Tuesday 13th Oct – ‘Evolution’
‘Evolution’ was by far my most surreal experience of the Festival. It is almost impossible to describe but depicts a boy living on a remote island with other boys of a similar age and some young women. The women are rather strange, pale and moist-skinned. Before long the boys are taken to a hospital where strange experiments are performed upon them, subsequent ultrasounds suggesting living creatures have been implanted in them. When the film concluded, a gentleman in the audience, refusing to wait for a microphone to come to him shouted out, “what does it mean?” He, perhaps, spoke for us all.
The director did not really want to compromise our own individual interpretations but she did speak about her desire to explore the confusion of adolescence and to reflect upon an early hospitalisation, where she had not felt in charge of her body but at the whim of the adults surrounding her. This, I have to say, did speak to me. Having had my appendix removed at 12, I understand the sense of fear, confusion and ‘body horror’ which I encountered at that time and with which the film resonates. Max Brebant is superb as Nicolas but ‘Evolution’ remains a distinctly odd experience.