In the same vein of Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing, Federico Lodoli & Carlo Gabriele Tribbioli's Fragment 53, Liberian Notes is an exploration of Liberia's violent history through the eyes of seven different men, each sharing their cruel memories of the violence they witnessed. Fragment 53, Liberian Notes shows very little interest on the specific battles or confrontations these men faced, instead this is a film that wishes to evoke the very essence of war itself, delivering a terrifying and hypnotic look at the personal hell that these men experienced. Featuring the interviews of seven men, made up of eminent warriors, generals, and warlords in Liberia, Fragments 53 deconstructs the chilling effect war can have on the human psyche, with many of these men being almost aggressively apathetic towards their past actions, a shill of their former selves after being hardened by their experiences in the various Liberian armed conflicts. Any personal and historical context is intentionally left out of each of these seven self-portraits, with Fragment 53 reinforcing the impersonal nature of conflict, where death and violence is merely a part of the day-to-day for these men, each who have effectively been desensitized to the true value of human life. Through Fragments 53, Liberian Notes' visual design, the film manages to be both grandiose yet intimate, creating a hypnotic experience that is transfixing and affecting. During the interviews, Fragments 53, Liberian Notes maintains a continuous tightness of frame, the compositions evoking a sense of claustrophobia and uncertainty that serves as a subjective lens for these characters' as they share their past experiences. Between the interviews, Liberian Notes' punctuates the setting of these warriors using wider lensed photography, evoking the emptiness and tranquility of the setting around them, an effective juxtaposition between the deep-seeded scars resting inside these men's souls and that of nature, which is accustomed to such conflict as a part of existence. The seven self-contained portraits are book-ended by voice over of General Philip Wue's vision of the world, juxtaposing haunting imagery of nocturnal landscapes and death, a meditative and hypnotic statement that isn't optimistic, understanding that violence, death, and conflict are merely a very part of nature and life itself. Perhaps the most terrifying truth that Fragment 53 reveals is simply that humanity adjusts and adapts, even to extremism and violence, with many of the soldiers documented in this film being borderline apathetic (or desensitized) towards the extremities of their past conflicts. Providing a subjective lens for each of these warriors to express their past experiences, Fragments 53, Liberian Notes is a startling meditation on War which uses the violent, modern history of Liberia to examine the true nature and essence of war itself.
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June 2023
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