The Other Side

Roberto Minervini's 2015 documentary follows people in rural Louisiana: a couple dependent on drugs, an armed militia group, and those who remain in an abandoned region. The camera offers no comment and defends nobody. Its method is contested: Minervini deliberately blurs the border between fiction and documentary and some scenes are reconstructions. That makes visible how people tell their own stories, while also opening an ethical question. The film never takes distance, forcing the viewer into an uncomfortable closeness. It screened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes. Who it's for: viewers interested in experimental documentary and films about rural America. Who it's not for: anyone avoiding drug use, firearms and sexual content, or wanting an explicit interpretation.