TF

Right this moment, much of the western world is living with anxieties surrounding “the other”. Misplaced souls are crossing borders and arriving in other countries carrying precious little beyond the clothes on their back and a frightened expression. Right this moment, these people are being refused, persecuted, and reviled. Many don’t care where they came from, only that they go.

For “the other”, TWIN FLOWER wants to grant them a moment of grace.

TWIN FLOWER is the story of a young man and young woman on the run in Sardinia. Set in an opportune position in The Mediterranean, Sardinia is rife with misplaced souls trying to survive. The lad is Basim (Kalill Kone) from Ivory Coast; the girl is Anna (Anastasyia Bogach), Ukranian by way of Italy. Their paths cross when Basim scares off random men harassing Anna, and he offers to keep her company on the road for company and safety. Anna never speaks, and we spend a long time uncertain what she’s running from beyond knowing one man is following her.

Anna and Basim do indeed stick together – twin flowers on a very thorny garden path towards salvation.

TWIN FLOWER is pure, uncut empathy for unempathetic times. It paints a very delicate picture of what it takes to survive while seeking salvation, and how much of ourselves we need to shed. We might think we know who we are and what we’re capable of…but when it’s a matter of staying sheltered, staying fed, and staying safe, what are we really prepared to do.

This movie is quiet when so many in the world seem to speak so long and so loudly. It presents that sometimes the quiet ones may be hiding a lot, and asking them to speak-up might be opening a box we aren’t prepared to look into. This movie wants to grant religious rites to those in deepest need: it wants to hear their confessions, and baptise them from sin. In an age where so many offer people like Anna and Basim no quarter, offering them full communion is a revolutionary act.

Director Laura Luchetti gives us much to consider with her tender road movie. She shows us how tiny offerings can hold great meaning, and how sex can be both vice and consolation. She dares us to look at the these men and women the same way. She knows what we say when we see them peddling flowers in the plaza, or offering to load our groceries in the supermarket parking lot. She wants us to understand that for them, distrust can creep in quickly…but amazingly, so too can joy.

TWIN FLOWER is a poem dedicated to “the other”, and a reminder of how easy it is for any of us to find ourselves in their shoes.