Ted K (2022)

Direction: Tony Stone
Country: USA 

Based on Theodore Kaczynski's diaries and writings, Ted K is an unthrilling, dry account of the nearly reclusive years of the man known as the Unabomber. After one year of teaching at the UC Berkeley, this sinister, if clever, mathematician goes to live in a wooden cabin with no electricity and no water in the woods of Lincoln, Montana. There, he ruminates about killing the people he doesn’t like. Being anti-social, anti-technology and anti-noise, he pledges revenge against society, which results in a spiral of bombing attacks. Concurrently, he wrote a 35,000-word manifesto that would play a key role in his capture in 1996. However, what really messed with this radical's head was his sexual frustration. 

Having released a successful documentary in 2016 (Peter and the Farm), director Tony Stone seems to be fascinated by the topic of isolation. However, the aimlessness and mediocrity of Ted K is underwhelming for a movie of its kind. Whereas his direction is wayward, the main actor, Sharlto Copley (District 9, 2009; Elysium, 2013), is OK but not exactly tailored for the role. The film lugs around the secluded life and obsessive ideas of the title character, but after we get his point, it becomes terribly boring, with too many unnecessary scenes severely impairing our viewing. 

Boasting some great landscape shots, this biopic was sufficiently clear about impractical relationships and sexual frustration, but is a missed opportunity in everything else.

Fear (2022)

Direction: Ivaylo Hristov
Country: Bulgaria

Fear, Ivaylo Hristov’s tension-filled romantic comedy was the official submission of Bulgaria for the Academy Awards in the category of Best International Feature Film. The film has a mock-aggressive style, addressing serious racial discrimination with disconcerting hilarity. The sharp-tongued language and coarse demeanor employed in this stinging satire may shock some viewers, but it serves the purpose of demystification of racial fears for the sake of unity.

The central character is the subversive Svetla (Svetlana Yancheva), an unemployed widowed teacher from a small Bulgarian village near the border who decides to give shelter to Bamba (Michael Flemming), a sympathetic Malian doctor turned refugee on his way to Germany. Having distinct personalities and the language as a barrier, the twosome manage to get along, forming an unusually appealing odd couple determined to be happy. Both villagers and local border officials, headed by the racist commander Bochev (Stoyan Bochev), become furious. 

Even the film's chanciest moments sustain an overall racial provocation that is partially dissolved by Hristov’s choice to mock his characters and condemn Bulgaria xenophobic mentality. The director should be proud of the solid script, his knack for storytelling, interesting characters, and the funny dialogue peppered with some memorable translating moments. It’s a wild, darkly comic collision between refugees, ignorant villagers, dysfunctional governmental figures, and debilitated military forces. On top of an arresting black-and-white photography, Fear also boasts commendable performances.

Paris, 13th District

Direction: Jacques Audiard
Country: France

French auteur Jacques Audiard (A Prophet, 2009; Dheepan, 2015) is not as strong as we ought to be in Paris, 13th District, but by turning his lens to four disappointed young adults with distinct personalities and backgrounds, he provides a valid analysis of present-day French youth. Flowing like a waltz - two steps forward one step back - this arthouse effort with lots of sex appeal and emotional vulnerabilities develops from a screenplay by Audiard, Céline Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady on Fire, 2019; Petite Maman, 2021) and Léa Mysius (Ava, 2017; Farewell to the Night, 2019). Their writings were based on three short comic stories by American cartoonist Adrian Tomine, and the title is a reference to a particular administrative district of towers located in Paris. 

The promiscuous and egocentric Émilie Wong (Lucie Zhang), a recently graduated young woman forced to work small jobs, accepts Camille Germain (Makita Samba), an unfulfilled teacher, as her roommate. They instantly become lovers, but pressures drive them apart. Nora Ligier (Noémie Merlant), a law student from Bordeaux, is framed by her college mates when she’s mistakenly identified as Amber Sweet (Jehnny Beth), an online erotic entertainer. Through the intersecting paths of these characters, Audiard weaves a human story that, eschewing overstatements, feels very contemporary. 

The film is meandering and some parts don’t really hold together, but the way this tale finally ties into personal happiness is light-hearted and life-affirming. Rone’s electronic music together with Paul Guilhaume’s voluptuous black-and-white photography take advantage of the Parisian charm, facilitating the flow of energy from and to these characters.

