Nude Area (2014) - Urszula Antoniak

A bold and brave vision, Urszula Antoniak's Nude Area is an immersive descent into the sensual and seductive relationship which unfolds between two female teenagers over an idyllic summer in Amsterdam.  A silent film in which zero dialogue is uttered throughout its 80 minute running time, Antoniak's Nude Area is a film reliant on visual aesthetic and non-dialogue driven performance, deconstructing budding young love in a way that is reflective and honest about the emotional turbulence and internal psychology which takes place in any relationship that is stuck somewhere between elements attributed to love and lust.  Nude Area asserts and embraces the ideal that love is not a discernible or definable in logical terms, it's fueled by the messy nature of emotion, examining this young romance through a lens that reveals loneliness, lust, fragility, and seduction - a relationship that feels dangerous due to its unknown nature, yet sensual and sexual due to the this unquenchable, mutual attraction.  Objective reality is blurred throughout Nude Area's impressionistic odyssey, as the viewer becomes unsure of what is subjective vs. objective, as the relationship itself becomes defined by the internal emotions and psyches of its main characters, one in which the viewer is simply an outsider, at the whims of what is granted to us by these two leads.  Unwilling to unfold in conventional terms, Nude Area rejects narrative storytelling for an impressionistic/atmospheric lens, a film that gracefully and profoundly examines attraction and desire through the head space of two young woman, doing so with honesty as it juxtaposes the more dangerous aspects related to unbridled carnal desire with potential goal of finding something more, something geniune and selfless in love & companionship.