SEPTEMBER 6TH 2025
RECORD 26
LUST FOR LIFE
RECORD 26
LUST FOR LIFE
It has been a long-awaited record to release for me and I genuinely hope for you too. So please accept my apologies on leaving you hanging in the air for the past two months as it has been a wild ride on this side of my laptop screen.
As I wanted to start this Record with quoting Lana Del Rey, I’m taking that into the title of this writing and I’m proposing we dwell on how summers remind of the good things that are out there, with its generous long days, warm nights, endless events, fresh watermelons and some ease of slowing down that feels much better than the pause of winter holidays. So dragging a chance to see Magic Farm (2025) since its premiere at Berlinale this year, I also got my hands on Esther Kinsky’s Seeing Further, where she just as Amalia Ulman’s characters from the film, embarked on an adventure leaving her habitat behind to seek other things.
Magic Farm (2025) is a second feature fiction film by an Argentinian-born contemporary artist and a film director Amalia Ulman. You might probably heard of her in 2014 when she did a four-month performance on an instagram account Excellences & Perfections, where Ulman sneaked into places and dressed up for a fake lifestyle she was documenting and imposing. This gained a huge following and publicity fro her, which was not the goal, as she stated in this interview. And, let’s be honest, today it doesn’t seem that this approach on social media has ever been different, unlike then.
So Magic Farm (2025) in many ways is an extension of a reflection on matters of life online and offline with telling a story about a group of millennial New Yorkers traveling to rural Argentina to make a documentary episode for a show (it gives off a strong sense of Vice documentaries on YouTube, or any other YouTube-based docs really!). As in a good detective story, we are expecting an overwhelming boom that starts an open confrontation and creates some obvious moral cracks between the city dwellers and the villagers. However, the story unfolds like a tender wrapping of your mother’s or, better, your grandmother’s parcel full with clues that you don’t see so up close. Thus, all the set expectations really turn upside down. To some extend, the eccentricity of the villagers fades away when we hear them talking in Spanish about issues they deal on daily basis, with toxic airplane pollination to discrimination of disabilities. Which make the New Yorkers come across rather out of place with their clothes and styles (not to mention the nagging – sorry, Nat Wolff), that otherwise fit some much more in the first scenes of the film.
Last but not the least is the outstanding Chloe Sevigny portraying Edna, this fictional show’s host that seems least invested into adventures than anyone from the group. This, to me, plays a bit on how much city dwellers romanticise the countryside but never aim to get involved other than when they are bored and rather bothered with their own space. To distort the saying – you can take the girl out of NY city but you can’t take the city out of the girl.
In a similar manner but rather with different spirit, a German translator and author Esther Kinsky in Seeing Further travels physically and in her reflections somewhere far out of Central Europe and her home to nearby Hungary, but still further than Budapest. She travels to a village where an encounter with a local old cinema sparks a strong motivation in her to revive what seems a community-pillar. She shares stories and living spaces with the locals, coming from Hungary and beyond, many Russians, Ukrainians and others, who found home in this dying-out corridors of the local old communist buildings. Kinsky describes the world she’s found in very mellow and utopic tones that only the imagery in the book makes to be a real place, and at times boring with how regular it appears to be. She manages to spark the local stories with the cinematic richness, which brings up for me a mixture of visual strings from Pietro Germi (Divorce, Italian Style (1961) with an outstanding Italian national treasure Marcello Mastroianni as a lead) to Emir Kusturica (with Black Cat, White Cat (1998) and its blend of chaotic and surreal sequences).
Kinsky dives into notions and meaning for Eastern Europeans and their time in cinema rooms. Despite the stories she brings up, the experience seems universal and inevitabe comparison to Cinema Paradiso (1988), and another Fitzcarraldo’s release – Brian. Eventually, Kinsky returns to her life, just as Ulman’s show-makers do. Not to spoil any valuable details of the book, I will just add that how strongly it has made me wonder, if summer diversions from your life counts as a part of it, or it is a full-on escapism.
