Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Starring: Stavros Psyllakis, Aris Servetalis, Johhny Vekris, Ariane Labed, Aggeliki Papoulia
Running Time: 93 minutes
Certificate: 15
Following up 2009’s eccentric Oscar-nominated DOGTOOTH with ALPS Greek writer-director Yorgos Lanthimos’ tells the story of a group offering a very unique service to the recently bereaved – impersonating the deceased friend or relative to help with the mourning process. The Alps group are so called because, according to the group’s leader ‘Mont Blanc’ a man with ego in place of personality, the Alps can’t be replaced by any other mountain, yet could easily replace or even better other mountain ranges.
“The end can be a new and often better beginning,” promise the Alps, but perhaps unsurprisingly that’s not quite the result. Pitched as a healing process for grieving families, it might in fact have more to do with the substitutes’ own search for a role, or to be loved.
Rather than focussing on the recently bereaved and exploring the closure they hope to find in this strange, inadequate stand-in for all that they have lost, Lanthimos turns his camera instead on the substitutes themselves; the strange appeal of entering strangers lives in such an intimate way, and the inevitable havoc it wreaks on their psyches. Increasingly the film zooms in on nurse ‘Monterosa’, whose roles seem to consume her as she becomes more desperate to fulfil them, rather than the bereaved themselves.
The premise itself is intriguing with Lanthimos’ approach surprising and powerful. Omitting more than he explains, Lathimos opts for deeply unsettling and disturbing, over emotional, and dramatic. The substitutes’ flat re-enactments of significant and mundane scenes from the deceased’s lives, and the uncomfortable feeling of voyeurism forced on the viewer, make for subtly disturbing viewing. The malevolent tone of the relationships between the Alps themselves – particularly the nasty power games between the two men of the group and the women – adds another uncomfortable layer to an already dark film. ALPS could also benefit from a few flashes of light amongst the shade.
As a result ALPS might be a tad too icy and distant for its own good, making it difficult to engage with the characters and preventing the film from fulfilling its promise. Nonetheless, it is still thought-provoking and powerful filmmaking ensuring Lanthimos remains an auteur to keep an eye on.
ALPS os released on DVD 11th March
