Director Didier D. Daarwin has forged a long career working within commercials and music videos. He now turns his attention to feature films with his debut Mastemah. Based on an original idea by Thierry Aflalou, Mastemah was co-written by Daarwin and Johanne Rigoulot. Mastemah follows psychiatrist Louise (Camille Razat) who after a tragedy at work escapes to the country. There she meets Théo (Olivier Barthélémy), a man desperate for Louise’s help. As the pair begin to work together those around Louise begin dying. But who, or what, is responsible for these deaths?
Mastemah has great atmosphere, Daarwin focusing on the visuals to craft a film that looks suitably spooky. This is a movie that feels moody and bleak, the locations feeding into the tone and beautiful to look at. The score also helps set the tempered disposition of Mastemah. Daarwin’s background in music video and commercials is glaringly apparent with the bulk of Mastemah constructed as montages to music. Whilst they generate a vast amount of mood and atmosphere, there is a distinct lack of clarity within the plot. Being visually and audibly beautiful isn’t enough to sustain an audience for what feels like an extended run time. The tactic would work brilliantly in a shorter format of film, but here viewer interest will either dissipate quickly, or they will be lulled to sleep.
The story itself gets itself tangled and confused. There’s an interesting idea at the core, Mastemah exploring psychiatry and its power, but it never fully develops itself. Instead Mastemah gets bogged down with the artful montages and the story has to try and slot in around them. With so little time to tell the story itself, Mastemah is forever trying to cut narrative corners; cue lots of clunky exposition. The dialogue is too simplistic and this is a film that suffers heavily from the phone call trope of “I have something to tell you, meet me here, later and I’ll explain”. The whole point of phones is that information can be transmitted from a distance. Were this to occur once or twice then Mastemah could be forgiven, but the film repeatedly returns to the scenario and exasperation sets it.
Gorgeous imagery and atmospheric audio can do a lot for a film. They can’t however cover over cracks caused by a misformed narrative. A beautiful looking movie marred by its inability to figure out exactly what it wants to say, Mastemah shows Daarwin’s technical talents perfectly, but still highlights areas for improvement.
Mastemah
Summary
Atmospheric visuals and aural components can’t save Mastemah’s muddled narrative resulting in a confusing but beautiful tale.
Mastemah was reviewed at Arrow Video FrightFest. Mastemah will arrive on Shudder later this year.
