The Slut

The movie is boring and found the title to be crude and obscene. Didn't pick up if she was a widow for divorcee but she did what a typical lonely woman would do. That is not slutty.

Dull and pointless. At best, pretentious, at worst, random. Drifts from the start and, even at only 87 minutes, feels far too long.

Not too much dialogue in this one, repetitive scene with the woman selling eggs, a few soft sex scenes and that's all folks!

I usually try to watch as many films as possible that get a nomination at Cannes, and The Slut was such movie (even though it didn't win anything there). This is basically one person production: created and directed by the Israeli filmmaker, Hagar Ben Asher. She also acts in it.

The story is about a single mother, Tamar, who lives in a rural area with her two daughters and works at a chicken farm. She's obsessed with sex and provides sexual favors to various men in the village. One day she meets Shai, a veterinarian, and starts a relationship with him.

The best I can describe this film in one word is.. weird. It uses strange symbolism and is very minimalistic in its approach, from screenplay to acting. The cinematography is actually quite impressive for something with virtually no budget. It attempts to make a character study, but spectacularly forgoes nearly all characterization. Something tells me it was done on purpose, but something like this can potentially leave the viewer completely detached from the characters. The end result may therefore seem like nothing more than cinematic expressionism of sorts.

Having said that, I kind of liked The Slut. It's uncanny and raw. Uncanny because while being set in a boring environment, it manages to produce a surreal scenario (at least from where I'm standing). It's sad, disturbing and yet strangely fascinating. It should be obvious that this movie isn't for everyone. Do not expect casual entertainment. Do not expect some sort of porno either. It does have graphic sex scenes and some reviewers even screamed "unsimulated sex". The lead actor categorically denied this, so I'll take his word for it. Not that it really matters. But if graphic sexual content offends you, please do everyone a favor, and DO NOT WATCH this. Otherwise, it's a pretty unconventional and interesting piece of indie film-making.

I "get" that indie films can sometimes be unconventional in ways that leave viewers bewildered, uncomfortable, unimpressed or otherwise dissatisfied, but usually there is a point to such films that even a dissatisfied viewer can appreciate. I do not think that "The Slut" has such a point.

The pacing is mostly plodding. Sure, rural life plods along most of the time, but the screenwriter's/director's choice of how to reflect this seemed contrived, and made the 86-minute film seem much longer. For example, at one point a character loses a few items from the back of a vehicle. The character retrieves those items, slowly. Then, the scene cuts to a wide-angle shot, lingering on the stationary vehicle and the surrounding landscape. To me, this felt like directorial laziness -- "Viewers, ruminate over the ostensibly humdrum scenery, and eventually realise its bleak grandeur!" -- rather than inspiration. But perhaps I've seen too many films employing this kind of padding, and others will feel an awe that I did not.

There are also two key incongruities that detract meaningfully from this film. For a film that mostly skims over plot and relegates dialogue to a few mumbles, the sex can be quite graphic, with male genitalia often presented in full view (and turgidity). Although I imagine that the sex is not intended to titillate, I wonder why it seems to be the most real thing in an otherwise mostly unreal project.

Secondly, the film's climax, though probably intended as a twist, comes across as completely unbelievable.