Through Africa on a Pioneer

If there is a more useless type of documentary in this age of overtourism and increasing global social divides and ensuing waves of migration, it is the travelogue of a white European. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, however, they have devised a foxy method of justifying that travelogue as an old-fashioned dangerous adventure by limiting themselves to archaic means of transport. Through this they recruit sponsors for the trip, for whom they then have to make a documentary of the trip where their signs are visible and the rest of the people are consumers of motivational videos along with a few Othellos who watch these things to keep them in the loop. Whether it's Trabants, High Tatras, some rusty motorbikes, or whatever, the result is the same – it's still a travelogue, just enhanced by the fact that their gear craps out on them every now and then. The only saving grace then might be the charisma of those involved (which is the thing that saves Pribáň for me), but in this case it falls flat on its face, because the local travelers are... well, just terrible Slovaks. They are permanently moping around like spoiled kids in a zoo, unable to learn even the basic phrases of the language of the country they’re going to, but when they have the chance they take food from the local missionary priest, which he has for the local homeless people, and then they go with him to feed them like baby goats at a petting zoo, at which they rationalize "If only they didn't shoot up..." Dear Lord, there's an insufferable ukulele-playing dude in the bunch! In terms of form, it's very lo-fi, because apart from the obligatory drone and GoPro shots (yawn), most of the images have uninteresting compositions and are horribly piled onto each other at random, which is further outdone by the stupid use of music you can find in any music database under the tags "Africa" and "adventure". The last drop of water in the watered-down gasoline is the hardass voiceover, which sounds like something out of a corporate team building video, and I regularly found myself yearning for Adam Lelek during the film. But you do learn something from it, about how freedom is important and for everyone. I'm curious to see what’s next for these travelogues with their self-limiting adventurers, but I can't quite promise that the next time someone films themselves walking to Beijing with shoelaces tied or rollerblading across Nepal, I'll be there. For their own sake. (08/12/2020)