Cairado Nights
An enthralling glimpse into the social underground of Edrehasivar VIII’s Cairado. Spread across secret dance halls, one-night theaters, and so-called literary dens, director Para Lethora follows a band of veiled carousers through the city’s summer party season. With each new location comes new rules, new hierarchies, and a wealth of new characters. (12 E’has 8)

Bokh!
The proxy battle waged between sixteen-year-old Anmurlin Ruzh and Csthalis Hanothar at the thirty-third Dachenbokhmatema—the annual bokh tournament between the elven nations—caught on kamera by director Beset Athmaza. Known for its rhythmic, at times frenetic editing style, this documentary captures the tension on both sides of the border from the opening ceremony to the announcement of the victor—including the infamous moment Hanothar swapped his bokhrat and cavalier during a tea break in the penultimate match, a gamble which may have gone undiscovered were it not for the kamera. Faced subjects were removed from the film and replaced with static patterns beneath moving figures, a decision which facilitated the film’s release in the Commonwealth then and delights audiences now. (17 E’has 8)

Sholavee
In the seventeenth year of Edrehasivar VIII’s reign, brothers Valara and Vestis Daibrohar set out to the abandoned estate of Sholavee to document the main house’s renovation. This film, directed and edited by Vestis, instead focuses on the week that the brothers and their crew spent trapped within the decaying manor as a ghoul stalked the perimeter. In response to the threat of fines for featuring the uncensored face of a ghoul, Daibrohar removed much of the explicit footage. The result is a documentary which not only depicts the process of being hunted by a ghoul, but leaves the audience feeling just as helpless. (20 E’has 8)

Krenn Onn
Mm. Qentak
Introduction to Dakhenbarizheise Cinema
447 words

As a documentary in its own right, Bokh! (Athmaza, 17 E'has 8) is already a great watch. The patterned figures can be difficult to watch at first, but the quick and almost musical pacing of the cuts lulls the viewer into acceptance. Soon enough the bizarre becomes natural. But what made my viewing particularly special is I got to watch the film at an extracurricular social event with one of UP's five Commonwealth exchange students. I absolutely lucked out there.

The first thing Hasiva made me realise is that the documentary really is a mix of Commonwealth and Athamareise styles. Though the Commonwealth's documentary tradition can be musical sometimes, you can really hear how Thu-Athamar's obsession with opera elevates the situation: at one tense point, the background music apparently came from a battlefield sequence in the opera Siege of Tekarie. The patterns on the Commonwealth players' veils were easily recognisable to someone who's actually from there; according to Hasiva, the players came from all over the place, like the woman wearing a variation on a popular block-printed pattern from Lohaiso, or the man whose diamond patterns were "too wide to be from anywhere but Cairado¹." In the case of the second person mentioned, it was apparently clear to Hasiva that he was wearing the robes of the mazai under his veil, a detail which totally went over my head. It's also worth mentioning the film uses a few low-angle close-up shots to put the viewer at a level with the board. This is a narrative technique and would not have any use in a traditional documentary, another sign of Thu-Athamar's influence despite this being a Commonwealth filmmaker.

It also helped a lot that Hasiva is apparently a ranked bokh player back in the Commonwealth. Though he says he plays on the lower of the two tiers, it's pretty clear competition is fierce and that even those not in the highest tier have to play a strong game. When we got to the Ruzh-Hanothar matches, he spent the entire thing muttering under his breath about how uncharacteristically bad Ruzh's gameplay was that night—from stress, I guess. He was only 16 and was representing not just Dakhenbarizhan but also the Nazhmorhathveras in one of the most publicised "battles" in the ongoing cold war. I could see the kid's hands shaking, but without any idea what Ruzh usually played like, I never would have realised just how different that game was from his others. This made it all the more surprising to see Hanothar cheat—an event which made my Commonwealth friend nearly tear his hair out. "Thou wert winning, thou idiot!"²

[1] [2] Hasiva, 3619.