tlamovies.com

Amos Lassen wrote on 01/03/2012:

“@Suicide Room” (“Sala samobójców”)

Outstanding!!

Amos Lassen

We do not get many movies from Poland and rarely do we get one with a gay theme. Yet we do get this wonderful film which excels in everything. Dominik (Jakub Gierszal) is just a regular guy with many friends and the best girlfriend at school. His parents are wealthy and he can buy what he wants and does. However an innocent kiss with another boy, changes everything for him. He goes into isolation and whiles away the time on the computer and there he meets a girl who introduces him to the “suicide room”, an online room that allows no escape. Dominik finds himself trapped by his own feelings and he becomes involved in intrigue and loses when he most loves.

I took the movie to be an allegory about the rules of modern life and how they apply to our own lives. The film is animated and wonderfully so. We see the difficulties of adolescence and we look at Dominik as he questions what it takes to be a man and manly. The film has a great deal to say about gender and gender roles. Dominik and his family adhered to what was expected by society and, in effect, they are slaves to it. They expect Dominik to do the same.

Dominik is not totally at home with himself and it becomes ever more difficult when he is challenged by two girls to kiss another boy. At first, the kiss was of no concern but then his friends put it on utube. There were no negative statements about it and it was a good laugh. However, later when Dominik and Aleksander were wrestling during a judo class, Aleks rubbed his body against his friend and Dominik becomes aroused. He was totally humiliated about it and Aleks, to make things worse, relates the happening on Facebook and all of the students at school laugh at Dominik. He cannot deal with the pressure and finds a safe place in the suicide room. Dominik is riddled with self-torture and is quite fragile and vulnerable and finds his place in a virtual world where there is no reality.

Dominik’s troubles were not caused by the kiss—it goes further back to his parents who are driven by their careers. The fact that he also has to deal with his sexuality just compounds how he feels about himself. I could say more about the plot but to do so would spoil it for those who want to see it. When Dominik enters the suicide room, he begins to live a new life and drops out of school. He escapes into himself and loneliness. Most of us have had an experience like this but this is where the similarity ends and to find out how, you will have to see the film.

Jan Komasa directs with flair and he wrote the film as well. He is not yet 30 and is off to quite an illustrious start. He has created two worlds here—the upper class claustrophobic and limited world on Dominik’s parents and the frustration that causes Dominik to turn from reality and enter an isolated world.

Dominik may be spoiled by money but emotionally he has a huge debt which verges on bankruptcy and he turns to his computer to provide solace, Instead he turns to a unreal world that becomes real for him.