Everything Went Fine (2022)

Direction: François Ozon
Country: France 

With this adaptation of Emmanuèle Bernheim’s deeply intimate novel, the adroit filmmaker François Ozon (Under the Sand, 2000; Frantz, 2016) mounts a valid and courageous reflection on assisted suicide, making it unclouded by distilling a few hints of humor. Effectively blending heavy drama and dark comedic tones, the film succeeds on the strength of its acting, with Sophie Marceau bringing a kind of attentive concern to her character, and André Dussolier - who worked with everyone from Alain Resnais to Eric Rohmer - appearing at his most disconcerting.

Emmanuèle (Marceau) is a Parisian writer who had a difficult childhood because of her depressed and unsupportive father, Andre (Dussolier). Now, at 85, the latter is recovering from a severe stroke at a hospital. Despite daily health improvements, there’s this irreconcilable pain associated with the fact that he became semi-paralyzed and will need external help in the future - “surviving is not living”, he claims. This permanent anguish leads him to ask his daughter to help him end it all. Dealing responsibly and bravely with the idea, she arranges the trip to Switzerland, where the practice is legal. But not without some bumps along the way.

This bittersweet snapshot of an aging man and his last will is more functional than great. Although catapulted by Emmanuèle’s fortitude, the film is occasionally coated in dramatic toppings, especially when Andre’s former lover, Gerard (Grégory Gadebois), is around. It’s a minor Ozon but still successful; surprisingly funnier than one should expect given the controversial topic. 

Strawberry Mansion (2022)

Direction: Albert Birney, Kentucker Audley
Country: USA

Strawberry Mansion is a sci-fi romance that seems to have taken inspiration from surrealist works by Terry Gilliam, Jan Svankmajer and David Lynch. Intermittently interesting, the film is an uneven hallucinogenic trip that suddenly gets lost in its own eccentricities. Transmission of ads into dreams? Outdated VHS tapes with bizarre creatures? Strange encounters that lead to past lives? Sure! All that would be valid if experimentalism and articulation had worked in better consonance.

Written and directed by Kentucker Audley, who also stars as the committed dream auditor James Preben, and Albert Birney, Strawberry Mansion may be remembered in the future, but not in the way the filmmakers intended. Undeniably artful, this gaudy chimera finds most of its appeal on the puzzling side of the picture. The magic never reaches those stages of awe and enchantment we look for in this type of movie, and the directors didn't spend enough time building their characters.

Despite the heavy symbolism, it all becomes more visually awkward within a dreamworld facade rather than something actually smart. Moreover, the puffs of dark humor didn’t work for me, only the score by electronic musician Dan Deacon felt adequate for the visual communication intended. At once disaffected and ludicrous, it’s difficult to tell if this fatiguing oddity wants to be dark or funny.

Cow (2022)

Direction: Andreas Arnold
Country: UK 

In her first documentary, Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank, 2009; American Honey, 2016) turns the camera lens to a milking cow, Luma, and its calves, showing their daily routines over several years with an experimental approach that, besides purely visual, is non-judgmental. The idea came up seven years ago, and the outcome is raw and sufficiently explanatory with no need for voice-over or musical score. 

Shot with harmless gravitas, Cow projects a strange mix of roughness and awareness through carefully composed frames that show a predilection for extreme close-ups. Ruminative, unhurried and intimate, the doc is a fascinating insight into the life cycle of dairy cattle from a modern farm located in Kent, England. There are moments where Luma seems annoyed by the camera, staring inquisitively and beseechingly while calling a newborn calf taken away too early. 

We are witnesses of some uncomfortable procedures inflicted on these animals, which are not exactly free despite enjoying real moments of freedom. Informative, quite involving, yet inevitably repetitive, Cow could not have brought more into the fold. No one has heretofore captured cow life as Arnold did, but as a film experience, it should leave many unsettled.

Huda's Salon (2022)

Direction: Hany Abu-Assad
Country: Palestine / Egypt / other 

In this cold political thriller by Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad (Paradise Now, 2005; Omar, 2013), two women fight for their lives in a heated Bethlehem under siege. They are Reem (Maisa Abd Elhadi), a young mother trapped in a complicated marriage and forced to betray her own people, and Huda (Manal Awad), the bitter hairdresser who framed her. 

