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    Canopy

    Reviewed by
    pietroantoni@

    CANOPY, an Australian-Singapore production which played at TIFF is the film debut of writer/director Aaron Wilson in what seems to be the discovery of another great, young, Australian director, one I believe will be a very important cinéaste. His first film is nothing short of stunning, a truly remarkable debut! I wondered as to the title a good while. 'CANOPY' happens to be the main lifting surface of a parachute thus fitting perfectly into this war drama, (more in a second), but I came to believe it referred more to the SKY which seems to overlook everything that is happening on hostile ground below. Canopy is a WWII drama set during the fall of Singapore at the hands of the treacherous Japanese in 1942. We see nothing of this and literally no action whatsoever with the exception of planes racing in the heavens above, the viewer quickly understanding the crux of the situation, suddenly taken on a unique, suspenseful journey. Since there is no script, any person of any language or culture can grasp what is at hand. The film opens with an Australian fighter pilot (from Australian farm country... keep this in mind) dangling from a tree still harnessed in his parachute having landed in the treacherous jungle of Singapore behind ENEMY LINES. Trust me it really is a jungle out there beyond the idea of nature itself. His only option: find a safe haven or perish. Suddenly someone appears as from thin air. (This gives nothing of the plot away as we are basically just starting the journey.) Now the film has more impetus. There is NO dialogue whatever in CANOPY except for a few words in Chinese and Japanese with no sub-titles, but one grasps all too well what is being said. There is exactly ONE English word in the course of the entire film... the name... JIM! It's is like watching a silent movie, a very special one, often complex and terrifying. Though CANOPY is a little/small film it comes off as pretty epic in proportion. In seconds as the film opens, we become very captivated by the vastness yet at the same time by the greenery and darkness of the unforgiving jungle strewn with enemy soldiers. This brutal isolation and confinement of the lush Singapore habitat is so very ironic! The photography by STEFAN DUSCIO (by day or night) is beautiful, haunting, chilling and gruesome all at the same time. He is able to get his camera into every nook and cranny aside the totality, the immensity of this jungle. The carnage left behind, the cracks in trees, small flowers still growing, the horrible mud, the insects and more lodge in our minds as we think of death, carnage, every horror of war. CANOPY is a very particular film for several reasons. It's quite a 'coup' to witness this gem, one not driven at all by CHARACTER or PLOT as is usual. Extraordinarily, the perception of PLACE dives the movie forward with a tremendously fierce wallop as if we ourselves are restricted in this hellish nightmare. Canopy seems to present a conspiracy of war coupled with the elements all in a collision course, an imposition on humanity as the men struggle for safety in hostile terrain. With no dialogue (as stated) two men with nothing in common, be it language, race or culture instinctively know that nothing matters in this hell hole but survival. New Zealander Khan Chittenden plays the Australian 21 year old fighter pilot and Mo Tzu-Yi an enormously popular Chinese actor plays the Singapore-Chinese resistance fighter, Seng. With hardly a breath we feel the struggle, the physical pain, the fear in a world one can equate to Dante's INFERNO! Their physical state, hours of anxiety, extreme emotions are transferred straight to the viewer. Young director Wilson merits much esteem and every award that came his way as his CANOPY toured almost every major festival in the world. The film is hardly average fare. It is so original, so innovative that it's futile to add more on its numerous merits. The film speaks for itself! THE FINAL SCENE: FOCUS ON IT DILIGENTLY, with INTENSITY THEREBY GETTING ITS POINT, ITS MEANING... nothing to add so to discover the finale by yourself.

    8
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    pietroantoni@  29.11.2014 age: 36-49 14,540 reviews

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