Israeli video artist Omer Fast is known for installation works dealing with the psychology of trauma; the blurring of memory and the manipulation of time through the use of repetition, looping and reenactment. For his debut feature, premiered during last year’s London Film Festival, he has found a perfect literary match. Tom McCarthy’s third novel, ‘Remainder’, shares many of his habitual themes through the story a young man struggling to put his life together after a severe accident has left him suffering from amnesia.
Tom Sturridge gives a convincing performance as the emotionally detached, morally ambiguous victim, sustaining the film’s ambitious premise. We witness his trouble adapting to a disorienting reality that no longer makes sense and his lack of trust for those ones that suddenly reappear. Among them, a girlfriend and his best friend with whom he forms an oddly cold triangular bond whose nature is not entirely revealed. The intimacy of their relationships seems to be difficult to re-ignite. We follow the storyline as experienced by the protagonist trying to fit the pieces of his puzzling new situation, filmed by restricting the field of vision and using short focus to makes us share his narrow sense of perception. Extreme close-ups help visualize his inner turmoil. The sound design and the experimental electronica of Berlin musician Schneider ™, playing bodily rhythms such as heart beats and ear ringings, greatly enhance the claustrophobic atmosphere.
