Marwencol

Deeply moving documentary about a man, Mark Hogancamp, who suffered a vicious beating at the hands of some thugs who followed him home from a bar. He suffered some pretty horrible brain damage, losing most of his memories. To deal with the pain, Mark created a fantasy world, a small Belgian town in the midst of WWII, Marwencol, populated with dolls which represent people from his own life. The filmmaking is pretty standard doc stuff, but it's well done and the director handles the big reveals fantastically. Hogancamp is such a wonderfully interesting person - and the stories he tells about Marwencol are actually gripping themselves - that I was completely caught up in the movie. It's easily one of last year's best films.

This is a beautiful, respectful, modest treatment of a delicate subject Mark H. -- the victim of a barroom attack by several youths who is left in a coma, forgets his past, and must gradually relearn how to walk, speak, and function. He remains damaged, but creates his own form of therapy in the form of creating an intricate world of action figures living out a detailed story of WWII action. He is an inspiring, creative, charismatic yet fragile protagonist.

The movie follows the parallel worlds of Mark's reality and his storytelling, which reflect each other and progress with effective pacing. It is an inspiring tale of self-initiated psychological rehabilitation, where a person who might be pitied reinvents himself and finds redemption and what appears to be a "better" version of himself.

There are also very interesting sub-currents of sexuality, sexual identity, justice, catharsis, normalcy, and power struggles in the dual narratives.

The movie makers lovingly capture Mark's meticulously created art (including his excellent photography) with beautiful cinematography.

Inspiring, beautiful movie.

Suffering from brain damage and permanent memory loss , Mark Hogancamp spent nine days in a coma after a severe beating which almost killed him. When he awoke Mark went through therapy to try and regain all the skills that he lost. After leaving the hospital Mark began his own therapy in the form of Marwencol, a 1/6th scale World War II era town he built and is inhabited by dolls. Using some of the dolls as representations for people he knows, Mark creates numerous stories within Marwencol, some of which relate to the time he was assaulted.

When his photographs are seen by magazine publisher an art show is set up in Greenwich village, New York. Conflicted by whether or not to go ahead with the show Mark must decide if he wants to keep his therapy to himself or share it with the outside world, which he doesn't have much interaction with and doesn't feel safe in.

An interesting documentary, this film gives a view into the world of a man who has created a unique way to deal with the trauma of having nothing from a life he had prior to an assault outside a bar. The viewer gets to see the before and after sides to Mark's personality, some which seem a little creepy and others which show him as a simple man trying to get his life back. More importantly it shows how Mark didn't just become a victim who gave up because of what happened to him. Although the film tends to lag a little near the end and leaves a few questions unanswered this is worth viewing.

As I've mentioned, when the Cleveland International Film Festival catalog comes out. I read all the summaries and mark the movies I want to see. Marwencol jumped out at me for a few reasons. I had a boyfriend in college who lived near Kingston, NY, where this takes place. It's about a man who recovers from a head injury by building a world of miniatures in his backyard, it becomes therapy. My husband and son are into gaming and miniatures. I thought it sounded very interesting.

Turns out the miniatures are more like dolls. And, the therapy was much more like fantasy and art. Mark Hogancamp was attacked in the parking lot of a bar by five guys he'd been drinking with. Head injuries forced him to learn to speak, write, walk and completely function, all over again. Before the accident, he was married, an alcoholic and a gifted artist. After the accident, he was a completely different person, because he had no memory of his previous life. Working with his figures, he's able to practice small motor function, develop his rich imagination and role play some of his anger and aggression. Because he couldn't draw anymore, he captured scenes on film, with his camera. Now, friends and admirers of his work are urging him to share his town, Marwencol, with the world, with a gallery showing, a book and this film. Mark Hogancamp is a sympathetic and interesting guy. Marwencol is definitely an interesting place. Just when you think, "Okay, I get it, but this is weird," it gets weirder! But then, the pieces start to fit together. Fascinating story, well told, amazing imagery. It's an unforgettable place. Marwencol gets a 10 out of 10.

The very first thing that one notices about Mark Hogancamp are his eyes. They are small and look a little tired, as if he just woke up from a long sleep. There is no distance in his eyes, they don't seem to contain memories. Rather, they seem very much focused on the present. When he speaks he has a sweet-natured voice, solemn and intelligent. There is no regret in his demeanor despite his age which I range at about somewhere in his mid-40s.

The manner in which Hogancamp carries himself is specifically rooted in an incident that changed his life. On April 8, 2000, he was leaving a bar when he was attacked by five men who beat him almost to death. The men were arrested and Hogancamp spent nine days in a coma and forty days in the hospital. When he woke up, he had severe brain damage and most of his memory was gone. Years after his incident, his brain is still a little mushy. He works a quiet job, oddly enough, at The Anchorage, the same bar where he was attacked. Not having memories of the attack, he has no anxieties about working there.

The documentary 'Marwencol' settles firmly on Hogancamp who says that due to his injury he has no real memories, only flashes of memory, like snapshots. He knows of his past because of diary entries written before the attack. He reads them, but doesn't recognize the person who wrote them. He knows that that man was an alcoholic, who was bitter and angry, but he also knows that he had an artistic talent. He shows us sketches that are not out of the ordinary. After the attack, he could no longer draw because his hands shook too much.

He could not afford therapy, so he made his own. In his back yard, he created the tiny, fictional town of Marwencol, a Belgian World War II-era town made of dolls and small buildings. His dolls represent people in his life. His own alter-ego is a hero-type that has a head the looks a little like Harrison Ford. His mother's alter-ego has a head that came from a Pussy Galore doll. His former girlfriend is represented by a Barbie doll. He collects his dolls and studies them, trying to see who they could represent. When he puts his dolls inside the model, they don't just stand stiffly, but they seem modulated as if frozen in a moment of action.

Marwencol becomes Hogancamp's entire world. He creates each character down to the most finite detail, including a backstory. He tells us the stories of what goes on in Marwencol, not as play acting but as if it is really happening. He tells about how his alter-ego wandered into the town and settled down to open a bar. No one is allowed to fight in Marwencol, the only fights are staged catfights inside the bar. Then the Nazi's showed up and he corralled all of the citizenry into his bar while the Nazis kicked down doors trying to find out where it was. His employer Rose is stunned to find that her alter-ego was killed by the Nazis because she wouldn't talk.

What becomes apparent as he tells the story is that Hogancamp isn't just playing with dolls, he is finding a manner in which to deal with his trauma. His alter-ego in Marwencol, is stripped and beaten by the SS just as he was in real life. He cannot remember the attack, he just feeds off of information from his assailant's testimony and from what he has been told. The play acting is a manner in which he can piece that moment together and deal with it on a realistic level.

It is hard to really describe what makes 'Marwencol' really special. It is a quiet, tenderly beautiful story of a man who stepped back from the edge of a near-fatal incident and creates his own therapy through art. The photos he takes of his tiny town are crisp and beautiful (I have featured some of them below). The characters seem alive even though his subjects are immobile. He modulates every single tiny detail perfectly. It is a futile exercise in trying to understand the effect this movie has on you once you let yourself be carried away by Hogancamp's imagination. He takes us so solidly and so convincingly into his tiny man-made world that, after a while, we forget that we are simply looking at dolls. It sounds strange, but I felt I got to know the people Marwencol so well that when one of the women in town left her boyfriend for another man, I felt a little sad.

***1/2 (of four)