Filmmaker Hanna Polak took her cameras in this environment and filmed these people for fourteen years. Something Better to Come feels very real throughout. As such it is neither embellished, nor is it aggressive. It simply reflects life as it is. This means, for the viewer, a delightful discovery of a tightknit community whose solidaity in this nightmare called life is truly heartwarming. The approach utilised is full of genuineness, and thus it allows her subjects to reveal their colourful personalities to build a direct connection with the audience - in turn building emotional bridges that feel unforced and for that reason all the more powerful. These are hence people who find time to laugh away even their greatest of sorrows. But the somewhat optimistic vibes of the documentary do not reveal the ever so dark side of the story.
At some point, one of the men reveals without sugar coating it too much, that this is a place where you might go to sleep one night and never wake up again. In another moment, a woman returns late to her hut and claims coldly that she was raped, in such a distant matter of fact way that shows a state of being accustumed to terror that is haunting. The cameras are constantly up close and personal with the subject. There is a direct relationship between them and this people that fills Something Better to Come with an immediacy and sense of urgence, as well as a heavy impact given by the fact that we, the viewers, get such a intimate portrayal of the situation that we feel part of it.
Without forcing them, Polak also allows moments of cinematic delight to shine in her film. There are musical interludes, with music provided by one of the inhabitants of the landfill, that are absolutely wonderful - filled with a natural melancholia and yet as bizarrely beautiful as a metaphorical rose in the arid desert. Furthermore, Polak decides to follow a young girl's coming of age. This girl is Yula, and in conventional terms, her fourteen year life journey is what drives the movie's narrative and dictates over the documentary's pace and timing. Her strength of will is inspiring, while her down to earth dream of simply owning a house in the country are so innocent and true that it is hard not to root for her.
This narrative element makes the film all the more appealing to an international audience, not to mention that it comes at a good timing in a year that sees Linklater stand supreme with his celebrated work Boyhood. Something Better to Come, however, is real, and it is an important and human highlighting of an internationally extraneous or ignore situation. Through this work, which with its 14 years in the making has a genuine sensibility and shows true commitment to the cause, Hanna Polak gives voice to the voiceless while Yula becomes the symbol of a universal struggle that simply needs more consideration.
