Modris (Juris Kursietis, 2014): Latvia | Germany | Greece

Reviewed by Jonathan Lindgren, Santa Barbara Film Festival 2016, Fiesta Theater

Is this a film I enjoyed seeing? No. Is this a film I would recommend to see? No. But yet I would be lying if I would say that it’s not intressting. The concept of a young boy who make small selfish decision and subconsciously gets dragged against his fathers destiny, thats intressting.

The two who makes this movie, Juris Kursietis (the director) and Kristers Piksa (Modris) both makes their debut in this film. The conflicted teen who does all he can to refuse his mom, that role fits naturally for Piksa. You can just look at Piksa and see with the crooked nose and the spirit of not caring at all about the people around him, that this was exactly the person that Kursietis was looking for.

It does not demand of a professional opinion to figure out the missing piece of Modris life. With a frustrated mom that is lying about a father in prison makes it easy to point out that Modris really needs a positive role model. Instead of that, Modris begins his trip to his subconsciously destiny, which is in prison where his father is. Early in the film, we get to know about Modris gambling problems in this review. And with his narcissism taking over, he will do everything he can to get the money to continue the gambling.

This films main topic is that for a boy with the charisma as Modris, it does not take much to get in more trouble that your supposed to be in. The lines between good and bad are very blurred when you don’t have the conditions on your side. In matter of fact, 3 small but bad choices was all it took for Modris to reach the bad side.

The part that makes this film worth the time is the way it was filmed. With an documentury like cinematography, with a moving camera and seeing everything from Modris perspective, this makes you feel awake during this film. I got the information after the movie that even the scipt was documentury based. The actors only got to see a part of the script to make it more improvised and to make more spontaenous scenes.

All to all this movie is slow, and a typical eastern europe film. Slow shots, few dialogues and very little emotions shown by the actors. Try to keep awake during the whole film, because some parts are worth seeing.