The Loop

The Loop

****1/2

Reviewed by: Andrew Robertson

Energetic, capricious, compelling, The Loop is a strong piece, intriguing and surprising. Almost the whole piece is an address to camera, the few exceptions powerful. Written by Luc Rioche and AJ Rivers Nakasila, it's an insightful character study, a perambulatory soliloquy through a boarded-up estate, down abandoned streets and through some of London's leafier hidden spaces.

As Lox, AJ veers from nostalgia to rage, contemplative and earnest; talking about aspirations, dreams, memories; a half-Staff half-pit named Princess, "I loved that dog", and we believe him. Luca Cuiti's photography is good, strikingly so, but it's really well supported by mi-sound's sound work. Marco Iavarone and Nikos Nikolalaios have produced a naturalistic soundtrack, occasionally dominated by a sound that might be sobbing, whimpering, shivering - it comes and goes, and with it builds a mystery. As Lox travels we get an ever clearer picture of his world, and that sound becomes ever more ominous. The revelations, and it does not give too much away to say they are plural, are stunning.

That all involved are talented is great, but as the World Cup tells us the trick is to have them working together - The Loop feels, is, complete.

Reviewed on: 02 Jul 2010
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In a nightmarish world Lox has to decide whether to abandon hope or face his harsh surroundings. Can Lox temper his defiance and escape the loop?
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Director: Luc Rioche

Writer: Luc Rioche, AJ Rivers Nakasila

Starring: AJ Rivers Nakasila

Year: 2010

Runtime: 8 minutes

Country: UK

Festivals:

EIFF 2010

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