Up There (Zam Salim, 2011): UK

Reviewed by Sandra Andersson. Viewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Up There is Zam Salim’s first attempt at directing a full-length film and he does it well, it is an 80 minutes long dark comedy that gives the audience an unique experience of the afterlife. Up There is based on Salim’s short film Laid off from 2006.

The film tells the story about Martin(Burn Gorman), a man who gets hit by a car and dies. We get to follow him in his afterlife between death and “Up there”, were he’s stuck when the audience meet him. Martins’ job in the afterlife is to Welcome all the newcomers to their life between their death and their life “Up there”. When you die there is a long process before you can you “Up there”, some people are never even allowed up there; there are paper forms needing to be filled out, there are meetings you need to attend, you get a job and then, possibly, you’re ready and allowed to walk up those stair and go “Up there”. We get to follow Martin working in his afterlife, welcoming and taking care of the newcomers with his new partner Rash. Are the two of them managing their job? Are they eventually their turn to go on?

Often the afterlife is portrayed as a place where you get superpowers, you can walk through walls and do basically what ever you want. In Up there the afterlife is completely different, you are powerless and can’t do anything on your own – except for your job. It seems a bit odd that in the afterlife they can walk on the floors, sit on chairs, take the bus, walk up and down the stairs but they can’t open close doors, yet they can’t walk through the doors either.

Burn Gorman is perfect for the role as Martin, he brings out the sadness and the desire that the character have to succeed in his afterlife so he will be allowed to take the stairs “Up there”. Aymen Hamdouchi also does an amazing job in portraying the character Rash, which is the total opposite of Martin and yet they are paired up together at work and are suppose to find a way to get their job done.

Up There is a fairly short film, only 80 minutes but to me it felt like the film was 150 minutes long. I couldn’t wait for the film to be over and leave the theatre, the film is a dark comedy and sure there was some funny moments in there and the acting is great but I didn’t enjoy the film as much as I thought I would. When the film was over I just thought “was that it?”. Even though I thought the film felt way too long I do wish that Salim would have expanded the plot and the film a bit, I was waiting for something more to happen through the whole film. Even though I wasn’t that pleased with the film I think that Salim did a great job directing his first full-length film.