WATCH THE TRAILER HERE
First, The Recap:
Sensory overload. When we find ourselves surrounded by the raging discord of those around us, the tendency is to shut down entirely, or at least make every attempt to find release from the “noise”, whether externally or inwardly. Yet, when retreating into the realms of our own inner escape, there is the danger of then becoming equally self-obsessed, closing the world out, pushing it away, or simply viewing it through tainted, apathetic, distant eyes. For Emma (Sibylle Lievois), this reality is precisely where she resides, much to the chagrin of her boyfriend Amien (Hadrien Don Fayal), who desperately attempts to restore Emma’s connection with the real world, even as she stubbornly remains in the dark reaches of her own thoughts and perceptions. The only question soon becomes–will she ever be able to function normally, or be forever trapped in a haze of ego-driven obsession with herself?
Next, my Mind:
It is an unrelentingly potent, jarring, and haunting journey into the fragmented mind of a narcissistic young woman and the subsequent turmoil it causes to her and everyone around her that forms the core essence of this 29-minute dramatic short film from writer/director/producer/editor/cinematographer Perrine Lievois and director/producer/cinematographer Hadrien Don Fayal that screened at the 2nd Annual Berlin Illambra Experimental Film Festival housed at Salon AM Moritzplatz and hosted by Illambra. It becomes a truly unsettling study in the medium of human behavior and how it can be so drastically altered by the fracturing of one’s grasp of what’s real and imagined, especially when contained within the prison of overt self-importance that guides the associated actions and attitudes the individual exhibits.
Every manner and habit is on display here as the narrative tracks Emma consistent descent into melancholy and perhaps even madness, with the utilization of storm imagery to signify the tumult within her while outwardly, it becomes so apparent she is both tuning into everything, yet utterly tuned out, conscious of it all, yet unaware nonetheless. The film’s visual delivery does a superb job in following her fall with an often up-close-and-personal lens that only makes what the character is experiencing that much more viscerally tangible to the viewer. It’s paranoia, argumentative states of being, and absolute physical and mental exhaustion that dominate Emma’s every step, every interaction she has loudly pummeling her mindset while trying in vain to find peace, even turning to seemingly random acts of her own making to keep herself away from any actual relation with others.
Sibylle Lievois creates one amazingly powerful air of both unease and heartbreaking empathy in her role here as Emma, a young woman stuck in a ever-expanding cycle of breakdown thanks, sadly, to her own conceit. Even as her boyfriend makes his efforts to bring her out of it, she only seems to fade farther away, completely exhausted in every attempt to find literal rest against the grating chaos around her, or at least in her own mind. With any and every motion, sound, and action causing grief, Emma keeps observing it all with no sense of normalcy other than her own discombobulated actuality, with sharply disjointed “connections” with anyone else even when in their midst. Yet, Emma still tries to find ways to exist within “the system” of self-made anarchy around her, oblivious to anything but herself. It’s a strongly rendered performance and definitively realistic in its portrayal on Lievois’ part, plunging the viewer into this shattered outlook on life with unapologetic energy and yet sedated understated-ness that really makes us believe the character’s plight. Again, it makes us feel both sympathetic towards Emma yet not, and that dichotomy is beautifully personified by Lievois throughout the film.
Supporting roles arrive from Don Fayal as Emma’s boyfriend Amien, a man at the end of his own rope, as every measure he tried to employ to engage with Emma and bring her out of the damaging place she’s in meets mainly with failure. His frustration is palpable, and very well executed in its believability through Don Fayal’s performance here. Additional appearances are made by Marie Beaumont as Isabelle, Babeth Fovet as Andree, Fabrice Milioni as Marco, Catherine Ferré as Francoise, and Joël Grimaud as Jacques, friends of Emma and Amien’s whose party they attend, though only one of the pair is actually present in the full sense of the word. In total, “Saturation” is a full-on exercise in seeing instability and a splintered state of being from the direct perspective of the one suffering from it, which so deftly paints the sobering portrait of how important mental health is and the need for it to be addressed in this contemporary world. If anything, this film should ideally raise more awareness to it so as more people could find ways to take action and be a part of seeing those afflicted by it, even if by their own confused choices, get the help they need and find freedom from it.
As always, this is all for your consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
