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| DUST |
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2001
UK/Germany/Italy/Macedonia
BSkyB (UK), British Screen Productions (UK), Fandango (I), Film Consortium (UK), Film Council (UK), History Dreams (UK), National Lottery (UK), Shadow Films (Ma), The Paranoid Celluloid Co. Ltd. (UK), ena Film GmbH (WG)
Director: Milcho Manchevski
Story & screenplay: Milcho Manchevski
Music: Kiril Dzajkovski
Cinematography: Barry Ackroyd
Editor: Nicolas Gaster
Art director:
Ivo Husnjak, Nenad Pecur
Cast : Joseph Fiennes (Elijah), David Wenham (Luke), Adrian Lester (Edge), Anne Brochet (Lilith), Nikolina Kujaca (Neda), Rosemary Murphy (Angela), Vlado Jovanovski (the teacher), Salaetin Bilal (the Major), Vera Farmiga (Amy), Matt Ross (Stitch), Meg Gibson (Bone), Tamer Ibrahim (Kemal), Vladimir Jacev (Spase), Vladimir Gjorgjijoski (Enver), Zora Georgieva (Maslina), Jordan Simonov (Iorgo), Josif Josifovski (the priest), Joe Mosso ('church bell'), Saundra McClain (a nurse), Nick Sandow (white trash)
Here’s an ambitious, if flawed, film that should be congratulated for at least trying something a little bit different. If it doesn’t ultimately work it can be put down to aiming too high: simplicity of narrative is often a sign of mature – rather than simplistic – writing. Writer / Director Milcho Manchevski had previously made the acclaimed Before the Rain (Pred dozhdot, 94), and this further marks him out as a considerable talent to watch.
Petty crook Edge (Adrian Lester) breaks into a supposedly empty New York apartment in search of some easy cash, but is horrified to find it occupied by a feisty old lady, Angela. She promptly breaks his nose, holds him at gunpoint and starts telling him a story. From this point, the plot breaks into two strands: that of the unlikely friendship that emerges between Edge and Angela and that of the tale she recounts to him.
This involves two cowboy brothers, Luke (David Wenham) and Elijah (Joseph Fiennes), who fall out over the inevitable woman. Luke, a selfish sod who cares little for anybody except himself, ups sticks and heads for Europe in search of adventure. After watching a newsreel about the Turkish war, he becomes a bounty hunter in Macedonia , where the prize scalp is that of a rebel leader known as ‘The Teacher’, who has a substantial following amongst the local population.
The major flaw with Dust is the dual narrative, which means that neither strand is developed to a satisfactory level. This could easily have been inspired by Titanic, and it didn’t work that well there (it’s just that the rest of the film was so awful it didn’t matter so much). The historical tale is far more compulsive, and the constant interruptions so that the contemporary strand can be developed feel more intrusive than complementary. At the same time, the characters of Luke and Elijah feel undercooked; the latter, particularly, hardly features after the first half-hour.
That given, there’s a lot to like. Visually arresting, the cinematography is impressive and maximum use is made of the desolate locations. There’s an obvious spaghetti western influence - with Turks standing in for Mexicans - at play, but another film that springs to mind is John Huston’s excellent and underrated The Man Who Would Be King, a similar Boys Own adventure set in the East and told via flashback. Wenham (Faramir in the Lord of the Rings films) and Fiennes – whose impassioned zealot role echoes that of his part in Enemy at the Gates – both come across far better than expected, especially as neither of their characters is particularly sympathetic.
The story / storyteller narrative breakdown also gives rise to some effective – and some less than effective – moments of magical realism. Sometimes this can verge on the comical, as when a number of soldiers involved in a face-off with Luke simply disappear as Angela and Edge bicker about the particulars of the scene. More memorable is the sudden appearance of a modern plane flying over Elijah as he stands on a rocky precipice.
Finally, it must be mentioned that this is not a film where people die easy. A single shot is never enough, and even three or four may not be enough to kill them properly. The climactic tableaux of the Macedonian story, with bodies littering a rocky outpost after a huge gunfight, is all the more arresting for the fact that many of the people are writhing about in agony and still – just – alive.
