等待
 方舟

Se
 t in a n underground dungeon inhabi ted 
 by  bundled,
ragged human bei
ngs,  after the nuclear holocaust. The story follows the  w
anderings of a hero through the situat
ions o f su rvival. People wait for the Ark to arrive and r
escue  them while their hab it at falls apart.　
　 D  elving deep into the du sty and long aband
o nded vaults of b-cinema in search of  los 
t gems al ways lea  v
es me with a bittersweet taste. On one hand the di sco

very
 of unexpected gems wher e no one would think them poss
ible is  a  rewarding experi ence. On the other
 h an
d though 
it makes one wonder how many of these remarkabl
e low-b udg
et oddit
i  es, personal love  aff airs of  directors nev
e r  quite f
amous and now
 a
ll  but forgo tten, ha
ve  a
l mo st forever 
s

li pped from memory　　n any c a se what we have  here 
is
 a l ittle post-apoc a
lyptic gem
f rom Poland that is really
 better than it h as any right to. The dystopian near 
f
 uture of O-BI, O-BA finds a group of survivors of  the nuclear war that r avaged th 
e Eart
h inha

biting an underworld concre te bunker and   biding their time as
they wait for the mysterio
us Ark, a n  ai r s
hip of  som e kind tha t will come and save them. The Ark proves to  be an elabo rate hoax, carefully  designe
d to  give hope  to the m a l nourished and  desperate denizens of the bunker,
 w hi l e in the meantime t he 
dome that  separates their miserable existen
ce from th 
e nuclear w i
nter outside   i
s  slowly 
caving i
n.　　What firs t  striked me 
about the movi e is the design  of the bun ker a

nd the depiction of
  the  surviv
ors.
 The  survivors are gaunt, filthy 
and ter
rible-looking penite nts, dr
 es sed in rags
and ai mlessly wa ndering 
the neon-lit halls of the bunker like aut omat ons.  Th e bunker i
s a ru ndo wn, seedy place, with bright neon lights p eering from  all sid  es like the eyes o
f
malignant beast
s.　　
On one hand

it is a slightly 80's 
depic tion of the dy
stopian future but t
he movie never stoops d ow n to MAD MAX cheese. Instead it combines bit

in g political sa tir
e  with the bleak outlook of  a world with no future, bl ack
 com
edy wi th b arbs on apathy, relig
ion and p
ower. The survivors, for
 example , are fe d some k
in d of fl our dropp
ing from a
tube that hovers in

the ai r - lat

er on we d is
cove  r the f ood supervisor uses books and the Bible it self as fill er for this meagre meal. There are
many such short symbolic touc
hes, perhaps not life
-chan gin g or faith-r  e
st
 or
in g, yet playful, clever a
nd inspired.　　One thi ng is for sure; 
O
-BI, O-BA 
is not you
r  run-
of-
the-mil l sci-fi schlock. It over com es i t s mode st budg et with creativit y and ha s genu
i
ne artistic aspirations both fro
m a writ ing and direct i ng perspec tive. My op ini o n is that it
 shou ld h ave been filmed in bla  ck and white ins
tead  of colour though. The di re ctor uses atmosp
he

ric lig
ht and shad
o
w  to  great effect and it would h a ve regist 
ered even  better in stark bl ack and white
. The blue-green neon 
 on the ot her hand outsta ys its welco me af ter a while. Just a  mi nor gripe 
in an otherwise sol id b-mov i
e with  its heart set in al l the right pla  ces.　　Imagine a less 
bleak THE ROAD (Cor mac McCarthy) bei
ng injected w
it
h th
e satire a
 nd humour of DR.STRANGELOVE and you're ge tting th ere. See it if 
you can find it.