Totems

I saw this at BFI Flare today, and loved it. While it initially seems like a sweet, endearing comedy, it moves in some surprising directions, and really takes you places you might not expect.

It's very funny, honest, moving and even suspenseful. The performances are all strong, particularly in the final scenes.

It took a simple, delicious premise and milked it for all it was worth. A couple of the lines of dialogue really landed with me and I'll be thinking about them for a long time to come.

Everyone else I was with agreed it was a fantastic short film. Most impressive. I can't wait to see what this writer/director (and actor!) does next.

A group of young friends lost a mutual friend. They are good friends and share the feeling of loss, but as the film progresses, we see how each of them feel and process the loss differently from each other. It reflects how their relationship to the dead friend would have been all subtly different, and in extension shows how we are together and yet always alone in the end.

Arthur Cahn has a great heart that captures the depth of emotions in seemingly lighthearted scenes and interactions as he proved with his earlier works. Here shine his warmth and humanity as again... though personally I found 'Totem' is not quite as focused as the previous works, whose plot really centred around 2 characters only. Probably the subject matter of death needed more time to be properly grieved and processed. But in whatever the case, I applaud the courage to tackle the subject in the world where love and sex are easily celebrated but ageing and death are often ignored.

I'm grateful that Cahn is there to give us yet another little gem of a film.