Review: Amidst (Finland) by Pia Andell

Amidst opens as Satu (Vera Kiiskinen), a middle-aged divorcee, treads down the quiet streets of Helsinki. She arrives unannounced at a tidy, upper-middle-class apartment, a small gift bag in her left hand. Greeted at the door by her friend Riitaa (Meri Nenonen), Satu sits down for drinks and food with six of her friends, all married couples.

Satu’s friends begin discussing her and her husband’s recent split, creeping gradually toward uncomfortable territory. As the couples pry deeper into where Satu’s relationship went wrong, the conversation turns inadvertently back on themselves. In time, the discussion unveils less about Satu’s past relationship, and more about their current ones: a marriage that’s lost its spark, a spouse hiding a medical diagnosis, and an affair that hasn’t been forgotten. The film utilizes subtle, visual queues to evoke the underlying tension. Of the three couples, only one are sat side-by-side. The others are stationed far apart, almost uncomfortably so; they rarely occupy the same frame. Moreover, the intricacies of each character and relationship are kept below board. It’s through brief asides, tonal shifts, and facial expressions that the interpersonal complexities are revealed.

As Satu finally walks back up the desolate street, with the sun nearly set, there is a pep in her step, her meek demeanor vanishing in favor of a spirited strut. She’s forced her friends to turn their critiques in on themselves, asking vital questions about age, trust, and mortality. We are never shown what was in the gift bag she brought: perhaps that was it.

Review by Shane McKevitt for Final Cut Magazine and Producer's Night