“Ruby’s passion and talent are 

beautifully 
struck 
against 
the 

pressure that she feels to stay and 
help her family. Heder creates a vivid 
life for these characters, flawlessly 

demonstrating the role that Ruby has 
played in her family since she was a 
child. But the members of her family, 
particularly her parents, are given 
the same depth and compassion. 
They too are conflicted, bearing the 
same worries that any parent has 
about their child growing up and 
leaving for college.”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
8 — Wednesday, February 10, 2021 

Courtesy of Sundance Institute

Design by Yassmine El-Rewini

“Coda”

“Cryptozoo”

“Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir”

“In the Earth”

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 

the Sundance Film Festival, like 
many events over the past year, had to 
adapt to the circumstances. Though 
the Festival’s fully virtual format 

meant that it may have lost some of 
its usual sense of authenticity and 
tradition, it also meant that the films 
were far more accessible. As a result, 
our writers were able to cover many 

more of these incredible, unique 
films than would have otherwise 
been possible.

Whether in-person or completely 

remote, Sundance Film Festival is 

a quintessential event for the film 
community. Our writers watched 
films with Oscar-winning actors 
and first-time filmmakers, as well 
as films that tested the bounds of 

contemporary filmmaking — films 
that made us laugh, cry, think or all of 
the above. 

This wide breadth of cinematic 

experiences 
made 
this 
year’s 

Sundance Film Festival a remarkable 
opportunity, and we are very proud 
of the content that we’ve created. 

— Kari Anderson and Sabriya 

Imami, Daily Film Editors

“The film depicts an evolution of 

Tan’s complex relationship with her 
mother — how a troubled childhood 
filled with clashes later led to a 
period of reconciliation, buoyed by 
a renewed understanding of her 
mother’s trauma. From there, the 
documentary seamlessly transitions 
into Tan’s writing and into the 
complexities of her celebrity.”

“‘Cryptozoo’ 
combines 
the 

speculative wit of Kurt Vonnegut, the 
visual surrealism of David Lynch and 
the aloof humor of Wes Anderson, 
with a helping of ‘Jurassic Park.’ 
It’s more than this approximation, 
though. ‘Cryptozoo’ isn’t just strange 
for strangeness’s sake — there’s a 
reason behind its madness, a bedrock 
of meaning beneath its shimmering 
psychedelic veneer.”

‘The Blazing World’ does way too 

much and nothing at all

Carlson Young (“Scream: The TV 

Series”) directs and stars as Margaret 
Winter in this feature-length version of 
her 2018 short film of the same name. 
The movie, a fantasy-meets-horror-
meets-drug trip exploration of trauma’s 
effect on the subconscious, plays with 
familiar tropes in unoriginal ways. 
After the tragic drowning of her sister 
(Lillie Fink, in her debut), survivor’s 
guilt plagues Margaret’s psyche, 
sparking nightmares and an interest in 
metaphysical spirituality. The audience 
is taken along on one of these rich and 
dramatic dreams for a journey that is 
too unbelievable to be enthralling.

I’m not sure if there is anything in 

“The Blazing World” that I had not 
seen before, though the source material 
was far too varied to feel like an homage 
to any particular filmic trend. That 
said, in Sundance’s post-screening 
Q&A, cinematographer Shane F. Kelly 
(“Boyhood”) cited Young’s love of 
obscure German horror from the ’80s 
as an influence; I confess I am ignorant 
of German horror, regardless of decade 
or degree of obscurity, so I cannot 
evaluate this claim. 

However, 
other 
apparent 

influences draw on a larger spectrum 
of film, from “Citizen Kane” to “2001: 
A Space Odyssey” to “Spirited Away.” 
The viewer is met with a barrage of 
filmmaking techniques, none of which 
necessarily complement one another, 
many relying on excessive CGI.