Visually, Magic Farm (2025) balances between all things fiction (which Ulman is known for). We sense the vivid palette in the frame, surely referencing Hollywood’s technicolor, then some upbeat intros and topics from the style of youtube docs and, of course, some experimental shots that has really reminded me of another Argentinian video artist Eduardo Williams and another New Yorker, a video artist, Meriem Bennini (and majorly her video work series about imagined centre CAPS).
Much excited as the main characters of these stories, I am on my own journey to dive into a countryside world with organising a film club screening in remote Volga region (Russia). It has been some sort of a trust-fall experience with learning how things work on the different side of the world and with the audiences that I have never worked before. As the cherry on top and very moving challenge for me, since the locals majorly speak in Mishar Tatar, I will have to make sure to dub the film (in any way). With having the ultimate essence of a true film club, this will be quite a journey for me into the centre of a true community as we are talking a village community, who kept sustaining themselves for over a great number of decades now. As they are not along a major road, random passers can’t sustain their economy easily, nor have they an industry that would have been supporting their existence. Being still present and manage to sustain their lifestyle to certain extend, this Mishar village is owing to its community of people who moved out but still are attached and coming back with bringing good things. I’m overly fascinated with this opportunity and beyond intrigued by the impressions and dialogues that are to spark. Just to add a flashy bit: stay tuned for my #TrueClubChronicles (like true crime but with film club, but I believe you’ve got me, so thanks).
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To stop rumbling somewhere around here, I’d like to say some final words. My summer wonders around London didn’t stop on these two, letting me go further in my cinematic exploration (and sharing with you!). Hopping onto Too Much (2025) and Kleo (2022–2024) on Netflix, When the Phone Rang (2024) at ICA and watching Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) at Prince Charles Cinema and streaming Passport to Pimlico (1949) at home, I’m still counting on catching a few gems whether at home or in cinema (I am determined to visit The Nickel in Clerkenwell and joining Mascara Film Club screening again), alongside some exciting planning for countryside film club screenings next month (I know! How on point). You do have many questions by now, I bet. Let’s stay in touch and I’m intrigued to hear what you’ve watched this summer. Please share in the survey.
As I wanted to start this Record with quoting Lana Del Rey, I’m taking that into the title of this writing and I’m proposing we dwell on how summers remind of the good things that are out there, with its generous long days, warm nights, endless events, fresh watermelons and some ease of slowing down that feels much better than the pause of winter holidays. So dragging a chance to see Magic Farm (2025) since its premiere at Berlinale this year, I also got my hands on Esther Kinsky’s Seeing Further, where she just as Amalia Ulman’s characters from the film, embarked on an adventure leaving her habitat behind to seek other things.
Magic Farm (2025) is a second feature fiction film by an Argentinian-born contemporary artist and a film director Amalia Ulman. You might probably heard of her in 2014 when she did a four-month performance on an instagram account Excellences & Perfections, where Ulman sneaked into places and dressed up for a fake lifestyle she was documenting and imposing. This gained a huge following and publicity fro her, which was not the goal, as she stated in this interview. And, let’s be honest, today it doesn’t seem that this approach on social media has ever been different, unlike then.
So Magic Farm (2025) in many ways is an extension of a reflection on matters of life online and offline with telling a story about a group of millennial New Yorkers traveling to rural Argentina to make a documentary episode for a show (it gives off a strong sense of Vice documentaries on YouTube, or any other YouTube-based docs really!). As in a good detective story, we are expecting an overwhelming boom that starts an open confrontation and creates some obvious moral cracks between the city dwellers and the villagers. However, the story unfolds like a tender wrapping of your mother’s or, better, your grandmother’s parcel full with clues that you don’t see so up close. Thus, all the set expectations really turn upside down. To some extend, the eccentricity of the villagers fades away when we hear them talking in Spanish about issues they deal on daily basis, with toxic airplane pollination to discrimination of disabilities. Which make the New Yorkers come across rather out of place with their clothes and styles (not to mention the nagging – sorry, Nat Wolff), that otherwise fit some much more in the first scenes of the film.
Last but not the least is the outstanding Chloe Sevigny portraying Edna, this fictional show’s host that seems least invested into adventures than anyone from the group. This, to me, plays a bit on how much city dwellers romanticise the countryside but never aim to get involved other than when they are bored and rather bothered with their own space. To distort the saying – you can take the girl out of NY city but you can’t take the city out of the girl.
