I watched this movie at the Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival 2011. The movie is a superb work of art in many ways, however I am still going to have my piece of criticism.
The acting by all main actors, direction, screenplay and the cinematography are excellent. What really caught my attention and seems a vital factor for this movie not getting a 10 pointer from me is the story! Johannes, the protagonist of the movie is an aspiring doctor who's ex-girlfriend, Sara, is back in the town where he is doing a part-time job as a nurse in a hospital. Among strange circumstances he meets a girl named Ana who has a troubled background. Ana works as a room-maid in a hotel to make ends meet and support her little brother and dependent mother. The movie revolves around Johannes' growing and receding love for Ana and his thoughts about being re-united with Sara. The main reason for this being Ana's strange behavior which certainly seems to be a result of her troubled background.
In my opinion what is not adequately dealt in this story is that there is no real emphasis on Ana's background. The story starts with a little bit depiction of this but then focuses mainly on her strange behavior. This is injustice to the character of Ana. The story writer wants us to be sympathetic towards Ana but to do so there needs to be more background information.
The best thing I liked about the movie is that there are a lot of related sub-plots all which have loose unfinished ends leading to a strange mysterious feeling throughout the movie. The plot of the escapee is one such.
Another beautiful example of direction/screenplay is that there are many scenes which if looked at from a different frame of mind will seem to be happening in one of the character's dream where as it will also make sense if those scenes were happening in reality in the movie. One good example for this is the scene where the escapee is chasing Ana and finally gets her. This scene could also be seen as Johannes just dreaming about it. Both interpretations make sense.
I think the movie overall is a a great piece of work!
The acting by all main actors, direction, screenplay and the cinematography are excellent. What really caught my attention and seems a vital factor for this movie not getting a 10 pointer from me is the story! Johannes, the protagonist of the movie is an aspiring doctor who's ex-girlfriend, Sara, is back in the town where he is doing a part-time job as a nurse in a hospital. Among strange circumstances he meets a girl named Ana who has a troubled background. Ana works as a room-maid in a hotel to make ends meet and support her little brother and dependent mother. The movie revolves around Johannes' growing and receding love for Ana and his thoughts about being re-united with Sara. The main reason for this being Ana's strange behavior which certainly seems to be a result of her troubled background.
In my opinion what is not adequately dealt in this story is that there is no real emphasis on Ana's background. The story starts with a little bit depiction of this but then focuses mainly on her strange behavior. This is injustice to the character of Ana. The story writer wants us to be sympathetic towards Ana but to do so there needs to be more background information.
The best thing I liked about the movie is that there are a lot of related sub-plots all which have loose unfinished ends leading to a strange mysterious feeling throughout the movie. The plot of the escapee is one such.
Another beautiful example of direction/screenplay is that there are many scenes which if looked at from a different frame of mind will seem to be happening in one of the character's dream where as it will also make sense if those scenes were happening in reality in the movie. One good example for this is the scene where the escapee is chasing Ana and finally gets her. This scene could also be seen as Johannes just dreaming about it. Both interpretations make sense.
I think the movie overall is a a great piece of work!