Portrait of a Stranger

Portrait of a Stranger: I remember arriving home one Saturday afternoon having just purchased food for our two family dogs. As I pulled into the driveway, my heart sank as I realised that the gate had blown open, and the dogs were gone. What followed was an anxious hour-long search – a memory that causes me to immediately empathise with the central character of ‘Portrait of a Stranger’.

A dishevelled, older gentleman frantically searches his neighbourhood, looking for a person or place depicted upon a photograph. As this stressed man seeks help from one person after another, I feel his despair mounting. He needs to find ‘it’, but no one can – or indeed, wants to – assist. Laughter or indifference are his only replies. It isn’t until he encounters a little girl on the street that the gentleman finds tangible help. With childhood curiosity, the girl takes time to look at the photograph. She listens to the man’s pleas. Reaching out and taking his hand, she leads the man to a shop window. There, she shows him in the reflection that the person from the photograph that he frantically seeks is actually himself. Neater, cleaner, and tidier. The simple aid of a child helps this man rediscover his own self.

This film makes some potent points in its four short minutes.

I’m first reminded of the tragedy of pre-forming judgements about people. We can so often push away others for being dirty or unfriendly (literally or figuratively), without considering the very valid reasons they might have for being so. Like the little girl here, or the Good Samaritan in the Gospel of Luke, how often do we bring ourselves to just stop, look and listen to the plight of the anxious or distressed? Our gentleman couldn’t care for himself, because he did not know who he was. But with the sacrifice of just a few minutes of the girl’s time, he begins his journey towards recovery, regathering a sense of being, of dignity, of self.

We are also drawn to personally identify ourselves along with the man in his plight. The frantic camera footage in this film encourages us to journey each step of his search with him. I’m certain this is intentional, an important reminder for each of us that, just as we need to be aware of ‘lost’ others, we are also susceptible to becoming lost ourselves. This gentleman needed someone else to help identify both his need, and where to find it.

To me, ‘Portrait of a Stranger’ thus effectively frames the interconnectedness of the human being – our reliance upon one another for direction, for calm, for sanity, for life. Whether needing other people or God-intervention (perhaps both!), this four minutes of film reminds us that none of us can find meaning and direction on our own. Which leads me to ask, which role am I playing right now? The lost man? The little girl? A mocking neighbour?

Ominous music, barking dog, Hitchcock sense of urgency and panic – no-one wants to stop to help a slightly unkempt man in this sparsely populated, shuttered, anonymous town with its bins and narrow alleys – until a young girl in a red dress (echoes of Schindler’s List) engages with him, sees what the others haven’t – and helps him find himself.

Very powerful and moving. It poses the questions – what is wrong with our society, why do we maintain prejudices, so that only a young child who has not yet been influenced can help – we know that she could easily have been dragged away from engaging with a possibly suspicious man. Sadly we also know what could potentially happen. Have we got the balance wrong – and has that made our lives, or the lives of others, more barren? What can we do to be more open when people need us? Well done.

The cinematography was very good as well as the music soundtrack. Both are to be highly commended. The leading actor played a derelict who didn't seem to know who he was. He carried around a picture of himself and asked various people if they could help him identify the person in the photo. Presumably because he was acting rather strangely most people seemed to ignore him or want to get away from him, until the small girl led him to a mirror. Then it became clear that the photo was of himself.

Questions I still have are:

What was the point of the film? What did it aim to do? How was I to think more Christianly at the end of it?

We are such try-hards as we read into something whatever suits our particular world view,and if we can't 'see/find' it 'our' way, we see no further application and discard the meaning that may be there just for us; like finding some hidden treasure.

I'm so glad "Portrait of a Stranger" reminded me that a child like response/faith is required to remove the scales from my 'theological-eyes-only'; of course it meant that I had to take a humble position and look at the picture now through a child's eyes and find my true self...which was to this moment one of an overconfident and proud person , unable to see that I was a lost and fallen specimen of man... but now restorable.

Its an awesome video, made me reflect on my self!
Kuya daniel Thanks

Patrick