Debut feature writer-director Zain Duraie's SINK is a beautifully acted film about a perilously unboundaried relationship between a mother and her mentally ill son in contemporary, middle-class Jordan. They have such a close bond - regularly swimming together, partying together - that she is reluctant to acknowledge the severity of his withdrawal, depression and increasingly antisocial behaviour. Rather than confront him, or admit to its oddity, she joins him in it, in a very powerful central scene involving a chicken (not as absurd as it sounds written down). The final act of the film sees her finally snap out of this and call for the appropriate help but she acts almost shocked and in grief. There are so many layers behind the performance - does she feel guilt that she enabled his behaviour for so long? Sadness that she has lost the child that she feels closest to? Fear that she did, at some level, enjoy being part of his antics? The way the film is structured and played, we never truly know. The mother, Nadia, (Clara Khoury, also starring in THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB) is held at a distance from us, and in the end, that limited my true enjoyment of, and immersion within, the film.
SINK has a running time of 88 minutes. It played Toronto and will play the BFI London Film Festival, where it is contention for the Sutherland Trophy. All three screenings still have tickets available.
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