*** POSSIBLE MINOR SPOILERS ***

I think that 'Concert of Wishes' is best viewed as what it was: an unpolished short film from film school. Short films, for me anyway, are less interesting than features. They can be very difficult to pull off because your narrative and the point of your film has to be focused in on intensely and quickly. You don't have the budget, time or luxury to be self-indulgent. What 'Concert of Wishes' offers is the promise of a film-maker who would go on to bigger and better things.

The film is about a young man and his girlfriend on a camping trip. On the other side of the lake are a bunch of young buffoons (a guy with glasses and a ball is the only exception). Both groups are leaving around the same time. As the young couple passes the bus their tent falls off and the buffoons take it. The girl insists they go back for the tent and when they do, the buffoons say they will only exchange the tent for the girl. Hijinks ensue.

Two things I liked about the film: 1)the curiosity. The camera is probing and curious. It is always watching and seeking out. The boy with the ball is running through the woods but the camera peeks out at him from behind trees, never trying to reveal himself. The boy himself becomes an observer. He conceals himself in the trees and watches as the young couple pack up their camp site and prepare to leave. Characters in this film tend to either stare intensely at you like the boy (or those children of the corn wannabes at the road side) or stare at you as extroverts (like the boys on the bus who want to swap the girl for the tent). 2) the menace. This is a very menacing film and I thought it was pretty effective. When the young couple passes the bus on their motorcycle they are harassed. Realizing they've lost the tent, the guy would rather just forget about it. The girl wants to go back and retrieve it. A test? I'm not sure. It is menacing when they get back to the waiting bus. They are surrounded and I found myself wondering if they were as likely to get the tent back as they were to be robbed, raped and murdered.

I'm not sure if the tent or the ID papers were more important. The girl says that her papers were in the tent that they lost. It turns out that her boyfriend had them in his pocket. Did either of them know they were there or not? The boyfriend isn't distant with his girlfriend but he's not warm either (think of his annoyance at having to part her hair instead of finishing packing and repairing the motorcycle). Is her willingness to be exchanged for the tent a test of his true feelings? And is her willingness to go a test for the boy of her true feelings? All of this depends upon whether or not they knew the true location of the papers.

I find myself left with more questions than answers. It's a moral film and there may be some allegorical reference to society in Communist Poland that I don't get. Maybe as I watch it again I'll find the answers that I want.