The Banishment (12a)

Directed by Andrei Zvyagintsev
Written by William Saroyan (novel) and Artyom Melkumian (screenplay)
Screening at FACT from 12 - 18 September 2008

Reviewed by Anthony Swords

After watching Andrei Zvyagintsev’s new film The Banishment, I left the screening with an incomplete, empty feeling, and yet there were so many great points to take from this wonderful film.I think those emotions did not come from any flaw in the film but rather Zvyagintsev's ability to create an unsettling and haunting piece of cinema.

The film is very opaque, as Zvyagintsev keeps his characters at a distance, presenting their pain and suffering to us in light of the plot’s revelations, while refusing to explain the origins at the heart of their sadness.

The story is simple; a couple decide to take their family out into the countryside but with a painful revelation from Vera, Alex is sent into an emotional and moral quagmire that will lead to a fatal climax.

From the opening sequence in which a bloodied lone driver, Alex’s brother Mark, arrives in the city from the countryside, there is an unshakeable sense of menace. Set in an unspecified location in the former Soviet Union, Zvyagintsev presents only a sense of eastern Europe, with no words, symbols or reference to time to indicate when or where the action takes place.

The movie will be hard to watch for many people as we are no longer used to cinema paced as slowly as this, yet it is refreshing to see a film in which the audience is given the time to appreciate the simple qualities of cinema, such as the sets, colour scheme, costumes and lighting within each shot. The Banishment is a very gentle and subtle film that draws out great emotional power and intrigue through this studied approach.

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