Survivor

Directed by Louis Lampard

2023

Forgotten Birthday Films

Survivor is a new film from the Midlands that takes an experimental look at an individual who is experiencing a surreal situation in the woods as they face torment and other symbolic forces.

We open with a man in a room packing a rucksack before we find him awakening with confusion in a clearing in the forest. After throwing some stones, reading a small book and looking a little forlorn, the man eventually finds a discarded rope that he attaches to himself.

With virtually zero dialogue, the film then veers into slightly peculiar territory with a host of bizarre moments – being both dreamlike and at times strangely mesmerizing.

Although he’s amongst the wildness of nature, the man stumbles upon a full dining table where he seeks shelter from the rain and reads his book as the elements lash down. With an excerpt of the writing stating that “there must be more to life”, some of the vaguer moments start to fuse to imply a larger analogy.

As our lead destroys man-made objects, and his attempts to move forward are hampered by the rope he’s tied to, we see him try to escape from a literal ‘safety net’ (or safety rope) as he perhaps unintentionally is forced to cling on to the modern world – rather than experience the natural forest.

A sort of Ted Kaczynski (without the bombs), the man attempts to distance himself from the shackles of contemporary living. He faces pain and injury as he tries to make it to a set of drawers in a sort of metaphor for the pain we go through - carrying a heavy weight of personal demons before we (like the man himself), attempt to heal our own inflicted wounds.

With a strong focus on its symbolic nature, the film is therefore a little hard to access. A measured pace borders on exhaustion, which could be intentional but this personal meditation wanders around where a little bit of traditional direction would have made it easier to digest. It’s all very arthouse but what is it saying? Well, it’s the type of film where you need to bring your own interpretations for sure.

It does remind me however of a couple of films including 2020’s Vivarium (our review) where a couple are trapped and break down both mentally and physically. But here we have a similar metaphorical journey set in a forest instead of suburbia, but where people are again enslaved by their circumstances.

I felt a pinch of The Endless (2017) too, where directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead explore an entity that is captured (or contained) by ropes with an enigmatic (and mostly unexplained) ‘resolution’.

The film does have some fantastic technical aspects though. The cinematography is good with the lush greens and dirty browns captured well by Joel Caborn and make-up artist Sophia Jones provides some horrific wounds as we meditate on the toll life can take on the body. And the high-pitched droning strings by Mikhael Beltsazar had echoes of Zimmer’s Dunkirk score.

Kudos as well to star Fin Gardner who puts himself through the ringer, appearing in every scene of the 40-minute film. It feels like he’s channelling the personal reflections of the director but once again you’ll have to discover your own explanations as to all of this.

Random acts hint upon a number of symbolic meanings an audience can explore and it resembles a kind of essay on different aspects of modern life. It has little focus – which to be fair, is probably the intention – but again leaves it suitably open for interpretation.

As day turns into night, the man’s limbo-like state (perhaps a purgatory?) is comforted by a small lighter providing some illumination to his dark persona, as well as some enjoyment via the relieving effects of music which both help to soothe his turmoil. And a final scene involving a doorway hints to the steps we must take for the future.

In all honesty the style of the film is “not my tempo” really, with its abstract nature proving to be a lot more frustrating rather than fascinating. The slow pace could have been tightened in the edit and in general my sensibilities prefer a swifter more succinct narrative and structure.

That said however, if you can get into its slow-paced groove then its ambiguous and free-form style may just help it find the right audience - as it has an undefinable yet intriguing juxtaposition of symbolic images all set within a contemplative visual poem.

★★★

3/5

Michael Sales