With a helicopter circling over two abandoned boats in the ocean, the floating corpses at the beginning bring about a total recall of the migrant/refugee crisis in the 2010s. Also coming by boat and ending their lives in the ocean, the Asian refugees disappeared into the void zone amidst the world of boundaries. In the Suspended Step of the Stork, Angelopoulos gives the most poetic depiction of the most powerful socio-political force since the twentieth century: the border. The “stork” is a metaphor for human beings, the very moving agents, and the “suspended step” shows none but the modern plight of human beings in the face of their own creation – “One more step, one will be somewhere else. Or die.” Hence the title of the film, in its most frightening and saddest meaning.

The film revolves around two central characters, a former Greek politician who now lives in despair and incognito and a documentary director who wishes to capture the condition of refugees. Their storylines intersect in a town near the border that separates Albania from Greece, named by its locals as “The Waiting Room” as thousands of illegal emigrants wait here until the Greek government allows them to leave. Although the name of the town suggests its temporary nature, it is indeed the temporary home, if not a permanent one, to the refugees. Here, the uncertainty about how long these illegal temporary residents would actually stay in “The Waiting Room” hints at the ambiguous distinction between “home” and “elsewhere”. Although they have successfully crossed the borders, they are still left in a self-contained “elsewhere” made by borders. How many borders do they need to cross before they reach “home”? It is with this ambiguity that Angelopoulos is able to raise his central question in the words of the documentary director. “When does one decide to leave? How? And where to?”

Among those stories in “The Waiting Room”, the most impressive comes from the wedding between a Greek bride and an Albanian groom, taking place on both sides of the river which divides not only the two countries but also thousands of families. The wedding is gently shot with a silent long-take yet with an extremely powerful tension. It shows a figurative dimension of the separation created by the borders, for they are not only dividing people physically (by setting geographical boundaries crossing which one will die) and politically (by providing new meanings and aspects of one’s identity) but also separating one’s present from his or her past. The bride says on the eve of her wedding that, “My husband and I grew up in the same village. One night he’ll cross the river and come take me.” This is largely a shared story among those thousands of refugees in the town. By leaving their “home” and crossing the border, they also leave their past behind. Here, the border is both a deadly frontier that divides wives from husbands and a ruthless boundary drawn within one’s personal experiences. With this assumed dimension, the audience sees how the means of life are made possible in an extreme condition where the ends of life no longer exist.

It is only in light of this dimension can one fully understand the other half of the film, the Greek politician’s disappearing by crossing the border. While all the majority keep their steps suspended in the air, waiting to be accepted to stay or be allowed to leave, he takes a step forward to the “home” at the cost of his past and identity. A believer of the universal ideal of brotherhood, he presents a more despairing yet hopeful interpretation of the “Storks” by embracing the collective dream and taking actions accordingly. And this action, risky and idealized as it is, might also be the answer that Angelopoulos will offer to his earlier question(s), and with this assumed attitude, one may find Suspended Step a work with stirring idealism, intense seriousness, and great courage.

堪称一部标准的革命起义佳片，影片只是披着外星文明的外衣，但地球太落后了只能挨打， 所以地球选择了丧权辱国的全体投降，人类备受压迫，人奸叛徒横行， 同志们为了解放全人类走上了革命起义的道路，小年轻抛头颅洒热血，可起义屡遭失败，但星星之火可以燎原，在付出了巨大牺牲之后， 潜伏多年的老同志完成了最终的恐怖袭击。 这情节这味真是太熟悉不过了，老外竟然也有觉悟拍出这种片子，难能可贵，就是特效太差，为了省事外星东东只在夜里出现，模模糊糊确实节省了很多费用。哈哈哈。

春节目前看过的所有电影里，看《交换人生》是彻底放松的，只需要安安静静坐着，跟着其他观影者一起被角色逗乐。对于一个大脑不断运转，信息严重过载的打工人而言，能有这样轻松的110分钟，实属难得！

《交换人生》是今年春节档唯一一部合家欢电影，主演雷佳音和张小斐都是我非常喜欢的演员。张小斐在《你好，李焕英》里饰演的妈妈，留给了我极深刻的印象，她美丽、优雅，我当时觉得挺女神的，演妈妈可惜了。在《交换人生》里算是圆梦了，她确实演了个女神。

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