Erasing Frank is a well-crafted look at censorship by a totalitarian regime behind the iron curtain.
Directed by: Gábor Fabricius
Year: 2021
Country: Hungary
Length: 103 minutes
Frank is the lead singer of a punk band in Budapest, 1983. Along with his bandmates, dressed in black leather, all rocking buzzcuts, Frank makes music that protests against the totalitarian regime he lives under. In front of a young and rebellious crowd, he screams chants of revolution against authority. Frank represents the angry voice of the new generation, demanding freedom.
When one of their performances gets interrupted by officials, Frank and his band are arrested, detained and accused of anti-state arousal and propaganda. While the rest of the band is let go after a while, Frank gets sent to a mental hospital for directly rioting against the state. He’s abused by the staff and told to obey. In the facility, Frank meets several other people who have become the victim of political psychiatry – the misuse of psychiatry, including diagnosis, detention, and treatment, for purposes of obstructing the human rights of individuals and/or groups in a society. Frank also meets a young mute woman who he forms a bond with and plans to cause a riot with. While wanting to escape not only the facility but also the country, Frank seeks a way to bring justice to his people and fight for freedom of speech.
The authoritarian state in Erasing Frank is portrayed as not only silencing, but also chaotic and highly disorienting. A creepy old leader figure (István Lénárt), creeps up multiple times, asking Frank to use his talent to support the state, instead of riot against it. He allows him to create his own music, but will not tolerate Frank’s lyrics. Wherever Frank goes and whoever he’s with, he’s somehow always surrounded by officials. The tight editing and handheld camerawork both illustrate this splendidly. The gritty black and grey hues of the photography, filled with dark shadows, paint us a world in which one not only mentally, but also physically feels trapped.
Actor Benjamin Fuchs plays the role of Frank very convincingly, portraying a wide range of emotions his anarchistic character goes through. The transformation of Frank from an angry punker to a young man trapped in a disorienting web, questioning his sanity, is surrounded by officials who are out to get and silence him can be read through the striking expressions on Fuchs’ face. We get to experience the deterioration of ‘Frank’ and all he stands for, as his fire slowly gets erased by the state.
With such a strong and confident work, coming from director Gábor Fabricius, it’s shocking that Erasing Frank is only the filmmaker’s feature debut. With Erasing Frank, Fabricus instantly makes his mark as a force to be reckoned with.
Erasing Frank premiered at the 2021 Venice International Film Festival in the Settimana Internazionale della Critica selection.
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