VIBRATIONS | Omeleto

Опубликовано: 05 Октябрь 2024
на канале: Omeleto

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A teenager survives a ritual.

VIBRATIONS is used with permission from Ruda Santos. Learn more at https://linktr.ee/raspfilms.

Blanche is a teenage girl who has been part of a strange religious rite in her community. Blanche was supposed to die, but somehow, she has survived -- a feat that perplexes and scares the powers that be in charge of the town and the religion.

As the clergy and the parliament mull over Blanche's fate, her mother fights with the authorities for her daughter to live. But as she waits, Blanche finds it in herself to take her destiny into her own hands.

Directed and written by Ruda Santos, this intriguing and thought-provoking short drama is a rich mix of unsettling historical drama, coming-of-age narrative and a touch of folk horror, as a young girl escapes the constricting role that authorities force her into. The film opens with an image of time and space bending, but what's most immediately striking about the movie are its distinctive visuals, rendered in shadowy cinematography and uncannily framed compositions. The costumes, sets and formal richness of the dialogue, evoke the world of a past century, but the images give a sense that there is something off-balance and even sinister in this particular world.

The storytelling weaves between Blanche, the machinations of the authorities that control her and her mother's desperate efforts to guarantee her daughter's survival, and the pacing nudges the narrative into the realm of suspense and thriller. Within this mysterious, potent milieu, Blanche has survived a strange religious "act," evoked in a short but terrifyingly strange flashback. While everyone else has died, Blanche has survived, but she is now subject to a severe interrogation as political and religious authorities decide what to do with her.

The film is exceptionally well-cast, and actors Isla Johnston as Blanche and Barry Ward as the Parliament member square off in this interrogation scene, presided by a priest played by actor John Locke in an appropriately severe performance. As he bears down on Blanche, she soon realizes that her survival of the act does not exempt her from future ones, and she must take drastic action and leave everything behind to preserve her life.

With such remarkable visuals and craftsmanship, VIBRATIONS is a particularly spell-binding short, notable especially for the power of its world-building. Revealing some subtle clues behind the rite's meaning and the strange organization behind it all, the story does answer the question of whether or not Blanche will survive the repressive and entangled regime of church and state she faces. It also leads to a new chapter for her, which could be explored fruitfully in a longer narrative. It would also give more space to immerse viewers into this bewitching, evocative world, full of terror, magic, emotion and power. We get just a glimpse of it here -- enough to tease at the hidden forces governing this world and tantalize the imagination.