UP THERE by Zam Salin (2011) UK

UP THERE by Zam Salin (2011) UK

Reviewed  Brendan Beaghler  , Santa Barbara Film Festival

Up There is a comedy directed by Zam Salin, which had its United States premiere at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. The film is Zam Salin’s first feature film and is a based on his short movie called Laid off from came 2006. Up There was awarded Paranavision Spirit Award for Independent Cinema at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

The story is about the process of getting to heaven, which they call “Up There.” The main protaganist of the film is Martin, played by Burn Gorman, who is hit by a car in beginning of the film. He has to work as person who assists newly deceased people to their processing area before they can go “Up There.” Some people, like Martin, have to wait and go through counseling and have to be accepted to “Up There.” In the afterlife, there are certain restrictions Martin and the other people in the afterlife that have to follow and cannot control. For example they cannot open any doors, which present many hilarious incidents. So Martin is in limbo and his ultimate goal is to finally get to leave his job and get to “Up There”. Martin loses his first partner to “Up There” and he gets a new, obnoxious partner, Rash played by Aymen Hamdouchi. Martin is going to have his meeting in order to get processed to go “Up There” but Rash and him lose their new arrival. The rest of the movie is Martin and Rash chasing and trying to find their new arrival in another town by the sea. Martin and Rash have their problems with each other and are constently bickering with each other. If they are unable to get him back, Martin’s chances of getting to the “Upthere” are very slim. I am not going to ruin this one for you, you got to see for yourself if Martin is successful or not.

The two actors Burn Gorman and Aymen Hamdouchi were the perfect people for the roles of Martin and Rash. They were complete complements to each other and had great on screen chemistry. Martin was sad, depressed individual with one thing on his mind getting away from the afterlife and “Up There.” While on the other hand Rash was an obnoxius,loud, and funny character trying to party as much as he can and enjoy the afterlife. In the Q and A after the film he said that casting the two characters took a long time, but it was well worth.

The aspect I liked the best in the film was the mise-en-scene and cinematography. One of my favorite was one scene when they show “Up There” and it was staircase glowing of light, a typical shot for a heaven, but they did it in an unique way. Also there are a lot of dark colors and shawdows to separatation of the afterlife reality they live in.

Overall I thought the film was pretty funny. The character Rash definitely was the main reason I liked the film so much. It had an interesting plot and liked the twists they added to afterlife.