Most troubling of all is the 

oversimplicity of the narrative. In 
this way, the film feels like nothing 
more than a dragged-on short. We 
are never sure what is reality and 
what is dreamscape, so the “American 
Psycho”-like final revelation is not 
shocking or interesting. The beyond-
cliché tale in which a timid girl gains 
confidence through a quest is poorly 
executed, as there is no gradual 
change. The timid girl remains 
timid and afraid, with just enough 
determination to endure the quest’s 
challenges, and confidence comes as 
a deluge with minutes remaining in 
the film. This is not a story of growth 
though, even if it is set up to be.

On top of this limp formula, the 

lesson Margaret learns is eye-rollingly 
trite: We carry the dead within 
ourselves as memories. By the end of 
the film, the viewer is still in the dark 
about what is real and what is not. 
This lack of clarity blunts the effect 
of the film’s premise, that unresolved 
trauma can infect our dreams. 

Moreover, the idea that an event 

so tragic as to provoke decades of 
nightmares intoxicated by guilt and 
confusion could be dismissed by the 
simple realization that the dead are 
preserved in memory is an insult to 
trauma victims and trauma therapists 
everywhere. Those on the precipice 
of suicide or self-destruction are not 
rejuvenated with such ease.

Perhaps it is the utter simplicity 

of the film’s narrative elements that 
makes the blizzard of influences and 
otherworldliness so banal and campy. 

The camp element is not alleviated 
by the actors’ lack of dramatic range 
or odd high-school hangout scenes 
reminiscent of, dare I say it, “The 
Babysitter.” Unfortunately for Young, 
“The Babysitter” was funny — “The 
Blazing World” is not.

I will give credit to the set and 

lighting designers, as these elements 
would have been sufficient for a strong 
fantasy film had the story been better 
and the cinematography more focused. 
The abundance of flora within the 
stately, Southern-gothic home brings 
the “Alice in Wonderland” element 
front of mind. Composed by Isom 
Innis (“Foster the People”), the film’s 
score is also a highlight, except when 
it is not. A luscious blend of old-school 
cinematic horns with fantastical harp 
and immersive synth, the film opens 
with promise.

However, in a misguided attempt to 

emphasize every shadow in the corner 
and every sinister glance, the score 
overpowers the action on more than 
one occasion. As a stand-alone work 
of art, Innis’s score would evoke the 
emotions sought onscreen; alongside 
the visual, the strength of sound only 
highlights the weak storytelling.

The most imaginative creators 

must know when to pull back and let 
the story tell itself. It is eminently clear 
that Young is a highly imaginative 
filmmaker; she just hasn’t quite struck 
the balance between visual grandeur 
and a cohesive narrative. As a campy 
fantasy film with a few out-of-place 
scenes, “The Blazing World” will 
satisfy the undiscerning audience. 

Courtesy of Sundance Institute

ROSS LONDON
Daily Arts Writer

KARI ANDERSON

Senior Arts Editor

ANDREW WARRICK

Daily Arts Writer

Courtesy of Sundance Institute

JUDITH LAWRENCE

Daily Arts Writer

“‘In the Earth’ is completely a 

creature of the pandemic. The idea 
for the film was conceived on the 
first day of the U.K. lockdown. The 
film was shot during the summer 
months over 15 days, the first new 
British production since the crisis 
started. 

“But, as writer-director-editor 

Ben Wheatley (“Rebecca”) was 
quick to point out in the post-
premiere Q&A session, ‘In the 
Earth’ is not about the pandemic 
— it’s a reflection of our times. 
Some traces of lockdown living 
— natural themes of isolation 
and its strain on interpersonal 
relationships 
— 
are 
indelibly 

imprinted on it, but the film stands 
on its own two legs.”

JACOB LUSK
Daily Arts Writer

Courtesy of 

Sundance 

Institute

‘Hive’ wins awards and smashes the patriarchy 

with bees and roast peppers

“Hive” is a quiet sort of film. The 

color palette is a bit subdued, the 
camerawork relatively plain. There’s 
no novel set piece or showstopping, 
paroxysmal performance. But just 
beneath those muted trappings, 
there is a writhing, soul-biting pathos 
that is most often spun by true-life 
stories. “Hive” is not a story about a 
maybe-maybe-not widowed Kosovan 
beekeeper trying to break into the 
pepper spread industry because 
writer-director Blerta Basholli simply 
sat around till the idea percolated from 
the ether and onto the script of her 
directorial debut. “Hive” is anything 
but ethereal — it’s earthly, depressive 
and, excusing some creative liberties, 
it very much happened.

