CANNES 2021: La Civil
CANNES 2021Teodora Ana Mihai's feature La Civil is a tender but poignantly thunderous examination of grief and empowerment. While the story centres on the life and family of Arcelia Ramírez's Cielo as she propels herself into a world of suffering and vengeance after her teenage daughter disappears, Ana Mihai's film tells a story most will know: finding a voice and finding courage in a world in that craves silence and torment.
La Civil works two-fold. It begins in a manner somewhat conventional, unfolding itself in narrative beats with deep emotional value before it changes. It reshapes to be quite contrary to the slow and internalised arcs seen countless times before and evolves into a film of radical external intent. Gone for the most part are internal intimacy; replaced is a thirst for venom, to retort and for answers. Granted, these decisions might stifle those who long for the more slow and methodical of this type of drama, but Teodora Ana Mihai injects the likes of spite and poison into this story – an implication that benefits the characters and narrative by it being more organic and, therefore, human.
This more human and character-driven reflection is undeniably helped out and brought forward thematically in the central performance of Arcelia Ramírez. Mother of the kidnapped girl, as grief and the social torment on the situation increase so does the humanities evolution of Ramírez's performance. Like her character, this is a consistently zig-zagging performance with emotional fallout due to the expressive narrative at the film's heart. Ramírez does a fantastic job of showcasing such a harrowing demonstrative decorum. It galvanises her drive but equally stands out when Ramírez's Cielo seemingly oversteps the mark. These are moments that understand the context of such a character decision but reinforce such to showcase the terror and trauma enforced upon victims alike.
Equally as effective in bringing forward thematic energy and mood is the handheld, documentarian filmmaking aesthetic from cinematographer Marius Panduru and editor Alain Dessauvage. Together, they consistently craft a fly-on-the-wall approach that levels quite a few moral questions to the audience, sometimes in Cleo's shoes, or a reflection upon their own moral compass and morality in getting to the bottom of this despair.
In the same breath, this is not a film in which it gives the victim carte-blanche to rock the world once moreover as retaliation. Teodora Ana Mihai's feature is far more layered and involved in looking at what causes and effects such a tragedy would befall on those willing to go to the end of the earth for the truth, conclusion or just simply understanding of the why and how. Granted, it wants to emulate Denis Villeneuve's Sicario in momentary sequences – not so in the flash artistic fashion but an honest degree to show restless law and order. Arguably furthering the fight fire with fire ideology that burns but that Arcelia Ramírez's Cielo or others like her find themselves, the good or bad is unnervingly blurred.
La Civil is a fantastic, emotionally brooding piece of drama. It questions both sides with ranging answers that never quite feel definitive; such an element only ever reinforces the thematic feeling of what going through such a time in one life could even remotely feel like, and even when the feature wants to, for just a split second before its closing, dabble in the possible existential and mystical moments of wants conscience or questioning of reality, it still succeeds in providing a profound look at empowerment and the trials and tribulations of grief.
