Last Statement

I was one of the fortunate handful to have had a chance to catch this provocative yet engaging film very shortly after its final cut about a year ago -- as of this writing -- and I can safely say the visceral body-shuddering fly-on-the-wall experience of listening to the last repentant (some unrepentant) ponderous reflections of various inmates on Death Row still remains with me to this day...

The quorum of directors who assisted on this unique cross-continental collaborative mash- up did a truly standout job with their particular segments, but the real mastery of this film comes from the conceptual head of the pyramid, Orla Wolf, who assembled the disparate ingredients in this provocative goulash into a cohesive narrative and an even more in-your- face artistic statement.

That's right: in-your-face!

LAST STATEMENT is art expressly designed to cause you to squirm in your plush padded chair. This is art which will prod you into questioning your very freedom and those cherished vaunted values about our individual liberties which we all hold dear.

Do *you*, friend, laud the freedom you currently possess?

Do you seize it mightily in order to serve yours -- and society's -- best interests?

Or is it an unbridled over-exuberant me-first all-me-and-only-me liberty run amok, destroying you and others in its path. Wreaking havoc on our order, our system, our square...

These are some of the question you will ask yourself as you finish your view, because those were just some of things that occurred to me.

If LAST STATEMENT is the future of guerrilla indie filmmaking -- where artist-director- conceptualists from -- literally -- around the planet band together as sisters and brothers in the making of a narrative one-piece, then count me in!

With the disintegrative forces so very potentially high on a project of this internationalist collaborative nature -- when the "pull apart" looms so threateningly stronger over the "join together" on something of this magnitude -- and to then pull it off and kick butt at the end...that deserves more than a plain vanilla kudo.

Very well done, gang. Marvellously well done.

This drama documentary is basically a very well connected set of narratives in which condemned killers statements were acted-out. It is not quite as simple as it sounds: The delivery is against a backdrop of a factual reporting style. The acting is outstanding, in fact so much so that the actors took on the look of individuals who were living their own hell on earth prior to facing execution. Each one came across with a different character. It did not seem repetitive as the concept may suggest owing to this quality. It was a film that generated various emotions, disgust, compassion an indication of how futile and destructive their crimes were to the perpetrator (as well as the victims). Guns played a big part in the killings, some belonged to the victims. For me the film illustrated the stupidity of poor gun control and in effect arming the mentally unstable and immature. In my view all the killers were dejected and screwed-up individuals that life had left behind. Their self-loathing was tangible. One showed a bravado that was clearly superficial belying the inadequate coward hiding behind the edifice. Most proclaimed how sorry they were and I just thought how that did not cut it as what they had done was so heinous. It was apparent how pointless their lives were and how avoidable their killings were if only things had been different. Growing up in a society that puts people to death does seem to legitimise and encourage violence by devaluing life and this came across as an unspoken notion within the film. I did think that a film as potent as this should be shown to kids in school where it might just help tip the balance for some before they embarked on a life of violence and crime. The film showed the consequences in term of the self destruction of the perpetrators only too well. It deserves to be watched. Thanks to the film-makers for their devotion in making it.