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Bright Nights review [Berlinale]: Dir. Thomas Arslan (2017)

Bright Nights review [Berlinale]: Thomas Arslan returns to the Berlin Film Festival with a new film about rekindling relationships that may be already lost.

Bright Nights review by Paul Heath at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival.

Bright Nights review

Bright Nights review

Bright Nights, of Helle Nachte to give the title in its native tongue, is the new film from Thomas Arslan, the German director who previously lit up the Berlinale with his 2013 effort Gold.

This film opens with news that the father of Austrian civil engineer Michael (Georg Friedrich) has suddenly passed away because of a sudden heart attack. The bad news continues when Michael is told by his live-in girlfriend that she has been asked to relocate to Washington for her job in a couple of months’ time. In a time of clear reflection, Michael travels to Norway, where his father lived during his final days to make formal arrangements and to pack up his things. Following a brief phone call at the top of the film, Michael’s sister suddenly decides that she doesn’t want to make the journey for with him for her own personal reasons, so he arranges to take the trip with his fourteen-year-old son Luis (Tristan Gobel), who has barely seen or had contact with for most of his young life. After journeying to the father’s deserted home, where Luis watches him pack up his father’s belongings in silence, Michael decides that an impromptu road trip is in needed, one where he stands a chance of rekindling some form of relationship with his estranged son in the hope that it is not too late.

Bright Nights review

Bright Nights review

Set in rural northern Norway, the film, as the title alludes to, is set at the time of year where the country enjoys three months of constant daylight. Struggling to involve his son in conversation without an abrupt response, Michael endeavours to arrange activities for the two to have a chance to bond. His attempts seem constantly futile, Luis consistently throwing cutting remarks back at his father as he tries to create a dialogue with him. Luis is, of course, at a very difficult age anyway, and while a fleeting encounter with a girl with apparent similar interests at a holiday camp brings out a different side to his character, it’s straight back to extended silences and earphones on when the young man is reunited back with Michael in their car.

Thomas Arslan’s film is one about journey, transition, reflection and the future. It’s also about regrets, loss and of course hope, as these two central characters embark on their long journey into the unknown. Arslan fills his relatively short movie with long takes sweeping vistas and open roads, a clear metaphor for the relationship between the two characters at the centre of the story. Those two characters are played wonderfully by Friedrich and Gobel, especially by the younger of the two who is challenged to convey feeling largely with silence and gestures, particularly during its final couple of scenes.

Bright Nights review

Bright Nights review

Some may not gel with the brooding, slow-paced nature of the film, which one can understand, but Arslan’s film is surprising and indeed fantastically shot without the use of artificial lighting – which really isn’t needed when you consider the setting. It’s rather unspectacular film-making, but a character-driven narrative with fine performances that leaves the viewer uplifted and fulfilled once the final credits roll.

Bright Nights review by Paul Heath, February 2017.

Bright Nights screens in-competition at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival.

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