Ache is constructive. It is typically a ‘optimistic’ signal, and the way the physique tells you that one thing is mistaken; folks with congenital analgesia, who do not feel ache, die younger. When a bone is damaged, puncturing the flesh in a fracture, it have to be reset. It is a torturous, godawful ache, however that is the one method it’s going to heal, and therapeutic tends to be the aim. That is not possible when you may’t find and identify the supply of the ache, and that thriller is on the coronary heart of Satisfaction, a shocking new movie from filmmaker Alex Burunova that simply premiered on the 2025 South by Southwest Movie Competition.
Satisfaction is a seemingly easy story of two musicians — Lola (Emma Laird) and Philip (Fionn Whitehead) — who’ve remoted themselves on the attractive island of Antiparos to finish an album for Sony. It balances the current, during which the pair are seemingly at odds, and the previous, once they had been livelier and had a contented friendship. Many of the movie works as a puzzle field slow-burn, with us wanting to unravel the thriller of their current distress? Why do these two folks behave the way in which they do? What’s the supply of their ache?
An Emotional Threesome on an Remoted Idyllic Island
Satisfaction
4.5
/5
Set in opposition to the backdrop of the Greek isles, Satisfaction follows Lola as she seeks revenge on her associate, Philip. Their encounter with the enigmatic Elena challenges Lola with a brand new perspective, encouraging her to confront her underlying struggles.
- Launch Date
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March 7, 2025
- Ranking
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Not Rated
- Genres
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Drama
- Solid
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Emma Laird, Adwoa Aboah, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Fionn Whitehead
- Director
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Alex Burunova
- Writers
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Alex Burunova
- Producers
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Zar Amir Ebrahimi
- Emma Laird provides one of many yr’s greatest performances alongside a wonderful Fionn Whitehead and Zar Amir.
- ‘Satisfaction’ is technically good in its formal presentation and visually gorgeous.
- A slow-burn thriller reveals emotionally whopping concepts.
Satisfaction largely takes place on the Greek island of Antiparos within the Aegean Sea, an virtually legendary setting. At occasions, not less than in the way in which it is framed, it brings to thoughts the nice island setting of Godard’s Contempt, one other movie that deconstructs a broken relationship. Lola and Philip spend their days quietly avoiding one another, exchanging wordless glances, being recurring. They’ve a type of lifeless intercourse. He performs piano alone; she has misplaced her muse. She cries within the bathe. They exit to eat and he watches her smoke cigarettes.
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The emotional temperature of their relationship is completely complemented by the chilly structure of Philip’s household house on the island (manufacturing designer Olga Yurasoa deserves a lot of love for this movie). A modernist marvel harking back to Le Corbusier, Gropius, and Kahn however with none of the latter’s heat, the boxy home is a superb bodily extension of the connection between Lola and Philip. It lends itself to among the movie’s greatest visuals, from the monolith stairway in blue gentle to the emotionally indifferent infinity pool. It is all filmed with intoxicating stillness by Máté Herbai.
Exterior the home there may be Antiparos, and Lola and Philip’s ventures into city ultimately result in a sensual friendship between Lola and a fantastic, assured osteopath named Elena (performed by the nice Zar Amir, who appears like she merely is that this character). You realize what occurs when heat and chilly air meet, proper? The introduction of the nice and cozy Elena into the lives of the chilly couple creates precipitation of the dramatic variety, and varieties a captivating emotional threesome. Elena, this exterior factor, dredges up beforehand repressed feelings between Philip and Lola and brings them to the floor.
Observe Makes Good: The Technical Perfection of ‘Satisfaction’
Satisfaction is the type of movie {that a} evaluation can solely discuss round, not about. It is an enigmatic film that oscillates between previous and current till every story reaches a breaking level. The previous results in a painful occasion, and the current results in the opportunity of therapeutic. They’re superbly edited collectively by the great Nina Annan (Easy methods to Have Intercourse), working in tandem with a rating by Midori Hirano that rises to the event, reflecting each the musical brilliance of those characters and the author’s block Lola is experiencing. Past that, Javier Umpierrez supplies a novel sound design that’s emotionally intuitive, dropping the dialogue at essential moments to permit a type of sacred privateness between the characters, and a kind of participation by the viewers.
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Satisfaction is a virtually good movie, not simply artistically however technically. All the things is meticulously crafted, each determination having been rigorously thought out. That is as a result of the movie, greater than virtually another in latest reminiscence, is the product of prolonged, elaborate, and fastidious preparation. The script went by way of greater than 110 drafts over eight years, evolving alongside a stay theater workshop with Burunova and 4 units of actors. 5 years had been spent portray storyboards and keyframes. Emma Laird spent six months working with the director and taking piano classes. Laird and Whitehead lived collectively in an Airbnb to develop rapport; actors would often go to (in character) as “associates,” furthering the celebs’ understanding of their characters.
Certain, all of it sounds a tad over-the-top for an indie manufacturing, however it ends in a very lived-in, fleshed-out relationship between Laird and Whitehead’s characters. It is a supremely trustworthy movie, a visually orgasmic one, a contemporary masterpiece that appears like Antonioni by the use of Akerman. It additionally options probably the greatest performances of the yr thus far, with Emma Laird giving a irritating, complicated, and finally devastating voice to Lola, stopping her from changing into the manic pixie dream woman she very simply may’ve ended up as within the arms of a distinct actor.
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Suffice it to say, Satisfaction supplies some of the trustworthy and unflinching appears to be like at how trauma really occurs, and the way it’s really confronted. It is not a melodramatic movie, because it typically mirrors the chilly stasis of its principal couple, however it’s an emotionally devastating one. Satisfaction will break you, like its principal character is damaged, however in the long run, it’s going to present you tips on how to heal identical to she does. Satisfaction had its world premiere on the 2025 South by Southwest Movie Competition. It’s screening once more on March 11 and March 15. Discover extra info and showtimes right here.