The Capsule

THE CAPSULE di Athina Rachel Tsangari
Grecia – 2012 – 35 min
con Ariane Labed, Clémence Poésy, Isolda Dychauk, Evangelia Randou, Aurora Marion, Deniz Gamze Ergüven
Produzione: Haos Film
Coproduzione: Deste Foundation
Vendite internazionali: The Match Factory
Prima mondiale

Locarno Review: Why Athena Rachel Tsangari's 'The Capsule' Is More Than a Twisted Fashion Show

Commissioned by art collector Dakis Jaonnaou, "The Capsule" is less pure cinema than a mixed media deliberation on identity. The narrative, if you can call it that, follows a group of seven stone-faced women awakening by candlelight in a creaky mansion perched at the top of a Cycladic rock and engaging in a bizarre series of ritualistic endeavors for their apparent matriarch before receding back to their lair. A few of their faces ring familiar, such as "Attenberg" actress Ariane Labed and Clémence Poésy, whose previous credits include episodes of "Gossip Girl" and the last two "Harry Potter" movies. In "The Capsule," however, the setting and exceedingly strange events quickly defamiliarize them. Adorned in deeply expressionistic and revealing outfits while engaging in wildly unpredictable and sometimes blatantly animalistic behavior, the women transform into unadulterated ideas.

In the opening minutes, the residents of the castle rise from a series of increasingly absurd hiding places: beneath a pile of chairs, hidden behind a vase, emerging in miniature from the mouth of another woman and then hidden within the crevice of a human face peeled off to reveal the captive within. Lining up in sun-kissed hallways, their heads spin 360 degrees as they hiss at each other like restless felines -- which one of them eventually morphs into by way of handrawn animation superimposed on the screen.

Tsangari's barrage of experimental conceits start to drizzle in these early scenes, but once it rains, it pours. The longest sequence of "The Capsule" finds the woman leading goats in slo-mo to a nearby area where they perform a series of confessionals for their overseer in addition to a deadpan rendition of "A Horse With No Name." Never fully engaged in conversation or displaying much emotion, their collective identity is entangled with their hyperbolic outfits, which in no uncertain terms advertise costume design by the likes of Marc Jacobs, Bordelle and Tsangari herself. But even as it shows off the clothes, "The Capsule" maintains its captivating edge, interrogating the roots of sexuality and forcing viewers to sort through it.

LOCARNO - Succede a Hydra, un'isola greca delle Cicladi. Vengono denudate, legate, costrette a dormire incatenate e a ballare in intimo e tacchi a spillo, alimentate a stento. Protagoniste sei belle e giovani donne europee. Non sappiamo come siano approdate in quella villa sopra un costone roccioso. Ma la loro "padrona", una bellissima sadica che vive da sempre sull'isola, vuole solo farle soffrire, umiliarle, farle odiare tra loro e far capire cos'è la vera carenza. Ognuna avrà diritto solo ad una capra come compagna, da sempre simbolo della sofferenza. La sadica fa passare alle sei poverette ogni tipo di pena e di contrappasso, fino a scegliere chi le succederà. Promessa o nuovo inganno? Facile indovinare.

In questo scenario onirico e visionario, dominato da l'unico vero potere assoluto della donna, quello riproduttivo, ritroviamo il talento della regista greca Athina Rachel Tsangari, già giurata nel 2011 per i Cineasti del presente, che torna quest'anno con "The Capsule", mediometraggio in prima mondiale passato poco fa al Palavideo. Un nuovo lavoro visto per la prima volta da una delle stesse protagoniste, presente in sala, l'algida e splendida 19enne tedesca Isolda Dychauk.

Marco Jeitziner