ASYLUM SEEKERS

Imagine if your life was so fraught and dysfunctional that you actually felt you’d be better off inside an asylum than anywhere else? That’s the idea behind Asylum Seekers (2009), an oddly-dark fairytale, charming in places although not without its issues. However, coming from a first-time director, this film shows evidence of an interesting style and lots of ideas – something which definitely bodes well for future projects.

We start with an assemblage of zany characters ‘with issues’ who are waiting to get into a top-of-the-range mental facility. Each of them has their quirks – I did chuckle at one character being referred to as an ‘Evangelical Nihilist’ – and each of them is looking forward to their time within the asylum walls. As we’re waiting, we get glimpses of the gentle lunacy of each character’s lives; needless to say, they all seem on the verge of a breakdown.

However, there’s a catch. The indomitable Nurse Millie who comes to take them around the establishment explains that, due to demand, there is only one bed available. To decide who gets the bed, they’ll be judged and examined as they go around. Whoever wins this competition gets to stay; the others will be thrown back out to try to get on with their lives.

To start with, Asylum Seekers is very strong visually; from the way the shots are lit, to the bright, contrasting clothes of the characters and stellar sets, this is a film which has great aesthetics. The idea overall is an ambitious one: it weaves a lot of surreal elements into the plot rather nicely and its topic – insanity – is given an interesting spin here.

As for the self-proclaimed black comedy of the film, at times this works unproblematically, but the Achilles’ heel of the movie is the fact that the humour can feel rather inane: it’s certainly oddball, but perhaps self-consciously zany along the lines of UK comedy The Mighty Boosh (which is popular, granted, but not with this reviewer). The off-centre wackiness means that at points the dialogue loses its way, or we lose an opportunity to empathise with our characters. It’s certainly rarely a laugh-out-loud affair to be honest, but many viewers will appreciate the WTF-feeling you get from a lot of what goes on here.

So, Asylum Seekers has some innovative ideas and neat, characterful visuals: it’s eclectic rather than comedic per se, and there are a few snags here, but truly if everyone’s first movie showed as much promise of innovation as Rania Ajami’s work here then we’d definitely have plenty to smile about.

The film is presented in a 2.40:1 format, looks good and vivid with very bold colours and (as you might expect) lots of striking trippy sequences, and boasts good, clear sound levels. There were no extras with my screener.

Review by Keri O’Shea