The Seen and Unseen (Sydney Film Festival 2018 Review)

Making good films takes confidence. Unfortunately, Kamila Andini doesn’t show a lot of courage or direction in her voice. Spiritually and religion is a common theme that has been tackled throughout cinemas history. Andini never really confronts it in the case of The Seen and Unseen. A major disappointment of the film is that its synopsis could offer up a complex narrative that intertwines our protagonist, her religion and attitude towards life.

The protagonist is a girl, Tantri, who has a twin brother. In Balinese culture, twins are almost seen as a yin-yang figure. The brother gets a tumour and starts to lose control of his senses and the ability to feel. The film focuses on how Tantri’s confronts the deterioration of her brother. She keeps him company, brings a dog to cheer him up, and they play with each other in traditional costumes, which seem to be made by Tantri. This is the extent of the film. No challenges that Tantri has to overcome, no hurdles, no confrontations.

Another of the script's flaws is the bland dialogue. While used sparingly throughout the film it never adds much insight. Bland could also be used to describe the editing as if there's any cutting it's all used a moment of action, nothing else. It purposely flows smoothly. A jarring cut can offer more penetration into a mind than several lines of dialogue. For a film that wants to be meditative and quite it would prove quite an asset.

We learn that Tantri only likes egg whites and her brother the yolk. In an early scene, Tantri eats a boiled egg but finds out it has no yolk. The meaning of scene doesn’t fall on blind eyes. We know what it means but the scene is based on it. It has no other meaning, the film has stopped to shove a foreshadow down our throat. Running parallel to the narrative is a few short sequences of what appear to be young children of the same age as the twins travelling through the fields and towards the hospital. Their importance seems to related to local folk stories and traditions. The meaning behind them is never clear and their scenes are stretched out too long.

Both the egg scene and the cutaways from the main narrative involving the children are prime examples of the film’s lack of ability to stick to style. The film opens with a shot of the hospital bed which Tantri’s brother is laid down on and she’s afraid to come in. It’s a locked shot on a tripod, it probably goes for about a minute. It hints towards a meditative feel with the audience taking an observer relationship with the movie. Soon after, however, we move in a different direction when there’s a shot which involves a camera stabiliser. It’s in your face and calls attention to itself. We, as an audience, haven’t been allowed to prepare for a style shift. The camera work is the only thing that has adjusted itself. The sound (which often seems to include stock library effects) goes on as the same as it was.

When someone moves quickly in this film it seems looks quite blurry and amateur. I don’t know if this was a) intentional, b) a fault in the movie’s production/editing, or c) the festival projection team but for a competition film in a major festival, it’s quite disappointing. Another issue that could be attributed to either 3 of these factors is the brightness of the film. Day scenes are washed out and have no deep blacks. The night scenes are too dark and there’s no detail in the image. We can see what’s going on but an opportunity to show off the landscape and the intricately designed traditional costumes was lost.

As previously mentioned spirituality is a thing that has been covered in film (and other art forms) before. Its connection to one’s identity is often formed in the desperate times in life such as losing someone. How a kid deals with all of this isn’t often covered to my knowledge, let alone an Indonesian film doing it. We are given more intimate moments with Tantri but they never amount to something. In last year’s The Florida Project, Sean Baker takes the child’s perspective for the film and so does Andini here. The main difference is that it often feels like we’re a child looking at Tantri, the same way she looks at the adults in this film. We never seem to get a moment of catharsis in the film. How have has Tantri grown? But, more importantly, how have we grown through the experience of this film? The answer to these questions could be unique due to the setting and difference between Indonesian and western cultures. Ultimately it isn't insightful.

With a run time of 86 minutes, one would expect more to happen narrative-wise. Too often a scene runs longer than it should and it makes you wonder if it should've been a 30-40 minute short film. I have seen films where religion/spiritually is tackled head on and not pussyfooted around. Those films often invite the audience’s own spiritual selves to be reflected on to the screen by our imagination and the tested. The Seen and Unseen never give us that opportunity.

Overall Score: 2/10

The Seen and Unseen is playing at 2018 Sydney Film Festival in the main competition

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Writer/Director: Kamila Andini

Starring: Thaly Titi Kasih and Ida Bagus Putu Radithya Mahijasena

Cinematographer: Anggi Frisca

Editor: Dinda Amanda & Dwi Agus Purwanto

Music: Yasuhiro Morinaga