TIFF 2020: Akilla's Escape
tiff 2020The circular path of violence is not anything new to cinema but, continually, filmmakers find unique takes and voices to explore this topic. Charles Officer's Akilla’s Escape is one of these unique perspectives that, despite exploring familiar themes, stands out with its own unique identity. The story follows a man named Akilla Brown (Saul Williams) who, due to an unfortunate sequence of events, gets dragged back into the drug trade but hopes to make things right. The film might be aggressive at times, but it is also remarkably quiet and thoughtful. Where this effort is commendable and easily the best part of the film, there is a clear lack of urgency and focus to fully hit the ball out of the park.
As a directorial effort, Akilla’s Escape is a rather strong outing for Charles Officer. When trying to show aggression and stress, the natural path most take is loud and chaotic. It takes a truly inspired effort by the director to take a different path which is exactly what Officer does. Playing into Akilla's role as an outside force, the tone that Akilla’s Escape embraces is often thoughtful and meditative. In this quietness, core aggression and a sense of danger is never lost, which is a testament to the craft that Officer put into the film. This tone is undeniably helped by the cinematography coming from Maya Bankovic embracing a highly stylized neon look that helps create an edge to the world the characters explore which is an extremely natural way to inject those emotions into the film.
The other major highlight of the film is the performances within it. Similar to the directing, these actors are given a conflicting assignment. They have to sell outwardly expressive emotions through subtle mannerisms and lines of dialogue without being so over the top that they feel out of place. Saul Williams and Thamela Mpumlwana are both stunning within the film with the latter being particularly impressive as a youth performance. As with the directing, for this film to truly work with its unique style, it needed to have a strong triangle of fundamental filmmaking elements. Both the directing and acting needed to hold their own. Sadly, the third corner, which is the screenplay, is where the film starts to struggle.
Although not a disaster, the screenplay is undeniably the weakest part of the film. Because the movie wants to take on a slower style, the screenplay is needed to then have a sense of urgency in its thematic exploration and world building to keep the film captivating and engaging for audiences. It feels lost, however, for plenty of the runtime, treading water as it waits for various reveals and plot points to truly get going. By the time the audience reaches these points, the engaging world and characters have already lost their interest, leaving the film to feel hollow and boring for the majority of its runtime. The directing and acting might be technically great, but without legitimate depth for the vast majority of the runtime, they quickly lose steam.
Akilla’s Escape might not fully work, but it is an undeniably respectable effort. The film pushes past the standards of what has come before it and tries to be something truly special and nearly reaches its potential, only for the screenplay to get in the way of that realisation. It is a film that has mastered its style but needs more work on its substance to truly come together.