In 
1999, 
a 
little 
village 
in 

southwestern Kosovo by the name of 
Krusha e Madhe was massacred by 
Serbian special police at the tail-end 
of the Kosovo War. Men were killed 
or kidnapped, leaving the village 
largely in the hands of women and 
children. One such woman is Fahrije, 
in “Hive” played by Yllka Gashi 
(“Kukuni”). At the beginning of the 

film, she’s rifling through body bags 
and burnet clothing: no luck. As one 
woman characterizes, Fahrije is one 
of the unlucky ones. Not because her 
husband is missing; that’s many or 
most of them, after all. The lucky ones 
are those that, having heard the worst, 
no longer have to “startle whenever 
the door knocks.”

With 
the 
local 
charitable 

organization suffering a chronic lack 
of funds and her apiary only trickling 
out the scantest dribbles of honey (she 
and her husband were beekeepers 
by trade — the movie’s called “Hive,” 
after all), Fahrije is forced to get down 
to business. To make ends meet — for 
herself, her family and the village, 
really — Fahrije has to learn how to 
drive to find work in the city making 
and selling avjar, a popular Balkan 
condiment.

And for this, she is decreed a whore. 

Repeatedly. By the café-loitering 
deadbeat men. By other women. By 
her own daughter. Because, you know, 
whores drive cars. Or something. Tiny 
villages in the Balkans don’t love an 
entrepreneurial woman. 

Fahrije is the sole and principal 

focus of “Hive,” despite a name 
suggestive of community. It’s about 
community, for sure — about family, 

about leaning on one another in tough 
times, about female solidarity — but 
Fahrije is indisputably the apple of 
the camera’s eye. It often tracks her 
across a scene, focusing on her face. 
Gashi, the woman who plays Fahrije, 
channels a subdued yet compelling 
gravity, conveying masked pain and 
unyielding 
tenaciousness 
behind 

perpetually 
somber 
expressions. 

Sorrowful 
but 
by 
no 
means 

lachrymose — it’s a picture of stoicism 
and the will to persevere. 

The modest nature of the film 

— the unimpressed might even 
call it banal — belies its historicity. 
It’s the first film to take home all 
three of the preeminent prizes 
of the World Cinema Dramatic 
Competition: 
the 
Directing 

Award, the Audience Award and 
the Grand Jury Award. A win for 
Kosovo (the film’s motherland), 
a win for burgeoning directorial 
talent Basholli, a win for the film’s 
principal star Yllka Gashi and 
a win for Fahrije Huti and the 
women of Krusha e Madhe.

In a manner that mirrors its 

modest yet historic nature, it’s 
the unique admixture of the bleak 
and the hopeful that made “Hive” 
so popular at this year’s Sundance 

Film Festival. Although the movie 
didn’t percolate from the ether, it’s 
anything but ethereal — war, loss, 
constrictive gender norms, these 
are everyday things. Not celluloid 
inventions — real, earthbound 
phenomena. A depressive reality. 

But this austere front belies that 

aforementioned 
undercurrent 

channeled by Gashi — just as 
death and loss are earthbound 
ordeals, so are endurance and 
companionship. The massacre 
happened 22 years ago. And just 
the same, a widowed beekeeper 
really did launch her own pepper 

condiment business to support 
her community and those she 
loves. 

Not everyone can be born in a land 

of milk and honey. “Hive” shows us 
how, when life gives you peppers, 
you make ajvar. With a few awards to 
boot.

JACOB LUSK
Daily Arts Writer

Courtesy of Sundance Institute

Courtesy of 

Sundance 

Institute

