Dina review: A lovingly crafted documentary peering into the lives of the title character and her future husband Scott.
Dina review by Paul Heath, June 2017.
Dina review
Sundance is renowned for debuting quality documentaries at their January festival, and often select the best of them for their annual trip across the pond, and none of them come any more original and engrossing as Antonio Santini and Dan Sickles’ Dina, the film that scored the U.S. documentary grand jury prize.
The film opens in a rather unconventional 4:3 aspect ratio, firstly in a scattered bedroom with a woman seen getting dressed, and then more clinical setting; what seems to be a dentist’s office. This is suburban Philadelphia, and the first two scenes introduce us to our guide for the next two hours or so, the ‘Dina’ of the title – Dina Buno, a 48-year-old woman living with Aspergers who is preparing a marriage to Walmart store greeter Scott Levin. The film is a single chapter in Dina’s life, one full of hope and dreams for the future following a harrowing and mixed past, a time that has seen the very independent woman go through emotional heartache – her first husband died of cancer – and then an attempted threat on her life, a harrowing stabbing, from an unnamed previous boyfriend.
The film follows Dina as she goes about her every day life – be it watching television, shopping, visiting beau Scott and discussing his, and more importantly her sexual needs, planning said wedding and having Scott move into the home she’s occupied on her own for the previous few years.
Dina, the film and the person’s life that we are so intimately following, is engrossing from the very start, Santini and Sickles opting for a very unique approach to capturing it. As well as using the retro square frame as our window looking into Dina’s life, the pair also choose to never move the camera. It is always static – whether it be in Dina’s living room. on a bus, or a busy beach, the style very much giving a fly-on-the-wall feel. Strangely, this never feels imposing, and because of the pair’s approach, it all feels very natural even when the pair are sat on a bench on the very public boardwalk of Atlantic City discussing their sexual needs after Dina gives Scott a ‘Joy Of Sex’ love-making manual (complete with Michael Cera’s score – yes, that Michael Cera).
The film almost plays as a drama/ comedy- full of highs and lows as the ‘narrative’ unfolds. We feel Dina’s frustrations at Scott’s shortcomings, and then Scott’s hesitation at moving out of the family home and in with his bride to be. The couple are fearless, a shining example all of us can take something from, both embracing life and living it to the max, unafraid, if a little hesitant of the future, but willing to take it on nonetheless.
Dina is a funny, utterly fascinating snapshot into the lives of two magnificently wonderful people, a fact realised in a very unexpected hard-hitting final reel which will make you want to applaud the title character even more for what she has endured in her 49 years. A mesmerising, lovingly crafted, inspiring piece of work that I didn’t want to end.
Dina review by Paul Heath, June 2017.
Dina premieres at the Sundance London film festival in June 2017. Dogwoof will released the film later in 2017.
