In a time when the media is content to peddle trite, comedic pap and audiences are satisfied with movies that offer little substance, Zaid Adham's film, "Minus 1", is a stark look at a seamy reality and awareness that not everyone survives. Teenage addiction, prostitution and domestic violence, and the hopelessness engendered by them, are complex themes to confront and difficult issues to film with any degree of believability.
In just over thirteen minutes, his film takes us into a young woman's tragic world from which there is, presumably, no way out and certainly no return. As voyeurs, we can be sympathetic with Adham's main character, because she is as real as her lack of options. Misfortunes are difficult to accept as being the result of choices made, and it is to Zaid's credit that he underscores when the main character projects responsibility for that misfortune to someone else. No one, save for the symbol of her childhood innocence, is there for her...even God is uncommunicative.
Zaid Adham seems to have a sense of the elements that constitute a misfortune or tragedy while possessing the ability to create a visual narrative out of them. "Minus 1" is a skillful example of his capabilities as a filmmaker and a solid indicator of the quality of future offerings.
In just over thirteen minutes, his film takes us into a young woman's tragic world from which there is, presumably, no way out and certainly no return. As voyeurs, we can be sympathetic with Adham's main character, because she is as real as her lack of options. Misfortunes are difficult to accept as being the result of choices made, and it is to Zaid's credit that he underscores when the main character projects responsibility for that misfortune to someone else. No one, save for the symbol of her childhood innocence, is there for her...even God is uncommunicative.
Zaid Adham seems to have a sense of the elements that constitute a misfortune or tragedy while possessing the ability to create a visual narrative out of them. "Minus 1" is a skillful example of his capabilities as a filmmaker and a solid indicator of the quality of future offerings.
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