The Wall

[The Wall] An engaging portrayal of a person who is facing fundamental, existential doubt. The experience is specific but the challenge universal: what happens to us when we lose faith in what we had come to accept as unquestionable? Thought provoking and compelling.

[The Wall] The protagonist keeps experiencing a sort of attack of existentialist angst on his way into work – very inconvenient in the Melbourne rush-hour. Lack of motivation; meaninglessness; negativity; the futility of existence. Now, where can he go from here? Ah, he's a media student, so how about making a film about it.  Maybe the meaninglessness can itself gain meaning! But of course the same lack of motivation hinders the dramaturgical process…

Our hero feels that there is a glass wall separating him from the world; and he yearns to break through it and become his own alter ego, whom he can see on the other side of the wall, actively enjoying life and contributing to it.  The film ends on a note of hope as he begins to take control over his own destiny.  He cracks the only smile in the film as he relishes the possibility of breaking through the imaginary wall and joining the active world.

We get the happy feeling that our hero is about to become not only socially empowered and active, but he will also be wise, having experienced the futile, inward-looking approach to life and having found the motivation to progress away from it. His life will henceforth be happy and positive – in contrast to the comfortably-off Buddhists of Brighton, who keep going off to retreats but still lead unsatisfied lives, as shown by having a string of relationships with no end in sight.

Watch the film on this site called the “The Butcher’s Wife” and you will understand why I struggled to have sympathy for this documentary. He suffers from a form of block or depression because work is boring. We live in a culture that has become intoxicated with ‘self.’ We’ve turned so far in on ourselves that we are afraid to feel sad, bored, upset, frustrated… so we go numb or succumb to ‘the wall.’ People need to have a hope and motivation outside of ‘self.’ Our purpose in life is to love God and love people not to please (love) ourselves. The guy with the wall needs a higher purpose, something outside of himself to live for and then he might find that he can face the boredom of his job.

[From the Introduction] The Wall was a short doco that I think everyone can relate to in that we, as humans, struggle with the everyday monotony of life in any situation. As the main character highlighted, the patterns that develop in our brains, can invariably render us immobile. It is only until the patterns are broken that we can consider ourselves free. But are we ever really free? Camera work was well on the mark, highlighting the main character’s isolation in a city swarming with people and monotony. Sounds bleak, but in there is an opportunity for self evaluation in this big world. A doco well worth a second viewing.