In a first stage, Abu-Assad builds the scenario of a panting thriller, fully captivating. But the film slowly descends the hill of glory to never surprise again. Even if the tension never completely abandons the narrative, the excitement is limited, and we feel like it had no time to settle. There’s also no magnetic presence on the screen, but, on the other hand the plot is never fuzzy and the film makes its point on how society creates monsters and how monsters drag innocent people into the mud. In Huda’s case this was not a matter of political belief, but a forceful desire to retaliate against a cruel ex-husband who made their three sons abandon her. It’s a bit tricky, I know. 

Played in the overwhelming context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the film turns its focus to the different freedoms and “roles” expected from women in the Palestinian society. Although flawed to the point of failing to reach its true potential, and with practically every scene signposted with heaviness, there’s still a pertinent message here demanding reflection.

Scream (2022)

Direction: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
Country: USA

The fifth installment in the Scream franchise is co-directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the pair who made an impression three years ago with Ready or Not. Sadly, they were unable to put a fresh spin in a sequel, which, being hackneyed and immature, feels unnecessary within the slasher saga created by Kevin Williamson and the late Wes Craven, to whom the film is dedicated. This is the first of the series without the latter at the helm. 

The crazed Ghostface returns to Woodsboro and targets a few more youngsters directly related to the original murders that occurred twenty five years before. Among them is Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera), who hides a family secret that could be at the source of the recent attacks. She soon begs for the help of the town’s former Deputy Sheriff, Dewey Riley (David Arquette), and unexpectedly meets with two other female survivors, the brave Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and the news reporter, Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox). Sad to say that all three actors reprising their roles here perform on autopilot.

Imbued with fruitless stabs of suspense and a sense of constant tribulation that is more repetitive than challenging, this film employs overused conventions glued together by a catastrophic, invertebrate plot that shows a blatant lack of attention to detail. Each scene prompts laughs of annoyance and déjà vu instead of proper scares. With boredom, let’s just scream for no more! 

The Sky is Everywhere (2022)

Direction: Josephine Decker
Country: USA 

Josephine Decker’s moody adaptation of The Sky is Everywhere, the young adult novel by Sandy Nelson, who also wrote the screenplay, is held back by a total lack of chemistry between the protagonists and a notorious mismanagement of the natural flow of things. It’s all neatly filmed with vivid colors, the mise-en-scene is a joy, and there’s a lot of style on show, but the sequences feel stilted while the substance becomes thinner as the film moves along.

This coming-of-age tale places Lennie (Grace Kaufman) at its center. She is a 17-year-old high school student with an exceptional talent for music, who gets caught at a dramatic crossroads between grief - created by the sudden death of her close sister - and the excitement of the first love. While going through a phase of emotional disorientation, she must make a firm decision about who she wants to be with: her late sister’s depressive boyfriend, Toby (Pico Alexander), or a cheerful new colleague, Joe Fontaine (Jacques Colimon), who sends her to the clouds. 

Emotionally strong topics like these deserve more affecting outcomes. Unfortunately, all traces of cleverness from Decker's previous films - Madeline's Madeline (2018) and Shirley (2020) - have been scrubbed away in favor of a serviceable slickness. They say love can move mountains, but this one here is too inconsistent to prove it.

Kimi (2022)

Direction: Steven Soderbergh
Country: USA

The very opportune Kimi - a tense, character-driven and technology-motivated thriller with a dandy payoff - showcases the American director Steven Soderbergh in top form, and provides more than enough dark giggles to compensate for the lighter tones of previous flops like The Laundromat (2019) and Let Them Talk (2020). Written by David Koepp (Stir of Echoes, 1999; The Panic Room, 2002), the film soars above most of the recently released thrillers, presenting an intriguing story that takes place in Seattle, Washington. 

Angela Childs (Zoë Kravitz) is an agoraphobic voice stream interpreter who works from home for the thriving tech corporation that runs Kimi, a voice-activated device with strong similarities with Alexa. While working on a piece of audio, Angela finds out disturbing words suggesting sexual assault and later evidence of murder. But when, miserably and resolutely, she sets foot out of her apartment to report the incident to her superiors, there's only  pressure and hostility instead of appreciation. 

Vividly directed and acted, Kimi is not deprived of some plot swings but, well supplied with panicking situations and oppressive atmospheres, provides a bravura mixture of psychological trauma and crime. The integrity is always there beneath the thriller elements, but Angela conquers her fears with unremitting rage and a special fondness for nail guns. This is a potent cocktail of mystery, phobia and danger. This is the Soderbergh we’ve all been missing so much. 

