10.000 km

Just a quick review to encourage people to see this lovely, impressive film:

10,000km is a beautiful drama about the difficulties of long-distance relationships. The entire film consists of interactions between a couple (we never see anyone else or leave their flats), mostly through skype or messaging. But believe it or not, it's completely enthralling throughout. The two leads are excellent, bringing both humour and deep emotion to their characters, while the director - in his feature debut - pulls in a variety of tricks to keep things interesting. An honest, quietly powerful film that I hope gets the recognition it deserves. Watch it if you get the chance, and then spread the word.

The effectiveness of this picture lies in the unsaid. It is testament to the actors who use body language to the fullest extent to convey their feelings, and down to the editor to put that across coherently.

It shows you how complex, emotional and downright daft we can be for these things we call relationships. The inward and outward dishonesty we have within this devout faith inside this human concept. A societal doctrine we all adhere to on the whole.

Time and distance are put up against love. People can believe or convince themselves that life is going perfectly fine but when you have space away from a situation, clarity of thought and feeling can prevail. When you are distanced from a situation, you can never truly feel connected to it, really.

The last 5 or so minutes are powerfully stated. Without as much as a single word, you understand exactly what both actors reluctantly agree upon. I put this work in the same vein as Blue Eyelids. Less is more type storytelling.

... as far as movies dealing with long distance relationships go 10k KM should be considered as one of the better ones... out-of-sight out-of-mind is much to contend with... being unfaithful to one's partner made easier when you can drift apart, not having to go back and see the other person regularly... can you fall out of love with someone.. sure... can you fall back-in-love again, sure

... he tells her to go out and experience the city, make new friends, have shared experiences... actually he's really saying she must let go of him, so what could he expect, he's not going to live there, she's not returning back, at least for now or soon

... it's not that they no longer have anything in common, just that they no longer have the intimate bond of physical-intimacy helping-keeping them together... that hands-on-contact we all crave-need-regularly.

Ready for some bold words? If 10.000Km remains my favorite film of the London Film Festival I will be 100% satisfied. Either way, it's set a high bar for Mr. Turner, Whiplash and Foxcatcher to beat. On the premise alone, Carlos Marques-Marcet long-distance romance had my investment. I've gone through, am going through, will go through everything the film is about. I can attest that the characters and situations are painted authentically in every facet. While some may argue that the film is coming late to document the modern ways that couples connect with each other, it doesn't feel that the film is latching onto any zeitgeist and is simply a matter-of-fact part of our lives from now on.

Marques-Marcet's economy in the storytelling is terrific. It begins with a stunning but simple 23 minute long take. It's more Before Midnight than Gravity, but the poetic and organic blocking adds so much to a deliberately limited dynamic. Within that shot, we know everything about the bond between Alex (Natalie Tena) and Sergi (David Verdageur) and how painful it's going to be to see them torn apart, as the former receives the opportunity to live in Los Angeles for a year. But this opening also showcases the endearing sense of humour the film has, particularly from Sergi, who teeters on mean-spiritedness with his well-meaning sarcasm. They're immediately identifiable in their mid-20s joys, hopes and dilemmas, and they're the only characters we'll see on screen throughout the film. Everyone else is but a blurred out face.

The length of that opening shot is key to the rhythm of the film. There isn't much of a narrative besides the abstract form of their relationship's turbulence and so once Alex is in Los Angeles the structure becomes very fragmented into daily sections, some lasting less than a minute. It truly captures the isolation and the way time flies waiting without progress. But it also captures the warmth couples feel as they interact via Skype in a sincere way while still having natural friction. Every little freeze of the program feels ideally orchestrated by Marques-Marcet as it feeds into the spontaneity and sensitivity of the performances. It takes a little to upset the balance.

There's an interesting idea about the physicality of their online relationship when Alex visits the server farms of Silicon Valley and contemplates about how their relationship has been stored in 1s and 0s somewhere there. It raises fascinating questions about subjective representation, something that anyone who's met an online friend can confirm. For something that matters to most to people – romance – something that feels the most real, is only a simulation of a feeling. It's easy to project feelings on someone whose not there, which the characters feel often. It's bolstered by Alex's role as a photographer, as she takes artistic representations of things, and her photos of camouflaged antennas are our only hint to her job. It digs its fingers under the anxiety of romance being artificial under the circumstances and studies it gently, pulsating through the character's actions.

This is the starring role that Natalie Tena (of Game of Thrones and Harry Potter) has been waiting for. I'd always known her since I saw About A Boy upon its release and didn't recognize her until halfway through the film. She's tender and visceral in the best way. Both performances are perfectly measured and restrained until they reach their respective explosive points. Every little thing builds and builds and you can read everything they feel in just their expressions. David Verdageur appears to channel last year's Oscar Isaac's Llewyn Davis, not only in the bearded look but the subdued disgruntled temperament with the sense of humour. However, he makes it his own and his contradictions lead our opinion to constantly fluctuate but ultimately sympathize with him. They deservedly won the acting duo award at this year's SXSW festival.

Finally, it boasts a refreshingly ambiguous ending in a sea of overtly technophobic films. It knows that it can't be conclusive about the positives and negatives of a long distance relationship bonded by daily Skyping. It doesn't spell out any assumptions as it's not as simple as a happy ever after or a break up for good. Instead, it's a quiet reflection on what their relationship had been missing, one that the film leaves for the audience to judge for themselves instead of the characters. It's a thoroughly profound note to leave the film and one that rewards on consideration, true to it's otherwise slight but powerful nature. It truly connected with me on every level, not only in things I personally relate to, but in things that I hadn't even thought of. It's not a requirement to have experienced a long distance relationship to like this film as it certainly has something to admire for any empathetic viewer.

If there were any justice, 10.000 Km would join the race for Best Foreign Language film, but as Spain submitted Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed, hopefully this will find a mainstream audience that can also relate to its anguish. With nuanced and relatable performances, rich textured cinematography and a keen sense of pacing; it encapsulates every honest high and low about contemporary relationships with an ocean between them. I really can't give enough praise to 10.000 Km and it deserves way more attention.

9/10

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With pleasant cinematography and superb acting, 10,000km features the complications of a long-distance relationship that may appear as initially close, but which becomes increasingly stagnant and sour over time. Issues of couple's communication bubble up over time, and show how fast couples may deteriorate in their romance due, in part, to distance. The film is a dramatic portrayal of loss and of change, of the difficulties couples face when entering into a long-distance romance.