Cannes 2018 – Arthouse Roundup: “Fugue”

“Fugue”  – originally titled “Fuga” in Polish – is a psychological thriller cum drama about a woman (portrayed by screenwriter/actress Gabriela Muskala) who, after disappearing for two years, returns to her family. She has no memory of herself, her family, or even how she spent those missing years.  The film opens with a long tracking shot from behind, following an unknown woman as she stumbles in heels and a trench coat through a forest and then onto subway train tracks.  The commuters ignore her as she climbs upon the platform, walking as if in a trance.  She hikes her skirt, rolls down her underwear, and drops a squat as she pisses through a grate on the platform.  In this initial scene, the lone continuous shot presents the metaphor for the entire film and the very definition of a psychological “fugue” – Fugue, noun  – A disturbed state of consciousness in which the one affected seems to perform acts in full awareness but upon recovery cannot recollect the acts performed [Def. 2, Online Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2018)

Now calling herself Alicja, she is identified as Kinga by her father on television after being apprehended by the police.  With no memories of her husband, son, or anything linking her to her past life, she is forced into a life that she does not want.  She sleeps on the couch, cuts and dyes her hair, and dresses like a teenager.  Her young son, unable to process the distance between her mother, acts out by placing  tacks where she sleeps and re-arranging…