A Moment in the Reeds (Tämä Hetki Kaislikossa)

A Moment in the Reeds (Tämä Hetki Kaislikossa), dir. Mikko Makela, 2017 Finland/UK, 108 minutes, in Finnish with English subtitles and English without subtitles. 👍
Thursday, June 14, 10:00pm, Castro • BAY AREA PREMIERE
Wednesday, June 20, 6:30pm, Victoria

Leevi (Janne Puustinen) and Tareq (Boodi Kabbani)
in A Moment in the Reeds (Tämä Hetki Kaislikossa)

Leevi is studying literature in Paris, writing a thesis comparing the French poet Rim­baud and the Finnish poet Kaarlo Sarkia. He returns to Finland on summer hol­i­day and gets roped into helping his fa­ther renovate their lakeside summer cot­tage. His father has also hired a handy­man, Tareq, a Syrian refugee who speaks no Finnish, to help. The father is called away for something work-related, leaving Leevi and Tareq a chance to get better acquaint­ed, leading inevitably to lots of sex in between conversations about their respec­tive family situations and the like. Much of the dialogue is based on the actors’ own improvisation.

The film provides a critique of Finland through the eyes of a native son who wants to leave and an immigrant who seeks refuge there, hoping to build a future for himself. Unfortunately, I found the sex scenes much less engrossing than I expected, and I felt much less con­nect­ed to the conversations than I would have liked. None of the characters — especially the father but also the other two — ever felt fully three-dimensional. It’s still worth seeing, but I was a bit disappointed from the description in the Frameline program. Recommended.

Note to hearing-impaired audiences: most of the dialogue is in English without subtitles.

• IMDb page • Official website • Facebook: @AMomentInTheReeds •