‘The Exalted’: Tallinn Review

Dir: Juris Kursietis. Latvia/Estonia/Greece. 2024. 93mins.

The third characteristic from Latvian filmmaker Juris Kursietis strikes away from tales set on the margins of society to concentrate on the elite; particularly, a classical music famous person whose good life begins to crumble when her rich husband is concerned in a corruption scandal. This bracing, sharp-toothed predominantly English-language satire brings a brings a stripped-back, virtually Dogma-esque economic system to its evisceration of tainted privilege and exploration of the tradition conflict between japanese and western Europe.

Bracing, sharp-toothed satire

The Exalted follows Kursietis’s debut Modris (2014), which premiered in Toronto and picked up prizes in San Sebastian and Tbilisi, and Oleg (2019) which launched in Cannes Administrators Fortnight earlier than accumulating quite a few awards throughout its pageant run. Equally, The Exalted’s malicious wit and use of prime tier pan-European expertise (the crew consists of editor Yorgos Mavropsaridis, Oscar-nominated for Poor Issues and The Favorite) ought to make it a title of curiosity for additional festivals. And it might subsequently discover a dwelling with an arthouse distributor or bespoke streaming platform.

The screenplay, by Kursietis and his Oleg co-writer (and Modris composer) Liga Celma-Kursiete, initially sees German-born virtuoso organ soloist Anna (Johanna Wokalek) having fun with a rareified existence, celebrated by fawning followers and the music institution alike. Adoration is her due, each professionally and from her husband, Latvian businessman Andris (Juris Zagars). Then Andris is questioned by anti-corruption police on suspicion of bribery. And the stress fractures begin to present in Anna’s good life throughout her birthday celebration of their opulent nation home within the Latvian countryside. 

Shot by Kursietis’s common collaborator Bogumil Godfrejow, the movie’s fractious hand-held digicam is the movie’s defining stylistic attribute. It may possibly really feel somewhat agitated (movement illness victims beware) however Godfrejow’s astute lens captures the micro-tensions and half-hidden anxieties in massive teams of individuals with needle-point accuracy. In a lavish reception following a live performance in Germany, the digicam is caught up within the whirl of celebration, handed, just like the triumphant Anna, from well-wisher to well-wisher. Later, throughout Anna’s birthday occasion – attended by her youthful sister, her German agent, an arts journalist, a few Latvian pals and the completely unreconstructed native priest – there’s an edgier, watchful high quality to the camerawork. The lens hones in on the sparkles of doubt that make the tributes and reward ring somewhat hole.

Within the fingers of manufacturing desiner Laura Dislere, the couple’s house is a shrine to their enviable way of life. Andris is the archetypal Baltic alpha male, dismissing different elements of Europe as locations the place “males pee sitting down”, and he hunts enthusiastically. The mid-century Scandi-chic of the home’s décor is punctuated with extravagantly showy characteristic taxidermy – there’s a wild boar poised by the patio doorways and a stuffed Eurasian lynx frozen in mid snarl subsequent to the espresso desk. Within the grounds of the house, there’s a church, full with an organ, that the couple is restoring for the group at their very own expense.

Plied with champagne, and besieged by canapes, the visitors for Anna’s birthday weekend are considerably insulated from the unfolding drama of Andris’ scandal. However there are hints of a coming reckoning – Anna’s live performance in Riga, which is sponsored by her husband’s enterprise pursuits, has been abruptly cancelled. An area tv information station flies a drone over their property (Andris shoots it down). A grim confronted enterprise affiliate from Denmark reveals up unexpectedly through the birthday cake slicing. And within the movie’s soundscape, there may be the fixed abrasive sound of chainsaws — a not so subliminal reminder of Andris’s troubles (he’s the CEO of a state logging firm). Pictures of felled timber do double responsibility, additionally offering a sly symbolic reference to Andris’ stress-induced erectile dysfunction.

As realities of the case in opposition to Andris develop clearer, he instruments up with weapons and axes, barricading himself from the world outdoors. Anna, in the meantime, erects a psychological barrier. She clings to the assumption that her standing as an artist will insulate her from the scandal; that the stains at present besmirching her husband won’t follow her. A brutal finale argues that artwork is as morally accountable as every other facet of society.