Adam | GFC Review
Every Monday, 12 young film lovers head to our cinema under the stars at Lotterywest Films to take in the best international cinema has to offer.
As aspiring cinephiles, we wanted to know what they thought of the flicks.
Check out the review by Grace about the character driven gem-of-a-film, Adam.
Every intense emotion that these women feel are played out with excruciating realness; they leave no space for words.
Maryam Touzani’s film Adam is a beautiful snapshot of two women’s lives crossing paths which captures the raw, bleeding emotions of maternity and womanhood. At the beginning of the film we meet Samia, an unmarried pregnant woman desperate for work and a place to sleep and with each door that is slammed in her face her resolve splinters a fraction more. One door, however, holds a sliver of hope for Samia – the home of Abla and her daughter Warda and from the moment Samia knocks, these characters are bound together if not at first by love, at least by female solidarity.
In the beginning of the film Samia and Abla are caught in a dance of domination, they butt heads like fighting bulls – Alba overtly disapproves of Samia and her situation and engages with her in a blunt and dismissive way but Samia does not take this lightly, she pushes back and challenges Abla. As the days go by, the dance slows down and the two women fall into a waltz – they embrace each other with love and care as they begin to share themselves openly with one another. The pain and heartache each carry is laid out for the other to bear witness to and share in the heavy load.
The film’s most poignant moments between these two women are not spoken, instead the camera focuses in on aggressively pounding knuckles kneading bread, a hunched and rocking figure with tears pouring down, an angry face that slowly melts into despair and longing. Every intense emotion that these women feel are played out with excruciating realness; they leave no space for words.
Whilst Samia and Abla are the centre of this story, the beaming light that is Warda cannot be missed on screen. A grinning, exuberant ball of energy that is Abla’s eight year old daughter will win the hearts of every audience member. Every moment she is on screen feels light as she brings with her giggles and cheer – every tongue she pokes out at Samia inspires a smile.
Adam captures the streets of Casablanca through the frame of Abla’s shopfront window, we see a bustling city with merchants, livestock and passersby – all the while the heartfelt story of Samia and Abla is contained in the homely kitchen where love, loss and shame are shared between the titular characters and a beautiful kinship is formed between two souls bound by the trials of motherhood. This is an unforgettable film that will cement itself in your heart, impressing upon you as you leave the cinema some of Samia’s strength, Abla’s kindness and Warda’s joy.
Adam is on at Lotterywest Films until Sunday 1 March, BOOK NOW.