VENICE 2020: Honey Cigar
VENICE 2020Kamir Aïnouz' Honey Cigar is a captivating and eye-opening tale of a crisis of teenage confidence and exploration of identity in a multifaceted and dynamic telling of empowerment.
Kamir Aïnouz' feature is filled to the brim with provocative and captivating material. On the one hand, this a tremendous study into the life of a young woman finding her sexuality, confidence and voice. A sturdy, complex and invigorating journey to watch the character of Selma develop. Even if the journey is often harrowing, it makes it all the more uplifting and poignant to see a character defy such gender roles and social deliverance in their respective sanctions and traps to feel truth and understand/comprehend her livelihood.
It could be said that this is even surface-level material from writer-director Aïnouz, of whom with a delightful and emotionally impeding underbelly further explores a household broken to regime both politically and fundamentally through misogyny and fear. It is undeniably the heart of Aïnouz' feature, and one that emotionally deafens with its conviction and intent. Further showcasing the trapped and isolated household that Selma lives in for starters, while also looking at the pressures and questions of morality that will in time face her.
The central performance from Zoé Adjani as Selma is astoundingly good, astonishing in fact in how it balances everything Aïnouz wants to cover. Adjani showcases a tremendous and far-reaching talent to provoke an incredible amount of nuance and depth. It is a character that is poked, prodded and pushed by all that surrounds her about what she ultimately perceives as definitions. How Aïnouz conveys such a crisis of confidence and understanding of her own path is nothing short of spellbinding.
It is a remarkably bright and emotionally brutal theme of what Aïnouz is trying to illicit with Honey Cigar. Not only are these themes quintessential within the genre and are not unlike those in contemporary coming of age dramas. These are amplified to those of a refugee family, and a family broken between the path of the future but also lineage that sways them into a claustrophobic and often daunting predicament. These are not themes or arcs that are left half-baked either. They are integral hard-hitting emotions that conquer the image on multiple occasion with an inescapable eye from cinematographer Jeanne Lapoirie.
Kamir Aïnouz' Honey Cigar is a multifaceted brooding pot of emotional conviction and allure. A spellbinding performance from Zoé Adjani, and a fascinating plot with multiple layers touching on social and political fabrics only adds to the overall fascinating and tremendous feature. A feature that undeniably needs to be seen and found if able to do so.
