As the Wave Broke Review
As the Wave Broke is a 2020 short film directed by Alexandra Bekiou.
There is an intense emotionality that exists within As the Wave Broke that clearly establishes a woman who is battling inner demons, but there is also a barrier felt throughout that keeps us at arm’s length at all times as well.
What this film clearly features well is a sense of mood and character. Our main protagonist is a woman in her 40s who is dealing with a lot of past trauma and love lost. She isolates herself from her loved ones and finds strength in her writing.
This focus on a single character’s struggle is brilliantly achieved with set pieces that evoke a strong emotional response. This piece contains an overall amazing visual sense.
The one drawback to everything is that there is a seeming distance to it all. As a viewer it feels like we are only getting a small portion of the narrative at play. We are of course connected on an empathetic level with this character, but there needed to be something more to it all.
While reflecting on the piece it is hard to say what was needed here, but while every vignette presented has a very poetic quality to it, they feel a little too disjointed from the previous one. Even at a little over 20 minutes there feels like we should have covered more ground getting to the core of the character.
It is really hard to explain overall, but there is still a lot to gain from a film such as this one. The struggles of a woman getting older, reflecting on life, are far too rarely seen in film, and this is an amazingly unique perspective to present.
As the Wave Broke is a well made short with a strong poetic sensibility. For some there may be a few frustrating elements to wade through, but as a whole it carries a powerful voice on what it means to struggle with trauma. While the exact roots are hinted at in different scenes, it is still a deeply cathartic piece, nonetheless.
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Cheers!
Daniel Hess
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