Numbers

Original title: Nomery

Directed by: Oleh Sentsov, Akhtem Seitablaev 

Country: Ukraine

Length: 104 min.

Year: 2020

Premiere: Berlinale 2020

Availability: takflix

Synopsis: in a closed environment, a group of people identified with numbers come to terms with the dystopia they live in.

RATING: 2.5/5

 

REVIEW

It is hard to look at Numbers, aesthetically, and see a cinematic film. Its form, mise-en-scène, its appearance is that of a live recording of a stageplay performance. A sort of entrapment in the theatrical form, that however is perfectly understandable: directed by a filmmaker imprisoned in Siberia at the time of the production, it is only rightful that the claustrophobic sense of imprisonment renders in the form of the film, that could perfectly be a performance of an inmate drama club, if it did not feature some major ukrainan actors like Oleksandr Yarema. 

Numbers is a dystopia that looks at a vast literary field, and inherits a lot of the notions from Orwell or other masters. As a result, under several aspects, it does not feel too innovative - it is hard to innovate a genre that has had so many quasi-perfect renditions already. Certainly, the idea of a depersonalisation of characters, turned into numbers - that however do have a hierarchical function too, gives this dystopia an edge, but what makes the film most interesting is the presence of a character with divine attributions, that is neither an embodiment of a big brother or a dictator, but is alledgedly God himself - a character that has no power over the agency of the others, but is omnisciently overseeing the story. It is an interesting enough reimagination of God to keep hooked.

Much like Gamer before and Rhino later, Numbers also echoes a metaphysical side, without entirely attaining it. Here, poetry and literature become integral part of the liberation of the body, in a similar fashion to Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.

As mentioned already, Numbers is very derivative of the entire preexistent dystopia genre, and that becomes extremely evident in the conclusion, which may seem underwhelming and unimaginative. It is an expression of hopelesness and despair, and of a film caged in its own nature, that cannot be free, as much as its mastermind was not.