I saw this film at the Rotterdam film festival 2014 (IFFR). It is divided in two very distinct parts. The first half shows a reunion party where school mates meet again after 20 years. Our main character, though not invited, holds a strong speech about bullying and shunning, and how it haunted her for the past 20 years. It is not clear upfront that the reunion party, with all ugly details touched upon during our main character's speech, is an art project with a specific purpose leading to the second half of this film. The latter fact is revealed later on, also letting us know that all party-goers (except herself) were actors. For a long time you think it is all for real, and you feel very uneasy when watching it. Her initial speech is only the beginning, yet the least problematic in comparison. It gets much worse when others at the party react on her speech, and she forcefully rebuts all remarks. Eventually, she is thrown out. We can only assume that the happy atmosphere was destroyed for good after she was gone. Alas, it solves nothing, and if this was all that this movie had to offer, we would be inclined to ask our money back.
Luckily, the ultimate purpose of the staged reunion party becomes clear in the second half. It makes this film really interesting, setting it apart from many other movies about the same topic. She approaches several of her real (not the actors) former class mates, to show them the film that recorded the fictitious reunion party, and to talk about it individually within the confines of her home. Many class mates invent all sorts of excuses and don't show up, while some of them do appear and are surprised to see her view on what happened 20 years ago. She even made a visual diagram of a "class hierarchy", showing herself at the lowest level, as a means to illustrate her evaluation of the situation back then. She also went at considerable length to contact some of the unwilling non-responders, even to approach them on their workplace or at their front door, in order to confront them with their common past. It leads to interesting discussions, all of those proving her point that each of them experienced said past very differently.
All in all, my strong feelings of "I'd rather not be here" embarrassment was comparable with seeing Seidl's Hundstage or the more recent "Paradise" trilogy. That applies to the first half (the staged party) as well as the second half (confronting her former class mates). Yet I think that the second half might have achieved a more balanced effect when she had succeeded in getting to appear some of the more accomplished types (in the eyes of their peers), in other words those deemed at the top of the class hierarchy and successful in today's life too. In the first half we saw several who we can assume in that category. When thinking along that line, I got stuck with a feeling of some missed chances for a better end result. Still, a wonderful film with an original twist on the subject. It ranked 32th (out of 200) for the audience award with average score 4.238 (out of 5).
Luckily, the ultimate purpose of the staged reunion party becomes clear in the second half. It makes this film really interesting, setting it apart from many other movies about the same topic. She approaches several of her real (not the actors) former class mates, to show them the film that recorded the fictitious reunion party, and to talk about it individually within the confines of her home. Many class mates invent all sorts of excuses and don't show up, while some of them do appear and are surprised to see her view on what happened 20 years ago. She even made a visual diagram of a "class hierarchy", showing herself at the lowest level, as a means to illustrate her evaluation of the situation back then. She also went at considerable length to contact some of the unwilling non-responders, even to approach them on their workplace or at their front door, in order to confront them with their common past. It leads to interesting discussions, all of those proving her point that each of them experienced said past very differently.
All in all, my strong feelings of "I'd rather not be here" embarrassment was comparable with seeing Seidl's Hundstage or the more recent "Paradise" trilogy. That applies to the first half (the staged party) as well as the second half (confronting her former class mates). Yet I think that the second half might have achieved a more balanced effect when she had succeeded in getting to appear some of the more accomplished types (in the eyes of their peers), in other words those deemed at the top of the class hierarchy and successful in today's life too. In the first half we saw several who we can assume in that category. When thinking along that line, I got stuck with a feeling of some missed chances for a better end result. Still, a wonderful film with an original twist on the subject. It ranked 32th (out of 200) for the audience award with average score 4.238 (out of 5).