Film Description:
"In the Red River Valley, crowds have gathered for the unveiling of a sculpture, unaware that a similar shroud of complete darkness will soon settle over their own lives. When the sun returns after a global day of darkness, members of the community, including the mysterious sculptor and a dedicated civil servant, must grapple with a shaken sense of stability and a renewed understanding of their own mortality. Levers—the sophomore feature by Manitoban filmmaker and artist Rhayne Vermette (Ste. Anne, TIFF '21's winner of the Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Film)—reveals itself through tactile fragments and indelible images as a sensuous small-town surrealism is roused from the unsettling unnatural occurrence. Though it's separated into chapters, with each introduced by cryptic, tarot-like titles and illustrations (including The Rock, The Sculptor, Judgment, The Bang, The Province), Levers is less episodic than oneiric. Characters drift between scenes and locations in a haze, with the film's ominous, dreamlike atmosphere heightened by the refined use of multiple exposures and other in-camera effects. The visual syncretism is echoed in the deployment of Indigenous cultural markers alongside Catholic and esoteric symbolism. While connections might be drawn to the uncanny, out-of-time aesthetic used by fellow Manitoban auteurs, Vermette—also at the Festival as cinematographer on Dead Lover—has already established her own signature style, working with grainy 16mm, shot here, in the filmmaker's words, 'on some broken Bolex cameras.' Elemental and enigmatic, Levers is a singular work by one of Canada's visionary talents."
-- Andréa Picard
(source)
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