NFA (uncertificated) 74 mins ***
The title’s the acronym for
No Fixed Abode, and this cautionary tale of displacement sports impeccable
credentials: writer-director Steve Rainbow has worked at hostels across the
country, and his supporting cast are evidently the real thing, drawn from Birmingham’s
homeless population. A credibly befuddled Patrick Baladi is Adam, the sometime
family man who wakes up in a hostel with no memory of how he got there; his
plight is framed – perhaps a little conveniently – as a Memento-like puzzle, with flashbacks revealing grim truths during
the trudge between makeshift shelters. It’s operating at a fairly low, scrappy
level: there are continuity blips, and Rainbow can only assign two
(representatively unsympathetic) policemen for the whole of Digbeth. Yet for once
this doesn’t seem inappropriate: NFA has
the air of a compellingly ordinary nightmare, and its modulated conclusion
brings us closer than expected to the pain and confusion of a life lived on the
streets.
NFA is now playing in selected cinemas.
No comments:
Post a Comment