Oscars 2015: "Concrete Night"

Jari Virman (Ilkka) and Johannes Brotherus (Simo), CONCRETE NIGHT

“Concrete Night” starts with a dream that morphs into a nightmare for Simo, the central character in Finnish filmmaker Pirjo Honkasalo’s relentlessly depressing film about a boy’s final hours.

The film is shot in gorgeous black-and-white that heightens the dreamlike quality of the storytelling. The story is about Simo and his brother, the prison-bound Ilkka and tracks the final day of freedom for Ilkka before he starts serving his prison sentence. Simo is forced by his mother to spend the day with his brother because she fears Ilkka might harm himself.

Simo, at 14, is as impressionable as any teenager on the verge of puberty. He adores his brother, he hates his mother (who doesn’t seem to have any sense of what proper parenting is) and he regards with suspicion his neighbor – just because he behaves strangely (the film suggests that the neighbor could be gay.)

The film puts the audience into a hypnotic spell as it follows the two brothers around town. The movie is told from Simo’s perspective and from a night spent with his drunken brother he develops this belief that there is no more hope to be had from this world. That hope belongs to the weak.

It’s difficult to place the story in a world that’s familiar to the audience. Yes, it’s about a boy losing his sense of perspective but it seems more than that. Simo’s story seems to mirror society’s disregard of the promise of its youth. From the mother who would consider going on a date with a lover than to spend the day with her son or to a photographer who is misunderstood just because he appears different. The youth here is left to fend for itself. To recognize what is right and wrong. To act on impulse and disregard any consequence of his action until it is too late. And what is really depressing for this writer is how, until the very end, the youth is left to decide for him a fate he did not design, but a fate he thought was intended for him

This is definitely one of the best movies this writer has seen all year. It moves you to think about the story it presents but at the same time it comforts you with the notion that what you are watching is all but a dream and you have the option to wake up anytime. The beautiful cinematography and the strong performances by the cast specially the stunning young actor Johannes Brotherus, who plays Simo, make you all feel that – or, I guess, I am only trying to make me feel good by looking at it with hope versus Simo’s bleak perspective.

For a lover of cinema, the filmmaking here is simply majestic: The filmmaker’s aesthetic choices, her narrative technique and her brave depiction of the recklessness and hopelessness of the characters seem organic and innate – and it makes me so even sadder for Simo and Ilkka now that I am writing this review. Please excuse me, as I cry in sorrow again.

Rating: 5 Stars

xxx
Raymond Lo