Mehdi Hmili’s EXILE is manna from heaven for a cinema
junkie. A staggeringly beautiful moody art house revenge tale that is also a
portrait of a man on the edge which creates a one-of-a-kind mental space for
the viewer. This unexpected cinematic
gem is one of the great finds of the year.
The plot of the film has man looking to get revenge for a
friend who was killed when an industrial oven used for melting down scrap metal
exploded. The explosion wrecked the plant, “melted” his friend, and put a piece
of rebar in his head. The company said it was the dead friend’s fault, but he knows
that isn’t right.
From the first frame of a seeming alien industrial planet tinted
amber on to the near perfect final shot EXILE rocks. The mix of sound and image is near perfect,
with Hmili working overtime to make sure that we aren’t just seeing and hearing
what’s happening but feeling it. The use of color is truly amazing. I could
feel physical changes in my body as the tinted images adjusted occasionally to
either partial tints or all real-life colors. Our moods change. The sound scape
and music enhance that to the nth degree. We are no longer here but in the
world on screen.
As much as I frequently dislike feeling a director’s hands
all over a film, Hmili’s work doesn’t bother me. It works because he doesn’t feel like a
conductor, but instead it feels like he we are sitting with a friend in a café and
he is spinning a story, and he’s really getting into it, pulling down the
blinds and moving the dishes on the table. Hmili is directing the story but spinning it out like the great storytellers do.
I suspect some will chafe at the deliberate pacing, but it’s
a key ingredient. We need to be in a certain head space. Much of this film set
in a languid world away from the fast-paced world, the movie is paced to match
where we are.
EXILE floored me. This is filmmaking at its finest. I need another go on a really big screen, and
I’m certain I will get another chance soon at one of the other big festivals
around the globe. Films this good are bound to get noticed.
An absolute must see.
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