Trans (2006)

Directed by: Teresa Villaverde | 126 minutes | drama | Actors: Ana Moreira, Victor Rakov, Robinson Stevenin, Iaia Forte, Andrei Chadov, Filippo Timi, Dinara Drukarova, Io Apolloni

The Portuguese film ‘Transe’ tells a story that is not even that special in Europe in 2006. A young Russian woman who has left home and hearth to earn money in the West is intercepted by traffickers. Displaced, without friends or family, young Sónia is at the mercy of men who treat her not as a person but as a commodity.

The more Sónia struggles, the harder the men hit her. This everyday story has resulted in an unusual film. To make Sónia’s displacement and disorientation palpable, the viewer is left to his own devices just as much as the Russian. We never know exactly where we are.

Locations are not indicated, so we look for points of recognition with the same searching eyes as Sónia. To make things even more confusing, actions are occasionally shown that lack any context, so that they are just as incomprehensible to us as they are to the poor Russian. Very little is spoken in the film, if only because Sónia does not speak the language of the countries in which she ends up. Still, the few words that are exchanged are clear enough. One of Sónia’s kidnappers, for example, claims that war between countries no longer exists and that there is now a war going on between people, with the weak losing out.

What such a war looks like in the most extreme case, we see in this film, in which the weaker becomes the victim of the atrocities of the stronger. Although these practices are not even very explicitly shown, the intense suggestiveness makes you quite nauseous.

The film also talks about the poetic that can be found in everything. In ‘Transe’ this is illustrated with images that are pleasantly poetic: a ship slowly passing by, walls of grain, a train in the night. These images are not only beautiful to look at but also generate the kind of alienation that fits perfectly with the subject. Slightly less successful are the many images of nature, the symbolism of which is clear (falling trees, drifting ice) but which ensure that this already extremely slow film becomes even slower. At the same time, these images bring some air into a sometimes too oppressive whole.

For example, ‘Transe’ is an art-house film that puts the visitor to the test. Little plot, ultra slow pace, horrific scenes, a standoffish main character and a somewhat vague ending. At the same time, ‘Transe’ tells a realistic story about displacement and humiliation, about people who have to fight for the most basic – water and clothes – and who have their name as their only property. The result is a depressing, shocking, pitch black, urgent, original, fascinating and confrontational film. So not to be missed.