only for friends or the family. And at the evening she tells fables or fairy tales for her little son. The film does not only bring back the fascination when we are told stories in our childhood, the film itself turns into a celebration of storytelling very much like in George Miller´s culpable underrated film Three Thousand Years of Longing. If there is a beautiful image for the strange fascination of this film than this fantastic moment (indeed the most mesmerizing film moment I experienced at this year´s Berlinale) when the family is gazing to the stars which are very recognizable in the clear night sky. The whole screen becomes for a moment a night sky full of stars. It is a moment of pure cinema. As cinema recycled almost all forms of storytelling I got as well the idea that cinema existed already millenniums before the technical invention of the cinematograph with its illusion of movement. Just about this very moment one could philosophize endlessly. And yes – it is as well a film about light. The daylight, the dawn and the darkness of the night where only shadows and contours are visible. Unforgettable are the rides of the daughter at night through the forest, the lack of light and the fact that most of the visible things are hidden in the dark, inspires the imagination and for a moment there is this old fascination again, the time of our first encounter with storytelling. Shot entirely on 35 millimeter, the photography avoids arbitrariness of artificial light in so much films and television series. And one almost has forgotten how beautiful analog cinema looked like.
Why is the daughter so magnetized by one of these silent pilgrims? Who is responsible for burning the trees? And more questions appear. But these questions have no other meaning than stimulation. The film is like a tour de force through the visible concrete world and the invisible world of fables and storytelling and myths. It is film full of great cinema moments in which one want to sink in forever. As I do not want to give away the pointe, I have to say after this firework of fantastic ideas, I was slightly worried how the film will be concluded. Too often I have seen films which use off their richness of ideas long before the film is close to its end. But Reddy surprises us a last time with a virtuous last twist. Needless to say that this film must be seen on the big screen. It is a powerful manifestation what cinema still can approach. As a film, The Fable was with Comme le Feu (Who by Fire) by Philippe Lesage the narrative film I saw at this year´s festival which come closest to a masterpiece.
Rüdiger Tomczak
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