Matt and Mara

Mara teaches creative writing at a university. She is married; her husband makes experimental music and they have a small child. There is a tension at home and neither of them talks about it. One day she runs into Matt at the school; they were friends years ago and he is now known as a writer. They talk. Then they meet again. They travel out of the city together for a conference. Something happens between them and neither says what it is; the conversation keeps sliding to another subject. Kazik Radwanski directs. Deragh Campbell plays Mara and Matt Johnson plays Matt. It is a Canadian production. The film was shown at the Berlin Film Festival. The form is observational; the camera stays close, the scenes are long and the dialogue was worked with room for improvisation. What the film is interested in is not events but talk itself; every sentence between the two avoids saying something. Radwanski is a director who makes small scale films and has made several with the same actors. The teaching scenes are the second strand; while talking with her students Mara says something about her own life. The ending is left uncertain and the narrative decides nothing. It is short and loosely structured. Who it is for: viewers who like small scale independent films and narratives built on talk. Who it is not for: almost nothing happens, the pace is slow, and the narrative is inconclusive.