Definition Please (2022)

Direction: Sujata Day
Country: USA

Sujata Day stars in her directorial debut, Definition Please, a comedy-drama engaged in pertinent topics such as family, reconciliation, personal accomplishment, and mental illness. However, it feels too measured and tempered to embrace anything truly startling or unexpected, either stylistically or narratively. 

Day is Monica Chowdry, a former National Spelling Bee champion of Indian descent who got stuck in Greensberg, Pennsylvania, where she looks after her ailing mother (Anna Khaja). The unexpected arrival of her brother, Sonny (Ritesh Rajan), who has been struggling with severe bipolar disorder and occasional violent behavior, puts her in a state of restlessness. The torpid development of the story makes the weight of their situation feel casual, in such a way that I couldn’t care less about the characters’ dilemmas. Real joys and sorrows must be bigger and deeper than what is depicted here.  

So intent on being dramatic on one side and cool on the other, the film forgets to be entertaining, serving more as TV fodder than as something really worthy of the big screen. The scene in which the siblings perform a play for their mother is the last nail in the coffin. There are plenty of words to describe trivial things. Now, we also have a film: Definition Please.

Belle (2022)

Direction: Mamoru Hosoda
Country: Japan

The Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda (Mirai, 2018) teams up for the first time with fellow animator Jin Kim (Moana, 2016; Raya and the Last Dragon, 2021) in Belle, an animated dramatic effort that stresses tyrannical societies, both real and virtual. Despite incorporating topics such as loss, trauma, identity, fame, and abusive parental conduct, the film is a let-down, plot-wise. Its artistry, even demonstrating quality, isn’t especially stirring, and the pop music is off-putting. It was hard to be emotionally involved in this densely brewed Beauty-and-The-Beast universe pulled up from our social media era.

Hosoda tells the story of Suzu (voice of Kaho Nakamura), a shy, motherless 17-year-old high school student who enters the gigantic virtual world of U and rises to stardom as a singer. In this cyber world, she can lead a new life and be who she really is, but her popularity as Belle becomes secondary when she meets a destructive Dragon. From that moment on, she only wants to find out the identity of the person behind this avatar. Meanwhile, in the physical world, she counts on the support of Shinobu, an admired sports guy and childhood friend who protects her since her mother died, as well as her best friend Hiro and the popular Ruka. 

More humdrum than fascinating, the film is nothing more than a soppy teen-pleaser that, growing dull (the way they unveil and  locate the Dragon in the real world is so naive), is liable to strain the patience of adults. I found myself yawning way before the ending.

Black Bear (2021)

Direction: Lawrence Michael Levine
Country: USA 

Divided into two equally gripping parts, Black Bear lives from a cynical script, which hooks us into a story of artistic deception and jealousy. Alternating between the cerebral and the experimental, this is a successful exercise in meta-cinema styled with the uneasy flair of Cassavettes by the writer-director Lawrence Michael Levine (Wild Canaries, 2014). 

Aubrey Plaza, the star of Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) and Ingrid Goes West (2017), is Allison, an insecure actor turned filmmaker who arrives by herself at a remote lake house in the Adirondack Mountains. In a desperate attempt to overcome writer’s block, she seeks inspiration from the sinister surroundings, a big black bear, and the pugnacious couple of hosts who welcomes her - Gabe (Christopher Abbott) and Blair (Sarah Gadon). She then writes about two different realities, both with wildly tumultuous endings. 

The mordant dialogues, apt score, and non-linear narrative render both tense and embarrassing situations, which are frequently fueled by substance intoxication and lust. There are no stall moments, but the manipulation is undeniable. Curious statements about the falsehoods of the cinema world are also memorable - “movies aren’t everything” or a candid wish to revert to the normal people they were before the movies. A provocative film that holds our interest.

France (2021)

Direction: Bruno Dumont 
Country: France 

Crisis - whether in its emotional, spiritual or self-confidence forms - was always a favorite topic of French filmmaker Bruno Dumont. After making interesting statements with Humanity (1999), Hadewijch (2009) and Camille Claudel (2013), he became more and more playful and eccentric yet less shocking with titles such as Slack Bay (2016) and the TV mini series L’il Quinquin (2014, 2018).

