PHANTOM LOVE is a surreal, highly visual drama about an enmeshed family, in which violence and trauma are steadily percolating, just beneath the surface.
The lead character is LULU (Marina Shoif): a very beautiful, but angry and isolated woman, who lives alone, and works in a casino in Korea-town, Los Angeles. Lulus lover is much younger than herselfthe relationship is charged but emotionally disconnected. Lulus younger sister, NITZAN (Juliette Marquis), is in the midst of a psychotic breakdown, caused in part by prescription medication. Lulu feels emotionally invaded by her mother, who wants to come to town and stay in Lulus apartment in order to try and help the younger sisterbut this feels like a further intense invasion, and Lulu refuses.
PHANTOM LOVE weaves these various elements together into a strange but archetypal story, revealing the interior processes by which Lulu manages to see, and therefore begin to release herself, from the violence which surrounds her.
Like all Nina Menkess work, PHANTOM LOVE positions an alienated woman against a harsh, inhospitable landscapethis time, within a family. Stylistically, the film combines fairy-tale elements and a dreamy, mystical quality with a gritty, hyper-real, and sometimes almost documentary style, shooting everything on location and often using non-actors (real people) in the non-major roles.
Structured like Chinese boxes, with each scene opening onto another, still deeper inside, PHANTOM LOVE is a powerful document about one womans descent into self.
