Anne at 13,000 Ft.
Kazik Radwanski's Canadian indie tackles issues of mental health sympathetically and with insight.
Deragh Campbell
This was a brave film to make. Dating from 2019 but reaching us now, it prompts a comparison with the recent study of dementia in old age to be found in The Father. That film may have tackled difficult subject matter, but it had the advantage of star names and of being known already as a highly acclaimed piece for the stage. Mental disorder is similarly the concern of Anne at 13,000 Ft although the person suffering from it is a relatively young woman, Anne (Deragh Campbell). Campbell is an actress known for her deep commitment to film projects (in Sofia Bohdanowicz’s MS Slavic 7, also dating from 2019, she was a co-director and co-writer and on this film she has credits for additional dialogue and as an associate producer). But the fact remains that Campbell is not a box-office draw and neither is her fellow Canadian Kazik Radwanski, the director and chief writer. Consequently, to proceed with this project was brave indeed.
While the subject matter provides a challenge in itself, so too does the need for the filmmaker to find an effective approach that will put the audience inside the head of the troubled Anne. She has clearly had problems in the past - problems that are suggested indirectly rather than described in any detail - but at the outset we see her at her best. She is working in day-care in Toronto and shows a rare empathy with the children there. Nevertheless, when it comes to imposing discipline she cannot be relied upon and she behaves erratically: she is prone to sudden outbursts and to making inappropriate comments which she often tries to explain away afterwards by claiming that she had been joking.
We see Anne not only in this school setting but also in the company of her mother (Lawrene Denkers), who clearly feels the need to tread cautiously, and with men whom she encounters. Early on Anne has a first date that leads nowhere and then she begins a relationship with a man whom she meets at a wedding reception. This is Matt (Matt Johnson) and it is the way in which she introduces him to her parents that evidences just how deep her problems go: she describes him to them not just as a friend but as the man she is going to marry - and then of course tells the startled Matt that it had been a joke.
Seeking how best to involve us in Anne’s situation, Radwanski takes a big gamble but one that pays off handsomely: he shoots most of the film in close-ups and keeps Campbell on screen throughout. Thus he makes us recognise the extent to which she exists in her own world, one that prevents her from seeing things from anyone else’s viewpoint. Wisely short (it lasts a mere 75 minutes), the film certainly impresses, but there is one key aspect which I have not mentioned and which I find troublesome. Throughout references are made to Anne’s fascination with sky-diving. That explains the title, but frequent intercutting of footage relating to this emerges too vaguely to be effective. If these episodes are meant to be real, then it’s unfortunate that there is no clarity as to whether they are happening in the past or in the present. In any case another possibility exists since they could be taken as a kind of ironic metaphor, for it is only in these sequences that Anne seems fully relaxed and at ease. Consequently, they may occur only in Anne’s imagination where they represent a world that will never in fact be hers. The uncertainty around this element in the film was something that I felt to be a distraction, but I am nevertheless full of admiration for the actors and for Radwanski’s willingness to tackle mental health as a central issue and to do so in a work that is so adventurous stylistically.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Deragh Campbell, Dorothea Paas, Matt Johnson, Lawrene Denkers, Michael Kuthe, Joseph Simon, Theresa Radwanski, Suzanne Pratley, Lisa Aitken, Pat Bianco.
Dir Kazik Radwanski, Pro Daniel Montgomery and Kazik Radwanski, Screenplay Kazik Radwanski with Deragh Campbell, Ph Nikolay Michaylov, Art Dir Zoe Koke, Ed Ajla Odobasic, Costumes Zoe Koke.
Medium Density Fireboard Films/Maudit Films-Mubi.
75 mins. Canada. 2019. Rel: 29 September 2021. No Cert.
