PARK CITY -- An ambitious and creative jumbling of narrative style, "Police Beat" attempts to chart the emotional state of a Seattle cop from Senegal as he responds to crimes around the city and obsesses about his girlfriend, who may or may not be sleeping with another man.
Soulful performance by non-pro Pape Sidy Niang as the bicycle-riding police officer Z, gives the film a poetic tone, but cumulative impact is diffused rather than enhanced by the fractured form. Film could have some life at art houses and healthy after-life on cable and video.
Film is constructed around a series of real-life crimes originally reported in a column called Police Beat written by Charles Mudede for The Stranger, a Seattle alt weekly. Mudede fashioned the expressionistic script with director Robinson Devor. Film represents a delicate balancing act that Devor pulls off with impressive control of the material. Since journey is internal, he had to find a way to tell a story where not much happens and all the action is subjective.
The device he came up with is a voiceover in Z's native west African tongue, Wolof, translated in subtitles. Spoken dialogue is in English, so we get the collision of the character's internal and external lives. The crime calls Z answers all become a reflection for his inner state of turmoil. His girlfriend Rachel (Anna Oxygen) has gone off on a camping trip with an old flame and Z wonders if their days together are numbered. Few films manage to capture as well a character's private despair as he struggles to interpret signs that might just be in his imagination.
Unfortunately, since we meet Rachel only in fragments, and know almost nothing about their relationship, it's hard to connect to his struggle. As an immigrant in a strange land, Z's experience is hermetically cut off from the larger flow of life, even thought he encounters some pretty strange stuff. His computer screen, with a grid of Seattle crime codes, is a reflection of his wounded psyche. Domestic violence, public urination, homicide--it's all in a day's work. Since Z's experience is colored by his emotional agitation, a recurring female character (Sarah Harlett) who keeps turning up in various guises--as a prostitute, a masseuse, a would-be suicide and an assault victim--may not be everything she seems to be.
Other crimes on his beat include a man devouring raw meat in a supermarket, a reckless bicycle rider who goes on a political tirade, and an epileptic who enters a stranger's house, has an attack and strolls out. Z responds to the calls but he's not really there, his mind is elsewhere grappling with philosophical issues such as the nature of love, families and life itself. The world is going on around him but he's not engaged. It's strange material to construct a film around since there is little narrative drive other than Z's emotional life.
Devor has created a dreamlike state which allows Z to look inward. For Niang it seems not so much a performance as a baring of his soul, something a more trained actor might not have been able to do. Editors Mark Winitsky and Joe Shapiro have also found the key to maintaining the film's singular mood. The filmmakers were apparently not going for a conventional movie experience where the audience is swept up in another person's life. What they do achieve is a certain abstract fascination, like a man caught under glass.
POLICE BEAT
Police Beat Prods., the Northwest Film Forum presentation
Credits:
Director: Robinson Devor
Writer: Devor, Charles Mudede
Producers: Jeffrey M. Brown, Alexis Ferris
Executive producer: Michael Seiwerath
Director of photography: Sean Kirby
Production designer: Etta Lilienthal
Costume designer: Doris Black
Editors: Mark Winitsky, Joe Shapiro
Cast:
Z: Pape Sidy Niang
Rachel: Anna Oxygen
Swan: Eric Breedlove
Mary: Sarah Harlett
Jeff: Elijah Geiger
Hedge Trimmer: Scottt Meola
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 80 minutes...
Soulful performance by non-pro Pape Sidy Niang as the bicycle-riding police officer Z, gives the film a poetic tone, but cumulative impact is diffused rather than enhanced by the fractured form. Film could have some life at art houses and healthy after-life on cable and video.
Film is constructed around a series of real-life crimes originally reported in a column called Police Beat written by Charles Mudede for The Stranger, a Seattle alt weekly. Mudede fashioned the expressionistic script with director Robinson Devor. Film represents a delicate balancing act that Devor pulls off with impressive control of the material. Since journey is internal, he had to find a way to tell a story where not much happens and all the action is subjective.
The device he came up with is a voiceover in Z's native west African tongue, Wolof, translated in subtitles. Spoken dialogue is in English, so we get the collision of the character's internal and external lives. The crime calls Z answers all become a reflection for his inner state of turmoil. His girlfriend Rachel (Anna Oxygen) has gone off on a camping trip with an old flame and Z wonders if their days together are numbered. Few films manage to capture as well a character's private despair as he struggles to interpret signs that might just be in his imagination.
Unfortunately, since we meet Rachel only in fragments, and know almost nothing about their relationship, it's hard to connect to his struggle. As an immigrant in a strange land, Z's experience is hermetically cut off from the larger flow of life, even thought he encounters some pretty strange stuff. His computer screen, with a grid of Seattle crime codes, is a reflection of his wounded psyche. Domestic violence, public urination, homicide--it's all in a day's work. Since Z's experience is colored by his emotional agitation, a recurring female character (Sarah Harlett) who keeps turning up in various guises--as a prostitute, a masseuse, a would-be suicide and an assault victim--may not be everything she seems to be.
Other crimes on his beat include a man devouring raw meat in a supermarket, a reckless bicycle rider who goes on a political tirade, and an epileptic who enters a stranger's house, has an attack and strolls out. Z responds to the calls but he's not really there, his mind is elsewhere grappling with philosophical issues such as the nature of love, families and life itself. The world is going on around him but he's not engaged. It's strange material to construct a film around since there is little narrative drive other than Z's emotional life.
Devor has created a dreamlike state which allows Z to look inward. For Niang it seems not so much a performance as a baring of his soul, something a more trained actor might not have been able to do. Editors Mark Winitsky and Joe Shapiro have also found the key to maintaining the film's singular mood. The filmmakers were apparently not going for a conventional movie experience where the audience is swept up in another person's life. What they do achieve is a certain abstract fascination, like a man caught under glass.
POLICE BEAT
Police Beat Prods., the Northwest Film Forum presentation
Credits:
Director: Robinson Devor
Writer: Devor, Charles Mudede
Producers: Jeffrey M. Brown, Alexis Ferris
Executive producer: Michael Seiwerath
Director of photography: Sean Kirby
Production designer: Etta Lilienthal
Costume designer: Doris Black
Editors: Mark Winitsky, Joe Shapiro
Cast:
Z: Pape Sidy Niang
Rachel: Anna Oxygen
Swan: Eric Breedlove
Mary: Sarah Harlett
Jeff: Elijah Geiger
Hedge Trimmer: Scottt Meola
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 80 minutes...
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