In a similar manner but rather with different spirit, a German translator and author Esther Kinsky in Seeing Further travels physically and in her reflections somewhere far out of Central Europe and her home to nearby Hungary, but still further than Budapest. She travels to a village where an encounter with a local old cinema sparks a strong motivation in her to revive what seems a community-pillar. She shares stories and living spaces with the locals, coming from Hungary and beyond, many Russians, Ukrainians and others, who found home in this dying-out corridors of the local old communist buildings. Kinsky describes the world she’s found in very mellow and utopic tones that only the imagery in the book makes to be a real place, and at times boring with how regular it appears to be. She manages to spark the local stories with the cinematic richness, which brings up for me a mixture of visual strings from Pietro Germi (Divorce, Italian Style (1961) with an outstanding Italian national treasure Marcello Mastroianni as a lead) to Emir Kusturica (with Black Cat, White Cat (1998) and its blend of chaotic and surreal sequences).
Kinsky dives into notions and meaning for Eastern Europeans and their time in cinema rooms. Despite the stories she brings up, the experience seems universal and inevitabe comparison to Cinema Paradiso (1988), and another Fitzcarraldo’s release – Brian. Eventually, Kinsky returns to her life, just as Ulman’s show-makers do. Not to spoil any valuable details of the book, I will just add that how strongly it has made me wonder, if summer diversions from your life counts as a part of it, or it is a full-on escapism.
Visually, Magic Farm (2025) balances between all things fiction (which Ulman is known for). We sense the vivid palette in the frame, surely referencing Hollywood’s technicolor, then some upbeat intros and topics from the style of youtube docs and, of course, some experimental shots that has really reminded me of another Argentinian video artist Eduardo Williams and another New Yorker, a video artist, Meriem Bennini (and majorly her video work series about imagined centre CAPS).
Much excited as the main characters of these stories, I am on my own journey to dive into a countryside world with organising a film club screening in remote Volga region (Russia). It has been some sort of a trust-fall experience with learning how things work on the different side of the world and with the audiences that I have never worked before. As the cherry on top and very moving challenge for me, since the locals majorly speak in Mishar Tatar, I will have to make sure to dub the film (in any way). With having the ultimate essence of a true film club, this will be quite a journey for me into the centre of a true community as we are talking a village community, who kept sustaining themselves for over a great number of decades now. As they are not along a major road, random passers can’t sustain their economy easily, nor have they an industry that would have been supporting their existence. Being still present and manage to sustain their lifestyle to certain extend, this Mishar village is owing to its community of people who moved out but still are attached and coming back with bringing good things. I’m overly fascinated with this opportunity and beyond intrigued by the impressions and dialogues that are to spark. Just to add a flashy bit: stay tuned for my #TrueClubChronicles (like true crime but with film club, but I believe you’ve got me, so thanks).
To stop rumbling somewhere around here, I’d like to say some final words. My summer wonders around London didn’t stop on these two, letting me go further in my cinematic exploration (and sharing with you!). Hopping onto Too Much (2025) and Kleo (2022–2024) on Netflix, When the Phone Rang (2024) at ICA and watching Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) at Prince Charles Cinema and streaming Passport to Pimlico (1949) at home, I’m still counting on catching a few gems whether at home or in cinema (I am determined to visit The Nickel in Clerkenwell and joining Mascara Film Club screening again), alongside some exciting planning for countryside film club screenings next month (I know! How on point). You do have many questions by now, I bet. Let’s stay in touch and I’m intrigued to hear what you’ve watched this summer. Please share in the survey.
Yours,
5TO9 FC TEAM
(some) FILMS MENTIONED:
Magic Farm (2025)
Divorce, Italian Style (1961)
Black Cat, White Cat (1998)
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
Human Surge 3 (2023)
Life on the CAPS (2022)
Kleo (2022–2024)
When the Phone Rang (2024)
Divorce, Italian Style (1961)
Black Cat, White Cat (1998)
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
Human Surge 3 (2023)
Life on the CAPS (2022)
Kleo (2022–2024)
When the Phone Rang (2024)