[yasr_overall_rating]
A cinematic trip with a lonesome artist. Based on the poems of Hungarian poet Beke Tamás Tarsoly.
“Perihelion” is a 20-minute film that is exactly the right length of time. Director József Gallai has created an eloquent love letter to lost love. The film’s central protagonist, the Poet, is trying to live everyday life without his loving wife, who has passed away. He never speaks but we hear his thoughts and they are based on the poems of Hungarian poet Beke Tamás Tarsoly. He talks about an undying love and that his life is empty since she has departed our world. He does everything the way he always has but since she is not in his life any more, every single thing feels redundant and unimportant.
A drive in his car, a walk in the woods, nothing he does makes him feel alive, like she did. And director József Gallai and cinematographer Gergö Elekes capture his pain and suffering to such a degree that you can feel his heartache and his solitariness and you just want to tell him that things will get better, hoping a positive attitude might help but the sad truth is, things won’t get better. When you’ve lost your one true love, no amount of consolation from anybody else is going to make you feel better. Not now, not tomorrow, not ever, only when you’re with each other again will everything be okay.
I give Mr. Gallai kudos for not killing off our central character. I know for some, the pain of being away from their soulmate would be unbearable and so many people would end their own lives just to make the pain abdicate but in terms of story-telling, it was refreshing that he didn’t take that course of action, instead, he continued to live each day, keeping her spirit alive daily, by remembering her and devoting himself to her, spiritually and mentally. Even when he pays a local call girl to come and sit with him, he hopes her companionship might help but all he does is stare out the window, thinking of her.
It’s very rare these days that a film can evoke so many emotions but thanks to skillful direction by József Gallai and some absolutely stunning cinematography by Gergö Elekes, accompanied by a distinct but unobtrusive musical score, also by Mr. Elekes, you have a movie that is at once, tragic and somber but at the same time, a testament to the human spirit, to the fact that even in our darkest hour, we are able to rise above the darkness in the hopes that a new day will bring with it, some welcome sunlight, even if it takes the rest of our lives. Very Highly Recommended.
You can watch the movie in its entirety below
