Homecoming

(Sinéad O’Loughlin/2016/Ireland) 

A concise and accomplished ten minutes of film that make a comment on modern rural Ireland in so many ways. Mick has come back from Australia and is working his father’s farm when he encounters Aoife, an old friend, moving belongings from the family home before it’s sold. They share reminisces from their youth, glances, looks, small gestures and a mountain of things not being said between the things being said which make Homecoming a really forceful piece. Superbly acted by David Greene and Johanna O’Brien, they both emit the tensions and emotions of the script in condensed, palpable performances. The surrounding landscape of Wicklow with mist sodden fields, luminous grey skies and verdant green hedges as Mick goes about feeding sheep are like something out of an Austin Clarke poem. But the scenes of Mick farming also set the pace of the film and allow a natural, unhurried telling of the story by O’Loughlin. It’s great to see talent like this coming through in film in Ireland.

(3/5)

Kusama’s Self-Obliteration

(Jud Yalkut/1967/USA)

A conceptual examination of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s art and style, these 20 odd minutes of film liken Kusama’s idea of self-obliteration to a psychedelic trauma which ends in rebirth and the genesis of the artist. Seriously trippy stuff with an exemplary soundtrack infused with chanting, mini drones and ecstatic minimalism.

Kusama's Self-Obliteration on Youtube 

(3/5)

The Trader (sovdagari)

(Tamra Gabrichidze/2018/Georgia)

Gela buys second hand clothes, knick knacks and assorted household goods in Tbilisi and carries them around the countryside of Georgia in his van selling them in villages for potatoes which hold more value than actual money. In the twenty or so minutes of this film we are gifted an insight into the hardship and beatitude of life in modern day Georgia. The essence of people’s humanity, their struggle to survive and the cut and thrust of old style bartering are all on show. Tamra Gabrichidze adeptly moves from moments of light heartedness to crushing bleakness, The Trader is a dense microcosm of the harsh realities of global economics with the human will to live as its shining heart.

(4/5)