Films at the Metro Cinema

I've now gone to a couple of films at the Metro Cinema, "devoted to the exhibition and promotion of Canadian, international and independent film and video in Edmonton".

Tonight I went with some friends to see Christmas in August (1998), a Korean film. It shows how the owner of a photo shop copes with the knowledge of his impending death, and develops a relationship with a meter-maid who is his "best customer", yet never tells her about his illness - she is left wondering what happened when he is hospitalized and later dies. I thought it was very well done in showing the emotions in a mostly subdued way.

Last month we went to see Mirror (2002) by Hakan Sahin, almost a local filmmaker. Set in Zama City, Alberta, a tiny hamlet about 900 km northwest of Edmonton, this film tells the story of an immigrant who takes a job in a convenience store in Zama, filling in so the proprietor can go on a vacation. “The Student” meets a number of interesting characters living in Zama, from oilfield workers to truckers to the bored kids, and it was interesting to see what life is like in such a remote location.

The plot synopsis talks about how he is trying to deal with his brother’s death – it would probably have helped if the flashback segments in Edmonton that were in Turkish were subtitled into English. Neither I nor the friends I was with really understood how the brother’s death fit in …

We were unsure at the end whether “The Student” actually was killed by the hunters, or whether the showing of a mirror shattering was symbolic of something else (“the death of the self-reflective consciousness” as a friend put it).