A Film a Week - Electing Ms Santa

 previously published on Cineuropa

In a democracy, especially in a country where its roots are still fragile, voters often have to choose between sincere, well-meaning amateurs without proper knowledge or funding, and master manipulators. This kind of electoral process, or the simulation of it, can result in the triumph of those candidates whose intentions are not necessarily good, but who know best how to operate the system.

With her debut feature-length documentary, Electing Ms Santa, Raisa Răzmeriţă takes us to her country, Moldova, to tell us one such story. The film has already enjoyed solid exposure on the festival circuit, reaping a few awards in the process – such as the Special Jury Prize after its premiere at last year’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, in the Documentary Competition, and the Central Europe Initiative Award in Trieste. It is now competing at the Sarajevo Film Festival, in the Documentary Competition.

Our main protagonist here is an energetic and driven woman named Elena, who lives in a small, clearly underdeveloped Moldovan village and is effectively the heart of the community, organising clean-up actions together with volunteers she brings in, visiting and supporting lonely elderly people, and serving as the local Santa Claus every New Year’s Day to cheer up the children. Her activism is noble and heartfelt, yet she is fully aware that on its own, it could never change the village enough to propel it into the 21st century.

In fact, Elena has loftier ambitions: running for mayor, as she seems to have the proper support system for this kind of endeavour, as well as the drive to overcome whatever obstacles she may face on the road to success. Also, she is clever and wilful enough to learn how politics, electoral campaigns and marketing work, and how to communicate with the electorate. Which is not to say that she won’t have to confront certain challenges, both on the political battlefield – against slier candidates – and at home, where her family does not entirely condone her project and where the situation is not exactly idyllic.

Electing Ms Santa, reportedly filmed over a period of seven years, does not merely follow its main character’s political journey, but it also exposes the flaws of the society surrounding her. The picture it paints is not necessarily pretty, but at least Raisa Răzmeriţă and her team do not fall into the trap of exploiting the misery in which these villagers live for sentimental effect. Indeed, in this area, poverty is rampant, but it also unites the community, and Elena’s energy is often enough to stir her fellow citizens into taking action and doing something for themselves and for the village, besides having the proper dose of magnetic appeal for the viewer to remain interested in her struggles and to root for her.

The strictly observational approach chosen by Răzmeriţă does, however, strongly rely on Ion Gnatiuc’s cinematography, the technical quality of which is rather uneven – the poorly lit night shots serving as the “worst offenders” in this respect. Thankfully, Mircea Olteanu’s editing work makes the whole thing clear and easy to follow, while the soundtrack, consisting of local pop-folk music, nicely complements the scenery. When all is said and done, Electing Ms Santa may not be groundbreaking stuff, either in terms of content or on the technical front, but it does feel unquestionably earnest.