Moon, 66 Questions

An emo­tion­al­ly estranged rela­tion­ship between a young woman and her father makes for a fair­ly sim­ple premise, yet one that assumes a dis­tinc­tive and heart­felt ten­der­ness when fil­tered through the lens of film­mak­er Jacque­line Lent­zou. Hers is a cin­e­mat­ic lan­guage of del­i­cate min­i­mal­ism, of find­ing poet­ry with­in pock­ets of the mun­dane, and the beau­ty of her debut fea­ture is sus­tained in the details of its stun­ning 35mm visuals.

Sofia Kokkali gives a phe­nom­e­nal per­for­mance as Artemis, a young woman who ten­ta­tive­ly returns to her child­hood home as she finds out that her father Paris (Lazaros Geor­gakopou­los) has been diag­nosed with MS after suf­fer­ing a severe stroke. Through the act of care­giv­ing, the intri­cate Gor­dian knot that man­i­fest­ed in Artemis’ child­hood begins to unrav­el, kick­start­ing a sub­tle process of rec­on­cil­i­a­tion between par­ent and child.

The tit­u­lar moon makes mul­ti­ple appear­ances with­in the cor­rod­ed VHS footage that punc­tu­ates the nar­ra­tive, guid­ed by the reflec­tive tone of Artemis’ jour­nal entries. Paired with art­ful shots of Tarot cards that cut through the film, these astro­log­i­cal fram­ing devices lend the film an ornate, scrap­book-like structure. 

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, this is a path that neuters the pay­off and com­pro­mis­es some emo­tion­al impact. Lent­zou is cer­tain­ly onto a win­ning for­mu­la, but it’s Kokkali and Geor­gakopou­los’ superb per­for­mances that ulti­mate­ly make up for Moon’s shortcomings.

Lit­tle White Lies is com­mit­ted to cham­pi­oning great movies and the tal­ent­ed peo­ple who make them.

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