Thursday, March 31, 2016

Film Review: Some of Us/ (2014) Anja Kavic

By Olivia Maria Hărşan



It is hard to believe that Anja Kavic’s powerful drama Some of Us is a short film because the theatrical delivery of the narrative engrosses the viewer to a point where time seems as though it has lapsed. The film begins as a young woman paces through a run down train in a rail yard. Suddenly voices begin to echo throughout the carriage as if to taunt the woman and the viewer will question: Are these voices from the past or the present? She steps out of the train where another woman awaits seated on the steps of another carriage. A menacing atmosphere invades the viewer’s conscious at this point as the women begin to talk. We find out that they are sisters and, as the tension in their interaction rises, we come to understand that their relationship as siblings is dysfunctional. The drama is intense in Some of Us and this is due to the phenomenal acting – we really begin to believe the extent of the issues between the sisters, particularly when one takes out a gun threatening to shoot the other. And yet, the trains remain motionless and silent in opposition of their purpose. There is no progression, only a collapse of negative emotions and eventually a disturbing meltdown

Monday, March 28, 2016

Film Review: Post Mortem (2015) Jakov Torić

By Olivia Maria Hărşan


In Post Mortem Jakov Torić presents a dissection of a summer past through a compilation of shots taken at a beachside resort during the colder months of the year. The spaces filmed are deserted and bleak while Torić teases his audience with diegetic sound captured during a crowded summer season – we hear children playing, a boat splashing across the water, people gathered together, chatting and enjoying their holiday. Now only remnants of the past linger – shops that were once populated are temporarily closed while the streets remain empty with no one in sight. Torić’s film captures the idea that without the sun, without the warmth this place is nothing. Even paradise fails to last forever.