The Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania made Australian history: 35 dead, 23 wounded and a consequent (poorly respected) firearms control law. But in Justin Kurzell’s film «Nitram» (the name of the murderer backwards: Martin) no deaths or blood are seen and the protagonist (Caleb Landry Jones) takes up the gun only in the very last minutes. Before, the movie follows this troubled boy in his twisted relationship with his parents (Anthony La Paglia and Judy Davis, she is truly superlative) and with a bizarre music addict heiress (Essie Davis) in search of a recognition that no one seems to want to give him: scenes of everyday life – we are in the middle of the age Nineties of the twentieth century – and of ordinary loneliness, where everyone seems only concerned with protecting themselves from others, and which Kurzel films transmitting tension and anguish (never expressed, always suspended) without wanting to seek explanations for a behavior that probably does not have any.
Joachim Lafosse’s Belgian film is thinner “The Unquiet(Who is uncomfortable) that dig into the tensions of a family: a painter of some fame (Damien Bonnard) lives with a good restorer (Leila Bekhti) and their nice child (Gabriel Merz Chammah). But the tension that seems to take possession of Damien when he paints ends up pushing him towards a paroxysm that prevents him from controlling his own actions, ending up putting himself and those around him at risk. But then, slowly, the director’s eye shifts from his bipolarity to her tolerance, more and more on the verge of exploding. And the film becomes the drama of those who owe it choosing between love for your spouse and your right not to be ruined by your life. A test that Bekhti would also nominate for La Palma if it weren’t for the fact that her partner Tahar Rahim is part of the jury of this competition.
July 17, 2021 (change July 17, 2021 | 07:50)
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