Lovers

Running time: N/A

Lovers is the story of a young French woman, Jeanne, and her Yugoslavian lover, Dragan. Jeanne meets Dragan, a painter, who is living illegally in France and who doesn't speak French very well, but does know English. Language, however, is not their only problem. The immigration authorities want to deport Dragan. A love story meant for a lifetime is suddenly threatened to be cut short and requires desperate measures. Lovers puts human faces on a social problem and also shows the conflict between individuals who have their own personal issues as all lovers have. Elodie Bouchez (The Dreamlife of Angels) is particularly engaging as Jeanne in this debut film by director Jean-Marc Barr--known more for his acting in The Big Blue and Breaking the Waves. The Dogma Charter, created by Lars Von Trier, has been an inspirational source for new and challenging films over the last few years, giving European filmmakers an abundance of freedom in telling their stories. Digital filmmaking technologies have played a major role in the Dogma series, whose manifesto strictly requires the use of handheld cameras and natural light and sound, among other tenets. Lovers is one of the two most recent Dogma films and the first to be shot in France. It also marks the first in an English-language trilogy (the second being Too Much Flesh, also screening in this yearÍs Cinequest.) Reviewed by Ed Soohoo