NO TRAILER CURRENTLY AVAILABLE
WATCH THE FILM HERE with all proceeds going to the filmmakers!
First, the Recap:
When all is surging, seething, swelling around us, what is the reaction we will most tend to turn to? Is it to simply “go with the flow” in a sometimes vain attempt to just “ride it out”? Or perhaps we rage right back at it, which may or may not yield the desired results, maybe even making the given circumstances worse. Then, we might just surrender to its force and be swept away amidst seemingly never-ending turmoil. The time has come to take a one such ride into mayhem, not knowing precisely how it will turn out for those involved, and whether peace can ever be gained in a world gone mad.
Next, my Mind:
There are certainly lessons to be taken about the unpredictably perilous path that is residing in this ever-fluctuating, chaotic world found through this 8-minute short film effort from writer/director/producer Sophie Watzlawick, screened at the 2020 Berlin Revolution Film Festival. But to really expect to SEE the concepts that are being explored becomes a bit of an overall challenge, given the film’s style of execution, and wholly conjecture-based imagery that actually indirectly depicts what the film’s synopsis conveys, instead delivering the ideas via random pictures of disorder alongside accompanying voiceover narration.
Now, this is not trying to say anything negative about the work itself, but for this critic, it was SO very obscure and experimenal in nature, I just didn’t quite connect with it to the level I usually prefer to experience, and it was a bit of a distraction. This said, the grander elements we are privy to via sounds of the storm that rocks a group of passengers and sailors on their vessel, shaking them to their very core on multiple levels, illustrates living in an unforgiving world where they have to determine whether they can work together and cope with the situation while being at the mercy of forces well beyond their control.
We need to try and picture this scenario, its frightening and ominous connotations for those involved, and see it in context of the moonless night it is occurring, hence the film’s actual title “Sans Lune”. It’s the human fight for survival, which is definitely a thematic direction we can relate to in general, especially to certain extent in this day and age of COVID 19. It does mirror the greater intent here in making us have to come together as the world to combat a common “foe”, but still questions whether we will not only do this and what’s necessary to see our survival continue, but what about after it’s done? Will we remain unified and together, or resume our own agendas and allow said unity to once more vanish?
Maybe this is strecthing it a little when relating our current plight to the one being traversed in Watzlawick‘s short, but the purpose behind the project really does boldly proclaim the existence of a world at risk, and to find true hope, peace, and solace seems like a totally foreign and impossible feat at times. But, even here with the film’s more dark tone, there still lies at least SOME sense that tranquility can be found, that we will survive, that we will always find a way to carry on, but at what cost if we’re not more diligent to watch out for our fellow man and/or woman? It sounds kind of “out there”, but really, it isn’t that hard to realize.
As mentioned above, the film is a strictly visual piece with the voiceover narration and additional sounds of the people on the ship as a backdrop. Again, it is not by any means a poor film effort here, but again it’s a little more difficult for this critic to see people catching on to its intent easily given the more eccentric approach being presented. So, in total, “Moonless” stands as an example of indie film’s own fringe cinema, where what’s already tending to be more ambiguous becomes even more mystifying. But, take it in for what it is, and ideally gain the comprehension about it the filmmaker is seeking, and give credit for her unflinching fortitude to make the film she desired and put it out to the world. That in itself is admirable on its own.
As always, this is all for your consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
