Film
Sister act
by Helene Wong
Family dynamics without the clichés.
Sibling dynamics can be fraught territory, and a challenge to any film-maker looking to expose and express the sources of friction. How to refresh or avoid clichés (“You were always Dad’s favourite”/“She stole my boyfriend”); how to reveal the past – flashback or exposition; and how to direct performances that are as much internal as external. With Jinx Sister, Athina Tsoulis can be proud of the way she’s risen to that challenge.
Laura (Sara Wiseman) and Mairie (Rachel Nash) have been estranged for 10 years. Laura’s been in LA acquiring an American accent and a drinking habit. With admirable economy, the opening crane shot tells us all we need to know about where she’s at. Advised to sort herself out, she returns home and makes contact with Mairie, now a pregnant mother of two girls and married to Phil. A bumpy rapprochement begins. What’s revealed is a past that does go beyond the usual clichés, and even though it sometimes lacks emotional punch, it is credible.
Emotional impact does come, though, from the acting. This is a wonderful
cast: Wiseman balancing brittle self-destructiveness with a confused vulnerability; Nash effortlessly radiating -natural warmth from the screen even as her character struggles with anger or grief; Jarod Rawiri and Will Wallace relishing the chance to play sensitive; and Jenni Heka with her no-nonsense wisdom – all are exemplars of truthful, understated playing. Tsoulis has drawn out the internal life of these characters with her directing and writing of subtext, and director of photography Rewa Harré captures this most beautifully in the eyes of the actors.
Though budget realities mean that at heart this is a simple, intimate story of character, ways have been found to cinematically express Laura’s state of mind. Music and sound design evoke displacement, suspension, hollowness and discord. Suburban Manurewa’s sense of neighbourhood is contrasted with LA’s soulless solitude, but seen through Laura’s- eyes as she walks its streets, observing, not engaging, it seems as alien as she herself looks to the locals.
The early pacing may be slow for some. The trick is to relax, enjoy getting to know the characters, and let yourself be drawn into a world that may look familiar, yet seems fresh.
JINX SISTER, directed by Athina Tsoulis.
Don’t be put off by the fact The Band’s Visit is about an encounter between Arabs and Israelis. It is not the latest in a long line of worthy documentaries where film-makers seek to show the human face behind the battle-lines. For a start, it’s a drama. And don’t assume that because it’s about cross--cultural relations it will deliver a sentimental ending. What you will get, right from the opening shot, is one of the drollest deadpan comedies seen for a long time.
Revealed like a sleight of hand in that opening shot are the eight members of the Egyptian Police Ceremonial Band, looking fetching in their sky-blue uniforms but also a tad uncertain. They’re due to play in a town in Israel, but a succession of misunderstandings will lead them to an isolated roadside café on the edge of a godforsaken featureless settlement at the arse-end of a desert. Fear and suspicion will slowly evaporate, and for the rest of that day and night a beguiling détente ensues with the café owner and her two no-hoper regulars.
Politics, religion and war might be the elephants in this, er, desert, but they’re irrelevant in the face of the earthy pragmatism of the band’s encounters with their hosts. There’s a kind of hopeful innocence in Eran Kolirin’s script as it visually and verbally mines a vein of unintentional comedy, which the actors expertly embellish simply by playing it straight. Perfectly cast, faces etched with character, their understated style suggests nothing so much as ordinary people helping each other make the best of a situation and get along in life. And, in the process, getting along. Warmly recommended.
THE BAND’S VISIT, directed by Eran Kolirin.
