Final Cut For Real

VIFF 2024 Review: The End

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment

I find it quite fitting that the last film of VIFF I saw was titled The End. It’s also interesting that there would be an attempt to create a musical on a subject one would not normally create a musical about.

The musical begins in what appears to be a home of a wealthy family. The son is happy with the diorama of America he has. The father and mother consider it the idea life or the dream life. Or is it? Is it the dream life when all people need to participate in emergency raids? Turns out this ideal place of the family is a bunker underneath a salt mine they need to live in because the planet is unlikeable. The mother, father and son are among the lucky few to survive this ‘end of the world’ and this bunker is their refuge. The three aren’t the only ones living in the bunker. Also ‘lucky’ to be living there is a family friend, a doctor, the butler and the son’s ex-wife Mary. They’re the only other people the parents were willing to trust while still living on Earth’s ground. The father was an oligarch who faced death threats in his lifetime on Earth.

It should appear like they have it all in their underground bunker. They have all the luxuries they need for themselves, the friends they could trust the most on Earth living with them, samples of plants and species to keep, grow and breed for themselves, and there’s even a diorama of Earth’s site for the son to marvel at. Actually the son feels something missing in his life as he spent almost all of it below ground. Then one day, an ‘intruder’ is detected in their shelter. The intruder is a young African-American woman. She was one of the few that managed to survive the devastation as her family have all been killed. The son is attracted to her as he sees something captivating in her. Possibly because she’s the only person in his life who has lived recent time at the surface.

The romance between the son and the girl kindle, but the mother and father are not happy about it. She’s an outsider. She’s an interference to the ideal life they envisioned having once the apocalypse happened. The mother even suspects her of having an ‘agenda.’ Soon awful truths begin to unravel from the girl as she has the most knowledge of the devastation at the surface. All the pollution that was caused killed her family. Soon the news hits Mary as she learns the pollution is what caused her son’s terminal cancer and she neglected him in the end by bringing him to the surface to die. She soon dies in heartbreak. Then the parents learn of the hurt they caused. Mostly the father as on Earth, he bribed corruption in developing countries to happen for his gain, his company caused massive pollution around the world and his political ties allowed his influence and policies to be adopted around the world. A world he did his part to destroy. The mother tries explaining to her son she did all this to protect him, but he doesn’t buy it. The parents wonder is there any way they can find any redemption or forgiveness for what they’ve done? They do find it, but not in the way anyone expects.

It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that there would end up being an ‘end of the world’ musical. Creativity is just waiting to happen. I’m sure this is not the first apocalyptic musical ever done. The story itself is an ambitious story. An oligarch family live in a bunker below the devastated Earth and live happily with themselves and the people they want. Suddenly they find an outsider in their area. The parents don’t know what to do with her. The son falls in love with her. Meanwhile as the two become closer, ugly truths about the parents and the choices they enforced caused much of this earthly destruction and they are finally facing the music about it. This musical does touch on a lot of things such as environmental damage, blood money and people who ‘ruled the world’ facing the music for the devastation they cause.

The thing about this musical is that it doesn’t feel all that together. I know it’s a musical that has most of the activity taking in one small place and it doesn’t lead too much outside, but one does get the sense a musical like this could have been done much better. Its biggest flaw is there are many times in which during many dialogue parts of the song, you forget it’s a musical until a song is thrown in. Now don’t get me wrong. Cinematic musicals are as hard to create for the big screen as stage musicals are hard to adapt to the big screen, but one can’t help but think as they watch along that this could have been a way better musical. I’ve often sensed that if Adam McKay were to do an ‘end of the world’ musical like this, it would be a lot angrier and with humor that delivers a lot more hard blows as McKay is known to do.

Despite its flaws, I give credit to Joshua Oppenheimer for his ambitious attempt to create such a musical. This film is not only Oppenheimer’s first attempts at a big-screen musical but also his first attempt at a feature-length film that isn’t a documentary. His two documentaries The Act Of Killing and The Look Of Silence have both been nominated for Oscars in the Best Documentary Feature category. In this film he directs and co-wrote the screen play with Rasmus Heisterberg, his lack of experience in directing live action shows as it’s not all together. Mind you those that know the story know it’s not an easy story to direct and set. Never mind throw in songs ever now and then. Some critics have labeled such a film an ‘experiment.’ If this film is a successful experiment, it’s an uneven success where the flaws are noticeable. The songs composed by Marius de Vries and Joshua Schmidt are good but there aren’t as many as there should be in a musical.