His new lurid and lugubrious satire, France, digs at the manipulative circus of modern journalism with biting sarcasm, and can be nearly deadly serious in some observations. Despite having Lea Seydoux spreading charm all over as France de Meurs, a celebrated TV journalist who quickly goes from disguised cynicism to tearful melancholy, Dumont unmanaged a few aspects in the last third of the film, which is so giddy, it verges on ennui.

This cynical portrait entertainingly stabs the media, the country, and, in part, itself by walking a line that often blurs good and evil. It never takes a clear position either, just like its protagonist refuses to answer if she’s left or right wing. And how her empowerment suddenly crumbles with a trivial incident! Seydoux has never cried so much in her entire career. The war scenes are often risible, and despite using archive footage of president Emmanuel Macron to its advantage, a good editing would only make it better. France is a bold move but hardly a successful one.

Playground (2022)

Direction: Laura Wandel
Country: Belgium 

Laura Wandel’s debut feature, Playground, is an interesting drama that explores the brutal psychological effects of bullying. Over the course of its simple, carefully calibrated 72 minutes, we follow the seven-year-old Nora (Maya Vanderbeque), an anguished and vigilante first grader with big sad eyes, who worries about the boys’ fights. This is because her older brother, Abel (Günter Duret), is invariably picked on by bullies in the playground.

Wandel places the camera too close to the subjects, and the pace dangerously slows down to a crawl in certain scenes, especially those not including the playground. She captures moments that seem either irrelevant or stretched, meaning that the film could be further shortened with no loss of information. Still, it’s a dramatization that invites us to see beyond the appearances, bringing attention to a relevant topic while showing the deep concern of parents and the blatant inability of school committees to effectively take care of the problem. 

While the result is not earth-shattering, there's something emotionally and compassionately connective underneath. There’s no external characterization of the kids - we don’t have access to their home environments or relationships with parents. Hence, you’re stuck in the miniature context of a playground where the adults' supervision is deficient. Both kid actors are strong.

Gagarine (2021)

Direction: Fanny Liatard, Jérémy Trouilh
Country: France 

The French filmmaking duo of Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh streamlined the narrative of Gagarine, the refreshing metaphorical drama that signals their feature directorial debut, with carefully sculpted movements and spaces. Starring Alseni Bathily and Lyna Khoudri, the film draws an observant, if uncomfortable, parallelism between a youngster abandoned by his mother and a housing estate discarded by the government. 

Cité Gagarine, a red-brick housing project in Ivry-sur-Seine, was built by the French Communist Party in the early 1960s and inaugurated by the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1963. Its demolition began in 2019 and lasted for 16 months, and this fictional account starts shortly before that. Like most of his neighbors, Youri (Bathily), a conscientious 16-year-old fascinated with the outer space, doesn’t stand the idea of losing his home. Considering that his mother simply abandoned him and went to live with her new boyfriend, Youri relies on his best friend Houssam (Jamil McCraven) and his crush Diana (Khoudri) to save the place and keep living. 

We have a broad sense of community and solidarity between neighbors in this powerful and imaginative urban tale that cleverly undermines the sad reality of gentrification with moments of magical fantasy. The visuals match the bracing nature of the story, and like Youri, we gravitate with hope, adhering to his universe yet haunted by the desolated corridors, boarded walls, and surprisingly hidden interiors of this ghostly massive structure. Not one single scene goes on for a beat longer than it should; performances and production values are excellent.

Lingui (2022)

Direction: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Country: Chad 

Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Dry Season, 2006; A Screaming Man, 2010) shoots beautifully in a pleasantly aesthetic film that makes a clear and pertinent statement about the Chadian community, underscoring its authoritarian religious practices, intolerance, hypocrisy, and misogyny. This is a chilling, sober story that depicts the sacrifices of a single mother as well as the adversity and discrimination she is forced to endure in the suburbs of N’djamena.

Amina (Achouackh Abakar Souleymane) has been a hard-working woman since she was repudiated by her family. Suddenly, she sees the curse that affected being replicated when her only 15-year-old daughter, Maria (Rihane Khalil Alio), becomes pregnant from rape. This leads her to another problem; the abortion is illegal in her Muslim country and punished with severe penalties. 

