Film

Tuvalu (1999)

Director: Veit Helmer

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Playing like a mix of The Bed Sitting Room and Delicatessen, this pseudo-silent farce (the dialogue is provided by grunts and a variety of pidgin languages; the camerman shoots out of kilter in monocrome given standard tints) is set in a crumbling public baths/swimming pool. It's presided over by the blind father (Clay) of energetic Anton (Lavant), who tries to keep the place from the clutches of his cynical businessman brother Gregor (Gillespie) and the public authorities. It's a tale of desire, dystopia and bad plumbing, a critique of the decay and corruption of ex-Communist Greek Orthodox Europe which owes much to Helmer's evident cinephilia and the teeming satirical comedy of Emir Kusturica, whose scriptwriter Gordan Michic will provide the screenplay for Helmer's next movie.

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