By the looks of screen time, it looks like George Mackay is the lead actor in this film. I’m unfamiliar with his experience at singing or musical theatre but he does a very good job in this film. He plays the naive son clueless about the outside world very well. His chemistry with the girl is often because she symbolizes the outside world he craves to live in. Also playing the role well is Moses Ingram. She’s most famous for playing Jolene in The Queen’s Gambit. She does a great job at playing the survivor of this catastrophe who’s able to capture the son’s love. Michael Shannon and Tilda Swinton do a good job of playing the parents. Curiously, Shannon is only 17 years older than Mackay. I didn’t think Michael looked that old! They both do a good job who are first in love with what they have and then learn this paradise is an illusion and they confront the truth of what they caused. Also great is Danielle Ryan who plays the first love of the son who soon confronts her role in the responsibility of her son’s death.

The End attempts to create a musical that attempts to be like a sad comedy. The energy and overall mood are not as fluid as they should be. The acting and singing are both good, but the film doesn’t seem to be all together.

And there you have it! Finally the last of my reviews of films from the Vancouver Film Festival of 2024. You’ll be getting my wrap-up blog soon.

VIFF 2021 Review: Flee

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Flee is an animated documentary of Amin: an Afghani refugee living in Denmark who always felt he had to hide his true past from everyone. Including the man he loves.

Flee was the first time I was able to see an animated film at the VIFF this year. It isn’t just an animated film. It’s part-story, part-documentary that tells a lot about a remarkable story.

The story begins with a man named Amin. He tells the story of his life and his ordeal. He tells it in fluent Danish. He first tells of his story of how he had to flee as his whole family had been killed off. This is a story he also tells his boyfriend Kasper. This is on the verge of Kasper about to buy a house for him and Amin. Meanwhile Amin is undecided whether to accept living with Kasper or accept a teaching job at a university.

The interviewer then takes Amin to a private place. There, Amin can tell the true story. It starts when he reflects of his childhood in Kabul. His biggest memories are of being four in the mid-1980’s and running down the streets with a Walkman with pink earphones in his hand and wearing a dress! However the harsh realities hit Amin and his family in 1989 when Amin turns eight. The Mujahideen have taken over Afghanistan, just two years after the Soviets withdrew from the nation. Their father has been captured and they don’t know what happened to them. Fearing they’ll be next, Amin, his mother, two sisters and brother seek refuge on a plane. The plane takes them in Moscow as the USSR is one of few countries willing to take the family in because of their status.

Life is not very good for the family in Moscow. Even after the fall of communism, they can only do limited work, live in a cramped flat and constantly be harassed by corrupt policeman who heckle them for being different. They know they will have to flee to another country if they are ever able to be free for once. However their only hope depends on human traffickers. They all want to flee to Sweden. The eldest brother is the only one who can work. It is he who will have to provide the money for these trips.

The first trip, which involved being in a car failed and they found themselves back in Moscow. The second trip involved the whole family travelling at once. This involved a long walk through the woods with others right in the coldness of winter. It then led them all to a fishing vessel where they had to hide themselves in the fish trap. The feel of the boat trip was nerve-wracking with the water splashing. Then water started coming in, which involved the passengers coming out of the trap to get the water out. Fortunately a cruise ship discovers the boat. Unfortunately, the cruise ship calls Estonian police to rescue the passengers. That meant back to Moscow.

The long wait is frustrating. The mother is getting older, the siblings including Amin himself are growing and missing out a lot on their future, and the oldest brother is having the frustration of his future being squandered to saving up for these illegal immigration stings. It’s frustrating, but they can’t go on watching Mexican soap operas and being harassed by Moscow police forever. Finally the brother finds a new illegal immigration operation. It’s way more expensive than the ones in the past, but this has excellent chances of working. However this involves each of the family members to go alone.

Amin is to go with one other teen male. The agent gives both boys strict instructions to obey. The trip starts with both of them being inside a van and lying down. During the trip, Amin senses a feeling he has toward the other male. The male gives him his gold chain. Before they board the plane, the agent gives the two plane tickets and passports: Amin for Denmark and the other boy for Switzerland. They all go on a flight to Istanbul. As the flight lands, the agent advises the two to do everything he instructs them to do and once they arrive in their country of destination to tear up the passport and tell officials their story. After the agent leaves, the two depart but not without one final goodbye.

