First off, I had the opportunity to see a screening with Anna Eriksson, the director, introducing the film and having a Q&A session afterwards. I didn’t really know what to expect, but I did struggle through a horrific need to piss to hear her out, because she knew her shit. Also, I have been to such events previously and what was (gladly) missing from this one was the ego some of those people have regarding their work.

The story starts on a black screen where we find out that the former prime minister of Finland had just exposed herself to the Nobel committee. After that, we find that very former prime minister wandering aimlessly in a desert. Over time we find out that there are other people in the desert as well.

I have to say that the movie is very slow to get going. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen one of those movies they like to show in museums, but a big part of the early movie reminded me of those: There’s some feeling or idea that the movie maker wants to express and narratives don’t matter.

There is a bit of a narrative, but the movie overall is more about just being an experience. Kind of a melancholic and sometimes desperate experience. There is almost no dialogue between the characters on screen and most of the dialogue comes from people trying to reach the prime minister, but only being able to leave her messages.

I learned from Eriksson that the movie was shot wholly in Namibia in a desert and only during a very specific time every day for about an hour to capture a very specific feel. I can appreciate this, because so many would have just fixed it digitally. I assume that there is some amount of serendipity in the movie, as there are scenes with very strong winds and they probably just had to use those when possible.

How do I actually feel about this movie? Well, I did not like it as much as her previous movie, W, but I did like it more than her first movie, M. The first half or so is just too slow and too reliant on visuals. I don’t necessarily mind that, but it didn’t really work for me. Sure, it’s beautiful and strong imagery, but you just get tired of that after a while.

When the things start to happen, it gets better (although not much happens, but what happens was enough for me). Overall, a good movie, but I will not go to bat for this in the same way I would for W, for which I have unconditional love for.

This movie does have enough political messaging that if you are looking for something like that, you won’t be disappointed. The politics are definitely leftists, for which I’m happy for, especially, because it does not support the left in the way most of the political elite handle it, but more like the actual left.

While watching it, in my head I kind of connected this to Pasolini’s Teorema, especially because that movie ends with the rich factory owner giving his factory to the workers and walking nude into the desert. Another thing that kept going through my head was something I heard recently: “Art is a form of resistance.” I just don’t know where I heard that from, which is a pity, because I love that idea and I think this movie represents it very well. This is just a personal project she did with her husband a some friends with a pretty limited budget (she said 180.000 euros) even by Finnish standards (here budgets are often constrained, because the audience is very small).