Thursday, August 21, 2008

The Disappeared

GB (c) 2008 Lost Tribe Productions / Minds Eye Productions. D: Johnny Kevorkian. SC: Johnny Kevorkian, Neil Murphy. DP: Diego Rodriguez. M: Christoph Bauschinger. DP: Diego Rodriguez - digital intermediate - 35mm print 1:1,85. Starring Harry Treadaway (Matthew Ryan), Greg Wise (Jake Ryan), Alex Jennings (Adrian Ballan), Finlay Robertson (Jason Saks), Nikki Amuka-Bird (Shelley Cartwright), Ros Leeming (Amy Tyler). 96 min. A Jinga Films print without subtitles. Viewed at Espoo Ciné, Prix Méliès series, Cinema Andorra, Helsinki, 20 August 2008. In the presence of Kevorkian and Murphy. - Naturalistic, bleak, cold visual look. - A realistic-looking supernatural horror film, where the ghosts are guides to a true crime (serial child abuse and murder by the man supposedly working for the church). - Most importantly, this is a film about losing one's mental balance. Matthew's psychic health is threatened as he receives strange, ghostly signs of his disappeared little brother. - The London milieu is naturalistically portrayed. - The films treads on the line between reality and nightmare. - The main guides (Amy, Shelley) turn out to be ghosts of the dead. - The nightmare of being buried alive. - The man working for the church talks about lost beliefs, lost faith. - The final vault of the abused and dead children brings to mind the cases in Belgium and Austria. And the scandals of the Catholic church.

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