Marwencol (2010)

Marwencol (2010)

Genre: Documentary
Director: Jeff Malmberg
Starring: Mark Hogancamp
Duration: 83 min.
Rating: 8.0

Summary:

After a vicious assault leaves Mark Hogancamp brain damaged and unable to afford therapy, he builds a 1/6th scale World War II-era town in his backyard.  Mark populates the town he dubs "Marwencol" with dolls representing his friends and family and creates life-like photographs detailing the town's many relationships and dramas. Playing in the town and photographing the action helps Mark to recover his hand-eye coordination and deal with the psychological wounds of the attack.

Marwencol is a documentary from first time director Jeff Malmberg.  It premiered at the 2010 SXSW Festival where it received the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Film and took home awards at several other festivals including the Fantasia Festival, Hot Docs, and the Vienna International Film Festival.

Filmed over the course of four years, it tells the story of Mark Hogancamp, who was brutally beaten outside of a bar by five men in upstate New York.  The attack put him in a coma for nine days and left him with brain damage and a severe loss of memory.  Unable to pay for therapy, Mark turns to his imagination to help him recover from the incident and creates a fantasy world called Marwencol, a 1/6 scale WWII era Belgian town full of GI Joe and Barbie dolls in his backyard.  These dolls serve as alter egos for himself and the people he knows and he painstakingly sets up elaborate scenes and stories which he photographs.

It is a fascinating story that is both moving and bizarre, watching a once alcoholic and angry individual who is now a broken amnesiac create this miniature world intended as an outlet for both physical and mental therapy but who outsiders see as art.  Much of the film shows re-enactments of Mark's stories with close-up shots of his carefully posed figures, channeling Jess Franco in strange scenes of Barbies in staged cat fights, German and Allied soldiers having drinks together in a bar, and femme fatales taking out SS death squads.  These are mixed in with interviews with Mark, his friends, and his colleagues, each of whom have their own alter ego in his fictional town. 

With Marwencol, director Jeff Malmberg pieces together a captivating and intimate portrait that doesn't pull the audience's strings.  Presenting us with a brilliant film that shows the wonders of human expression and imagination.