Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival Coverage
Zaman Dark review.
A long day three at the Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival wrapped up with the latest film from Christophe Karabache. A beautiful, haunting, confounding piece of art.
Festival movie coverage will not contain spoilers.
Zaman Dark
Directed by Christophe Karabache
Written by Christophe Karabache and May Kassem
Starring Nida Wakim, Raia Haidar, Omar Bakeer, Miran Malaeb, Ribal Merhi and Katy Younes
Zaman Dark Review
You’ll know just minutes into Zaman Dark if it’s something you’ll enjoy or not. A highly stylized movie with very little dialog and excellent sound design…the truth is that the movie shows you all its tricks straight away. If you find long takes where little happens mesmerizing…Zaman Dark will put you under its spell. If you prefer a straightforward narrative where things progress in logical ways at a strong pace…well…this is decidedly not that. For those that give it a chance, a visually arresting minimalist film that borders on experimental awaits them.
Lebanon on the verge of the abyss. Khattar and Anaïs, two laid-off chemists attempt a unique experiment: to survive by feeding on human flesh. One day, the woman disappears. The man is pulled into a trafficking scheme which entails exporting human meat, and in return, importing high-tech digital sniper weapons.
That last paragraph is the synopsis of Zaman Dark cut and pasted straight off its page on IMDB. That’s not usually how we handle it…but I assure you it was necessary here. After watching Zaman Dark I can confirm that everything mentioned does, in fact, happen in the movie. How much of it you’ll realize is happening in the moment, however, is a different story.
There is so little dialog in Zaman Dark that I am not sure the main characters names were mentioned more than once each. Khattar (Nida Wakim) and Anaïs (Raia Haidar) having been chemists is something that you may or may not pick up on. Seeing it written out after the fact was more of an “oh…ok” moment though. The eating human flesh part? That you’ll get. That basically comprises the entire first act of the film.
Now…I don’t want to get your hopes up that the first part of the story is a wild tale of two cannibals chomping their way through the Lebanese countryside. We’re talking about one swift kill to provide meat and juice for Khattar and Anaïs to sustain themselves for a long time. This is a realistic cannibal story…not a serial killer fantasy. It’s also kind of the point of Zaman Dark.
Instead of sensationalizing the act of murder and devouring human flesh…it tells a more clinical and realistic story. Scenes linger for so long that you sometimes wonder if the director is pranking the actors by not calling cut. Just to see how long they’ll keep doing little to nothing. This achieves the desired effect…you are trapped in these moments with the characters. You can’t turn away from the beauty of the horror or the drown out the award worthy sound design. It’s also the entirety of what you get.
When we talk about slow horror movies, we are usually discussing stories that don’t know how to pace themselves from one reveal to another. Zaman Dark is a different kind of slow. It’s not in a hurry to get to the next moment because there isn’t supposed to be a next moment. These characters exist in a world where nothing is preferable to anything. A collapsing society surrounds them. A world they no longer wish to be a part of.
As the synopsis tells us…things do happen in Zaman Dark. Anaïs will disappear at some point. Khattar will find himself in a human flesh/weapons trade. They’ll come across a band of misfits and find themselves drugged. These may sound like wild story threads…Zaman Dark sees them as obstacles getting in the way of the solitude the characters yearn for.
Forgive me for not diving deeper into the plot of Zaman Dark. It’s almost all laid out in the above synopsis. The movie isn’t very concerned with plot…or even moving forward at all. It’s a story about people. People who have removed themselves from a world full of plot…trying to survive without story. Literally feeding off the members of a crumbling society they seek to abandon. Forcing them to interact with it again is bad news. For everyone.
Zaman Dark is a truly original movie. It’s also a gorgeous one. The lead performances are constantly interesting. The sound design is among the best you’ll find all year. If that’s what you’re looking for…an experimental film with incredible production qualities…you are in for a real treat. If you need more meat on your bone (so to speak) you might want to dine elsewhere.
Scare Value
Zaman Dark is a movie that you’ll need to sit with for a while. Beautiful images will stick with you while you try to find its true purpose. Every moment lingers long enough to make you a part of it. As confident a production as you are likely to see. Truly, an experimental film at heart. Albeit one dressed up like it’s heading to the Oscars to take home the technical awards.
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