Tuesday 28 July 2020

FILM REVIEW: Lana and Nora; two short films from Manchester Film Industry Co-op.


The Manchester Film Industry Co-op is a group of likeminded professionals who, whilst waiting for Mr Spielberg to call; write, produce, direct, film and act in their own work, thus keeping themselves busy, honing their craft, and learning about the other sides to making a film which perhaps you wouldn't normally be familiar with.

Yesterday, on their Facebook page they premiered their latest two short films, both of which having a single word title, both being a female name. However, that is where the similarity in these films ends.

The first film, 'Lana', which was written by Christopher Deakin and directed by Aaron Burton, starts with a rather shocking and arresting image of a thirty-something lady gyrating atop a much older man, whilst her first words, spoken straight to camera, ie: us, the audience, make it clear that she is actualy trying to kill him. What emerges from this is a very dark comedy, whereby our female protagonist, Lana (Eliza Tuturman) is deliberately coupling an older but very wealthy man (Andy Bertozzi), whilst putting the metaphorical soap on the stairs for him hoping to get his inheritance. Meanwhile, her real sexual enjoyment is gained by making love to a much younger model, Alan (Mohamed Kabbah), however it seems that Alan also has an agenda of his own too...

In the second, and shorter offering, 'Nora', written and directed by Jenny Godden, we see another comedy with another twist. Here, Nora (Katherine Farquhar), a businesswoman is having a bad day. We are shown two alteratives to each short scenario of her trip to work - the first version being the way she would like to have reacted, whilst the second shows a much more submissive and polite version which we understand as being the real one. Once at work however, the fantasy version takes control...

Two interesting pieces with much room for development in both, acted and crafted with obvious love and skill.

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 27/7/20

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