the witnesses: a slice of life film

the witnesses

Andre Techine

In 110 minutes Andre Techine’s the witnesses creates a mosaic of adult men and women connected through their personal search for self realization, love and professional and financial furtherance.

It is a story so compelling that despite its slow evolution I felt as I watched this film that the actors, the characters they portrayed were not just indelibly imprinted into my psyche but that they were more than acquaintances.  They became my friends even though I knew none of them and never will.

It isn’t that any one line stuck in my mind, nor was it the cleverness of this simply plot of what happened when one of their own becomes sick and eventually dies.  It was the way they related to each other, the selection of images to convey the ordinary life of people who are actually very different from me in their life styles and yet……..I felt so connected to them.

The success of each of our life forces is revealed in the last section of this film as each one of the actors seems to pick up the pieces of their lives following the death of one of them and they go on to fulfill their personal missions at a higher a more focused and successful way.  Their goals seem so much simpler, so much more within their grasp once they set about to mend the wounds of loss.

When my sister died I wanted to hold onto that excruciating pain forever.  Now even that is gone but I am now more the person I had wanted to be than I had been while she lived.

It is a sad truth that death may actually bring rewards we never dreamed possible.

This film, witnesses, is so beautiful, captivating, engrossing and rewarding for the viewer who wants a slice of life film that doesn’t feel or sound contrived. 

I recommend the witnesses without reservations.

lindaZ

wbai women's collective

member:wfcc

2007 Strand Releasing

French: with subtitles