Ga-Ga: Glory to the Heroes (1986) - Piotr Szulkin

The last film in Piotr Szulkin's sci-fi trilogy is similar in theme, but like the other two films, its narrative is completely different.  The film tells the story of Prisoner 287138 who is dispatched from a space penitentiary ship with the mission of landing on an uninhabited planet and
claiming it for humankind.  When he lands, he finds that the planet is inhabited, and its citizens greet him like a hero.  Ga-Ga: Glory to the Heroes is an absolute farce where all the characters are essentially exaggerated charactures of modern society.  As our hero goes through this world he is greeted by all sorts of outlandish situations and characters which speak to societies glorification of violence, media manipulation and obsession with said violence and how bureaucracy crushes the individual.  While it's definitely not subtle in its approach, that doesnt mean it is any less powerful or meaningful.  Like all of Szulkin's films it's up to interpretation and for me this film is about how the individual is manipulated and used by bureaucracy for the sake of the collective.  Though, in this film Szulkin has quite a narcissistic view of things where towards the end of the film the main character pulls a robin hood, giving money to a poor family who can't afford to pay for their blind daughter's surgery.  The scene ends in a way to suggest that the family was just as selfish as everyone else, so this could be another statement Szulkin is making about society.  As you can tell from my random blabbering, Szulkin's films are always complex, interesting and thought-provoking.
8.5/10

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