Anna Buryachkova presents at Venice International Film Festival her debut feature, which premieres in the section Orizzonti Extra.
After a relevant experience in film, music, social videos and commercials, her fiction drama is set in Kyiv in the late ‘90s, revolving around Tonia, 15 years old who changes schools in order to escape her abusive boyfriend. The result is a coming-of-age story which takes shape amongst the high school desks and few rendezvous venues – soon becoming trench in the chaotic life of a group of teenagers who seem to be abandoned to themselves, in a world with basically no adult guidance.
The dynamic of bullyism, societal hierarchy, retaliation, and gang fights mingles with the exploration of sexuality of the protagonist and her small group of friends. Jealousy, desire, lust, lies, friendship, loyalty and betrayal crash together in a plot that mostly centers on 4 characters. Besides the protagonist – a swimming talent who apparently could not make it for “lack of discipline” – the film focuses on Lera – a contradictory, sassy young girl who befriends Tonia immediately. Her brother and the schoolmate Con (short for “convict”),– will soon fall in love with the “newbie”, although in different ways. After the initial smugness, the latter will prove to be a pure character, defined by noble traits, whereas Sania – although apparently supportive at first, will definitely turn out to be a toxic masculine, who wants to be the alpha man in a group where Tonia feels like trapped “Forever”.
The Ukrainian filmmaker depicts the story with a sober overtone, stylistic solution that is not new to the festival circuit and to eastern European cinema, but that is fascinating nonetheless. The camera stays close to the characters and moves rather freely as it waits for the emotions to come to the surface. Albeit the movie is not directly political, the post-soviet atmosphere is a vibration that crosses the air and can be felt somehow. Not only in the architectural impression, but more deeply in the desire for freedom of a generation of angry people.
Despite the film showing interesting elements, the result is very far from excellence.
The script is weak and often seems mechanical: elements sometimes are just juxtaposed and then easily forgotten. Many plot points are just clearly constructed for the sake of enhancing the violent atmosphere that the director wants to convey, but they hardly seem natural or real. Probably this is also due to a lack of intensity in the acting, at least for some of the protagonists
Characters refer to stereotypes and jump from one to the other too quickly so it’s very hard to grasp their real essence, but this doesn’t come across as a way to stick to the reality of human beings who are inherently contradictory. It rather feels like a sloppy analysis of them, who don’t really have an arc, but wander from one aggression – either perpetrated or received – to the other, without any of them undergoing a real, gradual change (besides maybe Con). But again, it doesn’t seem like a conscious choice to make a statement, but simply as a disorganized work, with not much to say.
The potential of the movie could have definitely led to something more striking, but in the end, this will be one of the many films that circulates in festivals, talking about topics that obviously need to be addressed – and rightfully so – but that won’t probably make a big impact on the audience and will soon be forgotten.
If the theme is clear and strong, the core of Forever Forever is rather bland and honestly quite boring.
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