Gavagai Is Hard To Explain But Thanks To A Combination Of Poetry And Camerawork Easy To Feel

The title of Gavagai, an internationally coproduced art film playing this week at Facets Cinémathèque, refers to a word in a made-up language invented by American philosopher W.V. Quine in his thesis on the indeterminacy of translation. I won’t pretend to understand Quine, but thankfully he’s not discussed in the film, which in fact contains little dialogue. Rather, cowriter-director-cinematographer-editor Rob Tregenza employs the term as a clue to the movie’s opaque content.

Tregenza lets Vesaas’s words fill out the personless image until Lust runs back onto the screen and past the camera, which pans right to observe him getting back on the train, then emerging with his jacket. Lust rests on a bench for a moment, then leaves the frame again.

Directed by Rob Tregenza. In English and subtitled Norwegian. 89 min. Facets Cinémathèque, 1517 W. Fullerton, 773-281-9075, facets.org, $10.