The boy did not know what type of film he was going in for when he came across Olga’s House of Shame. When looking at the title, even someone who followed them was disoriented. It was dark, and enigmatic and hinted at a place very different from the cheerful upbringing films that he was used to. At eighteen, however, he found himself also wanting to watch those films that were more daring, more controversial, the ones that addressed the issues most people would rather turn a blind eye to. What he did not expect was how Olga’s House of Shame made him enter into the intersection of authority, control, and coercion that revolved around despair, and left him with a lot to think about.
In a secluded, comforting house that served runaways and outcasts, Olga, a ruthless, proud, and strong woman, played the host. It was soon clear to the boy that this is not the typical story involving a house offered as shelter/protection. It is not only the comforting side of the narrative. People were kept in, controlled, and then let out or abused in Olga’s house. The boy found the heroine Olga’s character most captivating and alarming. Power had been used in weird ways but abused in others and still there was something about the presence of the lady that made one want to pinch themselves and ask whether it is fine to look at her. A woman who had practically made a niche in a space that seemed unwelcoming to her, but her tactic of retaining hierarchal order was at others’ expense.
What intrigued the boy most even more was the fact that Olga was, in a sense, the antagonist and also a misunderstood heroine. In most of her actions and inactions, there was a trace of regret; an inescapable pulling effort somewhere in her history that suggested she might have been the subject, the one who experienced trauma instead. The boy began to shift his view of her as that of an overbearing personality who has come to unlock, the source of which was inflicted wounds. She was an enigma because of this ambivalence and the boy wondered how much of Olga’s persona was merely a resilience to the harsh realities of life. It made him wonder about power itself – how, when people do not have power for a long time, they might turn into something that they feared in order to ensure safety.
The other characters in the movie, especially ‘Olga’s subjects’, reaffirmed different types of oppression and struggle for survival. They did not simply sit dormant and take on the role of a victim; everyone had a backstory, a purpose that culminated to them residing at Olga’s haven and the less fortunate male child was able to admire their cause. Some wished to run away, some wanted to fit in, some tried rebelling against the tyrant Olga, but they had in common that they all felt trapped. The boy could relate to every one of these people in that in circumstances such as these, one always seeks for power no matter how bleak the source is, even at the expense of others.
The overall mood of the film was heavy both visually and psychologically. The house itself took on a part, as walls were pressed upon the women making them even more trapped and powerless. The boy found reasons to reflect on the way the location which the characters were in, reflected their mental and emotional captivity. It was not only the fact that Olga was a control freak that imprisoned them. It was the reality, the society where they lived into which they found no better choices. The boy began to understand that Olga’s House of Shame wasn’t only about the physical captivity of people only. It was about how this captivity manifests through social institutions, low-income communities, and the lack of choices leading people into cycles of slavery instead.
Towards the end of the movie, the boy began to consider the notion of shame in both a physical and abstract sense. The women in the house had not chosen to be there, yet society would probably regard these women as fallen, or disgraced. She did too, in her own way – for her past and the way she wielded her power. He perceived such views as a strong critique of social attitudes, especially towards women who he thought were subjected to social constructs and pressures. The shame was radicalized and weaponized. It was not long before the significance of the title of the movie changed for him.
For the boy, one of the strongest experiences occurred when one of the women, a newcomer, tried to get out. It was not the first time someone was trying to execute an escape, yet that attempt was different. It is a feeling of panic in a person that sweeps over the boy, including the dread of feeling helpless in a situation – not only physically, but also within oneself in a space that feels claustrophobic with no exit. She did not get far without being stopped as others were in the movie but it was her willpower that impressed him the most. The boy realized that, no matter how useless her longing was, it was yet a craving for freedom. Such rays led him to the thought that irrespective of all odds and barriers being put across by anyone and in anyway, people will always try to find a way out of their bondage.
Despite their best efforts, Olga’s House of Shame does not have a satisfying ending or closure, or better yet, any justice (if such thing exists). I have more questions than answers, but that’s why this boy felt that this film had some appeal to him. It was a film that did not hold back in depicting the grotesque variance of power relations, the brutal intricacy of survival, and the psychological strain of existence when there is very little space for compassion. Olga, the women in the household, and even the men who entered and left were parts of a web, a web of management and subjugation. The boy believed that this was how the reality was, that people can do the most horrible things, not because they are evil, but rather because they wish to be safe or they wish to be on top.
When the girl was calm and the credits finished, the boy sat in thoughts. A few words about the film Olga’s House of Shame. That film was very hard to digest, but it was also one of those that forces you to think about power relations, identity, and the tools people employ to overcome or survive trauma. It left a certain feeling of discomfort inside of him. But along with it came a better appreciation of the psyche, and how tricky interpersonal connections are, especially those anchored on control and survival. The boy understood that the film was not only about shame; it was about how circumstances form people and how sometimes a person has to accept that which hurt in order to live.
After all, Olga’s House of Shame become for him a film, which he will never forget not due to tears or graphism, but the way it shifted one’s perception of the power relationships, the will to survive and the hidden mechanics controlling people’s lives.
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