Du Meng continued his Stranger Things in a small town, still a quirky and sluggish character, repressed living conditions, restrained facial expressions, overlooking the natural landscape, murder cases throughout, straightforward organ display, full of ascetic temperament. Sex scenes, estranged interpersonal relationships, sparsely populated town streets, all are familiar Dumont elements, cold and grotesque.
Policeman Farah, factory worker Domino, and school bus driver Joseph, these three are the main characters of the film. At the same time, the three also have an intimate or estranged relationship and the surging torrent under this uncertain relationship. Shortly after the film begins, a naked female corpse lying in the grass appears, and a close-up of her lower body is also specially given. This is an 11-year-old female student who was raped and murdered, and Farah is in charge of investigating the case. He looked for clues and asked passengers on the train that passed here that day if they had witnessed anyone. Ask the classmates at the deceased's school if they found anything unusual on the day of the crime. And his boss was devastated by the delay in solving the case. Farah likes to have intimate contact with people or anything, sometimes physically, sometimes with eyes. For example, when he faced villagers who were being investigated as suspects at the police station, he gave comfort by rubbing his face. When he went to the mental hospital for investigation, he looked at the poor patients, and he and the staff hugged each other to comfort each other. While waiting for his boss at the farm, he kept stroking the pigs in the pigpen with his hands, as if he could communicate with the pigs. In the exhibition, he stared at the paintings on the wall, his eyes fixed, isolated from the world. From time to time he stood in the garden and looked into the distance, as if he was looking at the gods in the sky. Finally, when he faced the arrested murderer, his friend Joseph, the school bus driver, he gave Joseph a deep kiss, which was goodbye and comfort. When Farah works as a police officer, he doesn't shy away from skin-to-skin, which seems to be one of his ways of working and an outlet for his repressed emotions. And this state of depression comes from his many roles as a son, as a lonely man who lost his wife and children, and as a rigid man who simply likes Domino.
Fala witnessed Domino's passionate sex with her boyfriend Joseph at Domino's house. Fala stopped to watch for a long time, but Domino did not stop making love. The two even became more passionate until Fala left. Such bizarre and abnormal character states and relationships are typical of Dumont's style. The violent, raw, and unadorned lovemaking scenes in Dumont's films are in no way aesthetically pleasing. Actors, sometimes even a little ascetic... While walking on the beach, the three met Farah's old friend, a diving instructor. When Farah was talking to her old friend, Domino kept looking at the coach's bulging private parts, and the coach looked at Domino from time to time. Then Domino sat alone and covered her excited lower body... This chance encounter brought Domino's strong sexual desire to the table. So not only did she always have sex with Joseph all of a sudden, but she also had sex with male colleagues in the factory, and even exposed her genitals to masturbation in front of Farah, in order to tease Farah and try to make Farah fall on her... and Farah is the exact opposite of her. , he refused to tease and cross the line by leaving. He seemed to like Domino, but in his own unique way. When the three of them were relaxing in the bar, due to the noise of the adjacent table, Joseph angrily asked the adjacent table to shut up, but for those who came to the bar for entertainment, the quietness of the three of them seemed even more out of place. In Dumont's films, there is always an eerie sense of alienation between the main characters, and the torrent of desire is always vented in other ways. Farah often stood in a daze with Domino's back against the wall at the door of Domino's house, saying a few words from time to time, and the boring town life was shown in such a way to pass the time. Farah's ascetic lifestyle must have a lot to do with his past experiences, but the film doesn't show it too much, and this kind of blank space often brings more mysticism to the film.
View more about Humanity reviews
