dunyadoom Reviews

Torn Apart (2006)

Very realistic portrayal of an incestuous relationship

[9/10 · 24 July 2013]

This film does not over-romanticize, nor does it pervert this specific taboo relationship. Rather, it shows it in a very realistic manner, gradually letting us feel and understand the connection between the two characters by letting us into their emotional sphere.

It is a very careful and thought-out film, not typical for this genre in the sense that we see here a fully developed relationship, not a childish experiment. What is going on here is genuine affection and even love, a relationship that is not based solely on sexual attraction. It is almost something that could work, but that is yet for you to see.

High-quality directing and photography, quality acting, believable story and atmosphere, this film will keep you awake all the way through. To the end. If there is one.

How to Draw a Perfect Circle (2009)

Dark obscure shots and thoughts

[5/10 · 10 June 2013]

Embroidered with dark shots this film portrays obscure thoughts of a mind in turmoil. The turmoil comes from the uncontrollable sexual desire for a sibling, that eats the protagonist in every scene. But the realization of the desire will not bring resolution to the heavy feeling of anguish. Throughout the whole film you cannot sense a ray of light coming, the film does not fool you. The dim lighting and poor colorless mise-en-scène personify the repressed drives of the human consciousness, or rather the unconscious. It is as if the protagonist is aware of the sickly nature of his desire, but also that it will only get worse if he tries to suppress them. His fight manifests itself in sometimes tiresome long gloomy shots.

We see here a family that crosses the boundaries of normal, which is probably the case in almost every family, with the difference that this family is not trying to act like anything else. Everyone acts by their impulses, the mother goes out at night to party, walks around as if she were alone and freely as if she were seducing everyone around her. There is something used up about her, but also very sadistically attractive. The father is a free soul, a writer that cannot really live for anyone but himself, and even that barely. He enjoys random sex with hookers/strangers and will probably smoke himself to death. The sister seems to have turned out the most unburdened of them all, but due to the great love for her brother she is bound to fall under his burden of lust and unhealthy affection.

It is in this air of free, but auto destructive and ill-fated desires, that the kid found himself growing up and that he absorbed. He is caught in a circle of reenacting these patterns and since there is nothing perfect in this life but the circle, he is most likely never to come out of it.