VoiceOver


A French narrator jumps from one dramatic scene to another one, confused about the story that he is trying to tell and fighting with himself until he finally finds it.
by Martin Rosete
French
9 Min / Spain

Thriller

175

“This morning your ship crash landed on an alien Planet. And now your suit has three minutes of oxygen left.”

Even if there were no visuals to accompany it, you could have imagine the environment you are trapped in, your feelings and emotions contained in the mind of the man struggling alone to survive in an completely alien situation.

In those particular,immediate circumstances, an intransigent will to survival melts all personal characteristics; we all become the same person, the man on the screen pushing with his last strength against his doom. And that the film knows this from the first words that are spoken is what makes it so powerful.

But that's not it. The story then shifts directions and we are thrust into new deadlier scenarios in a completely new world conjured up as the voice in your head describes it. And the fact that each location is very well filmed helps put you in the world. The drowning fisherman with hands outstretched trying to reach the glowing surface of the ocean, but his feet attached by a rope to a boat teetering over a precipice is a haunting image. That the boat is named after his girl-friend is just a beautiful little detail that adds note of sentimentality and tenderness to the world. And that tenderness prepares you for the end of the film.

What is remarkable about Voice over is that it starts as a survival story, and it is at many levels but it gradually becomes beautiful, fragile and poetic story of first love.

The visuals are outstanding - large transparent moons looming over the sky, the stark, desert like planet contrasted with a space ship finding its way through it.

Another stand-out is the voice performance, played by French veteran Feodor Atkin (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0040545/). Carrying the weight of the film on its invisible shoulders, the hoarse french voice that drags you through the film, directing your thoughts and controlling your fate, deserves a lot of credit for making this story effective.

The director Martin Rosete is now making his Hollywood debut with a thriller and is features in our In Focus section where he tells more about behind the scenes of the film.

This film ha won 100 awards (yes not a typo) including the Spanish Oscar.

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