For his fourth film The Other Side, the Italian-American director Roberto Minervini again follows the technique he developed for his previous Texas trilogy, of which Low Tide (2012) and Stop the Pounding Heart (2013) could be seen at IFFR. With the smallest possible crew and in close co-operation with his protagonists, he sets up long takes that are shot in one go.
The first protagonists here are Mark and Lisa, a couple of drug addicts from the backwoods of Louisiana, where over sixty percent of the population is unemployed. At first sight, you would write them off as white trash, but the intimacy with which they allow the camera to share their lives in the social trash can soon changes that preconception. Just as the reactionary militia members who appear in the second part of the film also gradually acquire a profile thanks to Minervini’s lyrical and painfully real approach.
Film details
- Countries of production
- France, Italy
- Year
- 2015
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2016
- Length
- 92'
- Medium/Format
- DCP
