Esperanto film screening at the New York Internatinal Independent Film and Video Festival Sept. 23 a

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(Free-Press-Release.com) September 6, 2008 --

Alienation, angst and Esperanto. No, it’s not a new drink invented by a disgruntled barista. It’s a 25-minute art film in a language invented in the 60’s that no one--well, almost no one speaks--about an angst-ridden foreign temporary worker who plunges into a Corporate Inferno. Ne Plu Pikniko (meaning No More Picnic in Esperanto) is an odyssey into the alienation of the workplace, an elegy for a lost past of community, an exploration of psychological and cultural dissociation, and a social satire lampooning corporate deification. The film’s gritty black and white foreign look suggests a lost avante garde experiment of the 60’s recovered after years of censorship.

So if Esperanto is not an iced mocha with a triple shot and flat soy milk, what is it? “To me it was the perfect language of alienation,” says Bechtel. “It is a man-made language. Invented by L.L. Zamenhoff of Yugoslavia in 1887 (Basha sings about it) to eliminate language barriers in order to promote peace.” The word Esperanto means one who hopes. Esperanto took off in popularity in the 60’s and many groups remain active today.

“Esperanto has no culture, no heritage or ancestors,” Bechtel continues. “It is nobody’s mother tongue. Nobody remembers the Old World of Esperanto except the character in this film. It is the language of pure alienation in one sense. And there is an innocence about it, too. Yet despite Esperanto’s lack of cultural roots, it is a beautiful rich language. Based on Latin, though incredibly simplified, it has that very emotional sound. I wanted to intertwine that warm pathos with the cooler more intellectual English subtitles, and contrast both of these with the mundane yet surreal images. At one point the character declares she is ‘a maggot squirming in the bone pile.’ I think we’ve all felt that way at work.”

Esperanto has been used in a handful of films, probably the most famous starring William Shatner called The Incubus. “The language was always mispronounced in that film,” says Bechtel, “but with great feeling. It’s hard to speak Esperanto without great feeling, I think.”

Ne Plu Pikniko is a multi-faceted experience. As an elegy to a past of indigenous community it is heartbreaking. As a social satire it is biting. As a Marxist critique of labor and management it is disturbing. "When a friend of mine quit her job upon seeing the film, I felt connected, inspired, like my work had meaning," says the happily alienated Bechtel.

comedy     Esperanto     existential     film     Joan Bechtel     Ne Plu Pikniko     New York Film Festival     short     video