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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
- Restless minds
- Latvia, 2022
- Drama, comedy
- Directors: Lauris Ābele, Raitis Ābele
- Starring: Toms Auniņš, Mārcis Lācis, Juris Žagars, Dārta Daneviča, performance artist Daniela Vētra, Marija Skangale and others.
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Brothers Roberts and Mārtiņš are preparing for a big event – their biggest solo exhibition. The creative life of men is closely intertwined with bohemian – endless raves, drugs, alcohol, fights and even weapons. In this crazy carousel, they are insistently looking for something, but exactly what – inspiration, the meaning of life, the chemistry between the brothers, themselves?
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The Abel Brothers made their cinema debut in 2018 with the ambitious historical drama “Baltic Tribes”. They have now released their feature film, which will be screened at the Black Nights Tallinn Film Festival. Before the premiere in Riga, a whole performance took place on the city streets – a symbolic environmental object appeared in the center of Riga – black cube. People were invited to join the cube with the film team, which started on Rainis Boulevard at the Freedom Monument and continued to the Splendid Palace cinema. So “Restless Minds” broke the fourth wall until the film hit the big screen.
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Photo: Art installation from the film “Restless Minds” in the center of Riga.
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Ironically, the central plot line of the film is about the relationship between the brothers, which, for obvious reasons, is no stranger to the directors – the story of the relationship between Roberts and Mārtiņš (Toms Auniņš, Mārcis Lācis) is full of various surprises, twists and contradictions. At the same time, this relationship is natural and direct, which makes the film look as convincing as possible.
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The everyday life of the brothers is no less convincingly depicted – the constant banging, dramatic revelations, half of which take place in drug or alcohol nightmares. With this element, Abel’s film is reminiscent of Valery Guy’s German band “Yes and Yes”, with the remark that instead of a relationship between brothers, there is a love drama on the screen, but the main character in the art world came from the world of an ordinary citizen.
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The main characters of the film “Restless Minds” (although not fully developed, they often mess up) – this, of course, is a different topic. They are part of this turbulent world to the bone, where complete chaos rarely comes across the cold, rational world – in the form of art dealers. However, the brothers only get to the islands of common sense, driven by extreme necessity. And understandably – they have nothing to do there.
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All this leads the heroes to new adventures, not only in the inner world, but also in the outer – then in the depths of the Gulf of Riga, but then even to Norway. Here it is important to remove the hat in front of the third brother – Mārčs Ābele, who has amazingly been able to capture the freezing cold on the screen, the inconveniences that literally flow from the screen to the minds of the audience. It should be noted that the harsh Norwegian nature with Nordic nature looks much more pleasant on the big screen than the wet and humid autumn in Riga, Jurmala or Liepaja.
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Is there a place in this gloomy space for the love, inspiration and art of the brothers – a question that will have to be asked not only by the heroes of the film, but also by the visitors.
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Video: Movie commercial.
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Verdict: In summary, “Restless Minds” has become a full-fledged so-called Low Concept a representative of the author’s cinema. It’s an interesting, sometimes excellent work in detail, but generally too dirty.
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