Village of Socks Review

Village of Socks
(Romania/Germany, directed by Ileana Stanculescu)

Every year at Hot Docs I see a film or two from another part of the world. Sure, I like North American films as much as the next girl, but you don't feel like you've truly appreciated a documentary festival until you've seen a slice of life from somewhere far away. This year (2007), Hot Docs focused their "International" titles on Central and Eastern Europe. Village of Socks, a slow moving observational documentary about the remote Transylvanian village of Viscri fits the bill.

If you like films about cows walking through muddy streets, starkly beautiful hillsides or watching women knit then do I have a movie for you. Village of Socks explores a remote town where economic recession and inclusion in the European Union has left residents unable to modernize and without sustainable income. Enter a German musician who moves into the town and sets up a sock knitting business. Everyday all the women and girls in the village pull out their wool (sheared from their own sheep) and knit clothing to sell at the local tourist gift shop and in stores across Europe. As the women knit they trade barbs about proper stitch count, useless husbands, and the nagging problem of late paycheques. Director Ileana Stanculescu keeps a very patient camera on all the members of the community. From unemployed husbands and lost sons, abrasive nurses and a German woman who exalts the beauty of the region, Stanculescu is complete enough in her representation you feel like you have lived in the village yourself.

Village of Socks is definitely not for everyone but it does reward the viewer who can settle down and watch one camera interviews and logical but slow paced editing. Sometimes Stanculescu overestimates her footage and holds scenes for longer than the audience enjoys (prompting greater than average incidents of watch checking during the screening). The larger topics of female empowerment and globalization are the elephants in the room and never addressed directly. After some documentaries where I was told what the think and feel with the obvious cues of a newscast, I appreciate Village of Socks for its simplicity and quiet beauty. It didn't rock my world, but who goes to a film called "Village of Socks" expecting to be blown out of their seat? 3 out of 5

**I just realized I could have fit in something about "knocking my socks off" but I guess I'll spare you the bad pun. "Sock it to me", and prodigious use of the word "darn" would have also worked. Good thing I don't have time to rewrite this review.