CIFF 2022 | ‘A Human Position’ review: A beautiful but insubstantial drama
Anders Emblem’s insular new drama is a feast for the eyes, but ultimately leaves much to be desired.
Amalie Ibsen Jensen in “A Human Position.” Photo courtesy of Vesterhavet.
This quiet, minimalistic drama revolves around Asta (Amalie Ibsen Jensen), a young journalist based in the sleepy seaside town of Ålesund. Returning to work after recovering from an unnamed (but implicitly sexual) trauma, she quickly grows weary of covering inconsequential small-town happenings, but is soon reinvigorated when the story of a local asylum-seeker facing deportation reaches her.
“A Human Position” is undoubtedly a beautiful watch, with Michael Mark Lanham’s carefully-crafted cinematography giving new meaning to the phrase, “every frame a painting.” But these shots often linger for a little too long than necessary, and mostly just feature Asta wandering nowhere in particular, with a permanently pained expression on her face like a Norwegian “Midsommar”-era Florence Pugh. Where these artistic choices truly shine are when exploring Asta’s loving but strained relationship with her girlfriend, Live (the outstanding Maria Agwumaro). The slow recovery of their love through soft-spoken, intimate scenes serve as brief, much-needed moments of delight in a vast abyss of small-town malaise and unfulfilled ambition.
However, the central thrust of the film’s narrative itself is left severely lacking. While “A Human Position” could arguably work as a slow, understated meditation on the lost and departed, we never see the asylum-seeker Asta is desperately chasing, nor do we get any real resolution to his story. Emblem’s script deftly portrays the many hang-ups and complications of European governmental bureaucracy, especially when it comes to immigrants and refugees, but the ethics of centering an underprivileged immigrant in the narrative while only ever featuring a white woman peripherally telling his story are also rather questionable. One would be hard-pressed to feel truly satisfied by the time the film’s meager 79 minutes are up, as all we are left with are isolated moments of beauty that mean nothing of real consequence.
“A Human Position” receives its U.S. premiere at the 58th Chicago International Film Festival on October 15, 2022.
