Movie Review: Take Me Somewhere Nice (2019)

Alma Matters

Movie: Take Me Somewhere Nice

Dir: Ena Sendijarević

Alma is a teenage girl from Netherlands who wants to meet up with her father who's currently in Bosnia. Take Me Somewhere Nice dwells on Alma's journey that quirkily manages her to gain lucid ideas about what she wants and what she craves for. Glossy and sultrily hued, the colour palette of the film doesn’t try to mellow the lurid shades—there’s no need to, as it doesn’t jut out or take away the attention of the viewers from the film in any manner. Even if it does, who cares, as long as there’s an eye candy of a film to stare at.

Image from screendaily.com

Ena Sendijarević's vibrant debut is a peep into feminine desires and passions and her confusion in understanding the male, who seems to be “doing things to impress other men in the society.” Soon after Alma reaches Bosnia, her cousin Emir, who’s supposed to be her caretaker as per her mother’s plans, fails to acknowledge her idea of seeing her father. The film meanders according to Alma's instincts—be it her act of taking a bus ride towards her father which she abandons half-way as she was puking all through the bus ride, or her act of making love with Emir's friend Denis, who’s a representative of the typical male-kind, the sort that’s wanting to use her as a passport to Netherlands. This is in fact another area that the film subtly touches upon, that is, the issue of migration-- the life of the people in Bosnia who wants to and wants-not-to leave their place.

Image from vaguevisages.com

The film’s ending impressed me and surprised me at the same time (about which I won’t be discussing here)—its an act involving the inversion of the male-female milieu, that cleverly pulls the curtain for the movie. I wonder what her next film would be, will it be answering some of the questions this movie raised or will it be throwing in more questions? Or will it be an extension of what Denis says at one point: “Why do you need men now, you freeze our sperm and use robots for muscle work. Before you know it, we are a dying breed.” We'll have to wait and see...👍

Image from vaguevisages.com

Where to watch?: The film is currently streaming on Mubi(India).

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