‘Slow’ (2023)
Director: Marija Kavtaradze
Cast: Greta Grineviciute, Kestutis Cicenas, Laima Akstinaite
Premiere: 1/19/24
Punctuation: * * *
In the opening scene of ‘Slow’, the female lead Eva kisses a young man. She asks him to tell her that he loves her several times. He looks at her, laughs, continues kissing her. She finally tells him, but he’s not very convinced. In the next scene, he meets Dovydas, who makes his living as a sign language interpreter. Eva takes dancing lessons from a group of deaf and mute students, and Dovydas is responsible for translating her words. They are getting closer. They like each other. He’s watching her, getting closer. He looks very cautious, perhaps too cautious. After 20 minutes of video, she admits that she is asexual. He never felt sexual desire towards anyone.
Eva would probably have less difficulty in saying she loved Dovydas if he wanted to. But it is not like that. They try to maintain a relationship with conflicts arising from the woman’s desire and lack of physical attraction. Romantic? The film explores more of this tradition. One of the virtues shown by the young Lithuanian director Marija Kavtaradze is patience: she builds this relationship little by little (“slowly”), the doubts of both are faced with a situation that is never balanced, but other balances can be found and achieved. . This is not easy, but it stems not only from Dovydas’s lack of desire, but also from Eva’s mode of existence, as revealed in the first sequence. A simple movie about a complex relationship.