Laputa (1987)

The film tells of the meeting and subsequent relationship between a Polish woman and a Frenchman in Berlin, a relationship as fraught with conflict as the political circumstances in the divided city during the Cold War. Paul works as an architect on a project for a building exhibition, for which he is to design a new house. Małgorzata is a photographer specializing in issues related to the Third World. Their encounters are always very brief and do not last long, as their work takes them in different directions again soon afterward. These short moments of intimate togetherness are, however, intensely charged with deeply felt affection. Małgorzata’s husband, back home in Poland, is a victim of General Jaruzelski’s military dictatorship; he is imprisoned as a political prisoner. The Polish woman hopes that, once he is released as she hopes, she will be able to bring him to the West and use the money she has earned as a photographer by then to build a new life. Paul is not unattached either. His wife and child are waiting for him back in France. When he visits them, he reads Gulliver’s Travels to his child. There is a passage about the “floating island” of Laputa, and every time he reaches that part, Paul cannot help thinking of Małgorzata, who is waiting for him in Berlin. And, just like that fictional island, his relationship with Małgorzata seems to him to be in a constant state of suspension. Their relationship will never be grounded: they both have partners and, in the hours of shared happiness, ultimately indulge only in the illusion of a real relationship. The pressure of trying to make a brief time together utterly happy leads Paul and Małgorzata to argue increasingly often under the weight of these excessive expectations. Their meeting place, Berlin—alias Laputa—becomes a symbol of a love doomed to fail, suspended in midair. At last, reality bursts the bubble of illusion. The photographer is under pressure at the moment: she has to develop her final batch of photographs showing the suffering of Lebanese civilians in the civil war as quickly as possible, then send them to her client, leaving her even less time for Paul than usual. Under intense deadline pressure, she irritably rebuffs Paul when he tries to approach her passionately. The mood grows more aggressive, and Paul feels pushed aside. As if in an implosion, all their feelings suddenly dissipate, and a final separation becomes inevitable.