Upon first glance one might think that Valentyn Vasyanovych's Atlantis is a bleak film, full of death, desolate landscapes and silence. But in the post screening Q and A, Vasyanovych calls himself an optimist, and it's easy to see why: set a little more than five years in the future, the film depicts a post apocalyptic landscape, the aftermath of the Ukrainian-Russian war. But at least in this movie the war has ended; as things are going now, that possibility feels like decades away. Within this deliberate, at times elusive arthouse film there is hope, even love.
When Sergiy (Andriy Rimaruk, himself a real life veteran of the war) loses his job at a local factory, he drifts until by chance he comes across a volunteer group that seeks to retrieve the bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers and give them a proper burial. Vasyanovych is the fan of the long take, letting us absorb the vast emptiness of these vistas, single human forms across expansive landscapes. Each frame is like a painting, meticulously crafted, often cold and distant. In one scene, a forensic examination of the dead is carried in detail, the proof of their humanity existing only in bits and pieces, descriptions of a uniform or belt buckle, warmth that has gone cold.
But Vasyanovych balances this out with finding warmth in impossible places, making the opening and closing scenes bookends - showing that even in such hopeless situations, people are hardwired to find love in the chaos, bringing warmth to a cold and dead land.
Based on a play by Yuko Kuwabara, Hitoyo (One Night) begins with a shocking murder. A female taxi driver (Yuko Tanaka, perhaps best known in Japan for her role in Oshin) runs over a man who turns out to be her husband. But as it turns out, she did it partly in desperation and partly for her children: her husband is a violent, raging alcoholic who regularly beats his children. She goes to prison for this, promising to return one day. And when she does, her children turn out quite different than expected.
A solid family drama about the roles of parent and child, as well as ideas of guilt and social perception, Hitoyo is a treat to watch. Held up by its excellent ensemble cast, it doesn't let up and twists and turns deliriously until the very end. The film changes its point of view from the mother to the children, especially the middle child, Yuji (Takeru Satoh) and focuses on the aftermath of that one event: while an aspiring novelist, Yuji struggles to make a living, left to write pieces for dirty magazines. His siblings also have similar broken dreams. But how much is that on them vs on their mother?
Director Kazuya Shiraishi keeps the proceedings close and personal, and it manages to work. Although some plot points are left resolved by the end, the film's open-endedness ends on a hopeful note. It doesn't exactly stem from complete understanding - that will come in time. But there's something about parents and children and their capacity for forgiveness and love, even in difficult circumstances.
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