Muukalainen

I really wanted to like this one, as I sat down in a fairly empty theatre at Göteborg Film Festival. The people making the film were there, they were in competition for a prize, so I felt that friendly feeling - let's hope this is the forgotten gem. And it started well enough, slow and with contrasting dark and bright images, holes to look through, absolute silence and loud shrieks - that were repeated a bit too much. The main character, a mute adolescent, just leaving boyhood, filled his every shot with absolute certainty. But it seemed there was no story. I hoped I was stupid, and missed it somehow so I totally stayed alert. And a conflict slowly emerged - OK so this may go somewhere after all. But no, all this good filming and the kid's fine acting just seemed pointless; a film needs a story, needs a story..... And this one could have had a great one, but It seems getting artsy was more important than polishing the script.