The economical script builds reasonable tension, and the film moves assuredly from incident to incident with a simplicity in the storytelling that makes it seem old-fashioned, but winsomely so. It’s comforting to see women helping one another in a constant fight against the patriarchal system. Yet, some scenes are in need of revision and re-staging as the acting fluctuates. Nonetheless, the message is so strong that it’s nearly impossible to ignore it. You don’t have a cheery film in Lingui but one that gives us hope.

The Fallout (2022)

Direction: Megan Park
Country: USA 

Canadian actress Megan Park makes an assured debut as both writer and director with The Fallout, a handsome fictional drama film about teen fear and trauma caused by a tragic high school shooting. During the incident, the 16-year-old protagonist, Vada Cavell (Jenna Ortega), locks herself up in a bathroom stall with two other terror-stricken students, Mia ('Dance Moms' star Maddie Ziegler) and Quinton (Niles Fitch). Her life and behavior change instantly from that moment on; she gets closer to these colleagues while silently growing apart from her family. Therapy sessions and the pressure to return to school are not helping, neither do the arguments with her activist best friend, Nick (Will Ropp). How to deal with this whirlwind of emotions in an already complex phase of life?

The story is rooted in real world concerns and describes the youth universe with insight. Park maintains a firm control of the narrative and no detail is too minor to escape her attention. The only quibble I found was a cliched scene between father and daughter, a moment of trust and liberation seen too many times before. Also not my cup of tea is the soundtrack, which, nonetheless, feels adequate to better portray the current youth culture. Acting-wise, this was the most demanding role given to Ortega, and she nailed it convincingly. The 19-year-old actor also stars in the latest installment of the Scream film series. 

The Fallout is a bracing work, which treats the teens in question piercingly and hurtfully. The sensitivity demonstrated to the specifics of each character’s experience is remarkable.

Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché (2021)

Direction: Celeste Bell, Paul Sng 
Country: USA

This revelatory documentary about the Londoner punk icon Poly Styrene, the first woman of color to lead a successful rock band in the UK and a strong influence on the riot grrrl and afropunk movements of the late 1970s, was co-directed by her daughter, Celeste Bell, and Paul Sng. With the Ethiopian-Irish actress Ruth Negga narrating excerpts of Poly’s personal diaries, the film also counts on Bell’s emotionally charged words, archival footage, and a few interviews with members of her one-studio-album band, X-Ray Spex (Paul Dean and Lora Logic) and family.

Styrene, who was born to a Somalian father and a British mother, had a difficult time dealing with identity. She was a staunch defendant of women liberation and became a counter-culture figure who also got exposure as an alternative fashion designer. Misdiagnosed with schizophrenia and told she would never work again, Poly ended up in a psychiatric ward before joining the Hare Krishna movement and set her own solo career. She had been negatively affected by the superficial lifestyle of New York and heavy drug consumption while living there.

According to Bell, she wasn’t always a good mother, but the film, besides serving the purpose of telling the musician’s story while providing some insight into the British social climate at the time, is elevated by a more affirmative mother-daughter relationship. The only quibble here is the repetition of the footage, but the film flows well, avoiding panegyric artificialities.

Flee (2021)

Direction: Jonas Poher Rasmussen
Country: Denmark

Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Flee embraces a documentary-animation hybridity that strikes with heartfelt intimacy. It tells the haunting true story of Amin Nawabi, a 36-year-old gay Afghan who once established himself in Denmark as an unaccompanied minor. He's about to get married to his long-time boyfriend, Kaspar, but first he needs to go over his distressing past by telling his story.

Like in a therapy session, Amin harks back to his earliest memories of a war-torn Kabul in the mid 1980s. He explains how he and his family were forced to flee to Moscow, then put in an abandoned building with inhumane conditions in Estonia after a traumatic attempt to reach Sweden by boat, and then sent back to Russia again, where they stayed illegally after paying the corrupt authorities. Following those tough times, he arrives in Copenhagen with a false passport and is given asylum as a refugee who had lost all his family, a lie he had been keeping for years. He also opens up about his sexual awakening. 

The particular care given to the images is preponderant in this poignant, profound and touching account of a life marked by fear, trauma, loss, bias, a quest for identity, and an urge for integration. It’s hard not to be scared or overwhelmed during the description of these hard-hitting events, but the film seduces by the stylized realism with which it’s presented. The rhythm of the storytelling is stable, increasing our interest in an emotional story that many will relate to.