Hours later, Amin arrives in Copenhagen, tears up the passport, and tells his story of being a completely orphaned Afghani refugee. As he’s transported to safety, he looks out the window of the car and sees freedom, but can’t feel it or sense it. He spent years living in a shelter living with various families and pursuing excellent grades in school. Then one day, he receives a phone call. It’s his brother in Sweden. Amin learns his brother found refuge in Sweden from his own trip from the trafficker.

Time would improve for Amin. Soon he’d learn all of his family including his mother had found refuge in various places in Europe with his two sisters also living in Sweden. His life has improved as he has been able to become a strong academic and even had lecturing jobs at American colleges. However he’s still had to keep his true life a secret from his boyfriend and his homosexuality a secret from his family as Afghani culture considers homosexuality to bring shame to the family. One day, when the brother and sisters get into conversation about Amin not being married, he then outs himself to the shock of all. The brother then tells Amin to get into the car. Amin is uncertain and fearful about what will happen next during the car ride. The brother takes him to a gay bar and hands him some money. They knew all along! Inside the gay bar, Amin discovers a freedom he never thought possible. The film then flashes forward two years later showing how Amin’s life has improved.

This is definitely a story about a current hot topic: refugees and illegal immigrants. It’s constantly an issue. As long as there’s political oppression and corruption, there are going to be people fleeing. Refugees and illegal immigrants probably feel they have something to hide about themselves. Even if they become legit citizens of their country, they feel they still have something to hide and they have to lie for their freedom. Roughly they’re still mentally ‘on the run.’ Even the fact that the subject has to tell his whole truth under the pseudonym Amin Nawabi adds to this factor. It becomes evident when Amin first tells the interviewer of his story of his family deceased. Then when he’s in a private room, he tells the truth. It’s also evident how he’s unsure whether to commit to marrying his boyfriend Kasper and instead accept an offer at an American university.

Amin’s story is definitely a story of intrigue. This is a story of a man who pretty much feels he has his ‘life on the run.’ He had to flee his home of Afghanistan with his family and first settle in Russia, only for all to find another nation to live in. This is a case of three attempts and the frustration of wondering if you’ll ever be free. This is about feeling that you have to hide the truth of yourself even though you’re now living in a free country. This is about even hiding a truth about yourself that is forbidden and seen as shame in your home country. I think that’s the point of the story. About hiding things. It starts off as a case that Amin has a lot to hide. However over time, he opens up. Hidden truths about himself no longer become a taboo. It’s a case as we see the story unravel over time just as we get to the part where he outs himself to his siblings.

This is a story of from a life of refuge to a newly discovered freedom. When you look at it, Amin’s freedom in Denmark is the best thing to happen to him. We all see he had to deal with life in Russia along with his siblings. Even without attempts to immigrate, Russia was no place for them. Not as they were constantly being harassed. Afghanistan was no place for them either as their father may had been killed and they would be in pursuit. It’s especially no place for Amin as his sexuality was obvious at a young age. If he had not fled from Afghanistan in his lifetime, he could have been executed for his homosexuality. That really gets you thinking. Especially when we recently heard about the return of the Taliban to power. It’s something how Amin is born in a country with the harshest attitude towards homosexuality and finds himself in one of the first countries to legalize same-sex marriage!

I give top accolades to writer/director Jonas Poher Rasmussen. He’s done films about people’s struggle with homosexuality before. The story does a very good job as it goes from the interview to the re-enactments of Amin’s past. From running down the streets listening to Take On Me to the family forgetting their problems as they watch Mexican soap operas, it does a good job of telling the story while mixing other elements in the background. The images do a great job in capturing the drama of the time. The voice acting was also very good. The animation from Sun Creature Studio did an excellent job of depicting the story in both the present and the past. The addition of the music of the times and of the Mexican soap operas also add to the story.

Flee is a great animated film about a man who feels like he has always had to be on the run. On the run from danger, on the run from authorities, on the run to achieve freedom, and on the run from how he was meant to live and who to love. It’s an eye-opener and a delight to see at the same time.