The Ceremony
Dir Jack King, 2024, United Kingdom, Languages: Kurdish /English / Romanian / Arabic with English subtitles, Black and white, 1hr 32min, BBFC15
Two migrant workers find themselves thrown together in a quest to bury a body in this hypnotic and visually stunning drama. The story begins with a stolen watch, a tragic death, and two migrant workers (played by Tudor Cucu-Dumitrescu and Erdal Yıldız) who make a fateful decision: to bury a young asylum-seeker (Mo’min Swaitat) in the hills. As they journey through the landscape with the man’s body, the pair are forced into a powerful reckoning—with grief, with each other, and with the land itself. Beautifully directed and performed and shot in stark black and white with a vivid sense of visual splendour, this humane and moving film packs quite the emotional punch. Thàinig an dithis luchd-obrach à dùthaich thall-thairis, gu chèile a’ tiodhlacadh corp, san dràma grèimeanta seo. Thòisich an sgeulachd seo le uaireadair a chaidh a ghoid, bàs cianail, agus dithis luchd-obrach (air an cluich le Tudor Cucu-Dumitrescu agus Erdal Yıldız) agus iad air cho-dhùnadh neach-siridh comraich òg (Mo’min Swaitat) a thiodhlacadh sna beanntan. Fhad ‘s a tha iad a’ gluasad tron dùthaich le corp an duine bochd, tha an dithis a’ fulang faireachaidhean cianail, eadar caoidh a’ bhàis, an tuigse a’ chèile agus a’ gabhail an eagail bhon talamh sa bheil iad a’ coiseachd. Tha an cleasachd agus stiùireadh sgileil, air a chlàradh an dubh san geal le bòidhchead seallaidhean tìr, gluaisidh seo ur faireachaidhean.
Winner of the Sean Connery Award for Feature Filmmaking Excellence at the 2024 Edinburgh International Film Festival
