Tuvalu - A Film by Veit Helmer

A Surreal Dialogue-Free Multicultural Movie Starring Denis Lavant

Apr 24, 2009

An unusual foreign film, shot in black and white but colour tinted and near-silent, Tuvalu has already earned cult status and been compared to Eraserhead and Delicatessen

Tuvalu is an odd little film which, like Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Delicatessen, appears to be set in a dilapidated future dystopia. It also, like Delicatessen stars an unusual looking leading man. Denis Lavant (a memorable face from films such as Les amants du Pont-Neuf and A Very Long Engagement) shares more than just a country of origin (France) with Delicatessen's rubber-faced Dominic Pinon. Neither man is blessed with movie star good looks, but that has not stopped them from becoming proper movie stars. Talented and charismatic, Pinon and Lavant both excel as mimes and are able to convey a wealth of emotion through their facial expressions, which is particularly useful as Tuvalu is almost completely dialogue free.

What is the Film About? The Story of Tuvalu

The film is set in a decaying, family run public bath-house (it was actually filmed at the central baths in Sofia, Bulgaria). Anton (Denis Lavant) is a handyman and an idealistic day-dreamer. He tends to the constant problems thrown up by the old building, and keeps his blind father in the dark about their failing business by playing tapes of seaside revelers that disguise the fact the pool is nearly empty. Into this weird world, where customers pay with buttons, walk lovely Eva (played by Russian actress Chulpan Khamatova) and her father. Anton falls for Eva, and dreams of escaping with her to the island of Tuvalu, but the relationship stalls when his nefarious brother Gregor (Terrence Gillespie, with an Eraserhead haircut) also takes a shine to her. Gregor, hellbent on razing the bath-house to the ground and replacing it with condominiums, personifies the problems Anton has to overcome if he is to save the bath-house and his fledgling romance.

A Visual Feast with Dreamy Imagery Reminiscent of Jeunet and Caro

Tuvalu is predominantly a visual experience, which although shot in black and white, owes a great deal to the richly saturated colours of Jeunet and Caro's films. Fans of Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children will have much to enjoy. German director Veit Helmer's film is very stylised, but shot in a poetically beautiful manner. The cinematography (by Bulgarian Emil Hristow) is breathtaking, with the indoor shots all tinted with sepia, whilst outdoor shots are have a green tinge. Most enchanting of all is the blue, underwater footage of Eva swimming. These images, dream-like but intense, are simply stunning and fill the screen with graceful charm.

Visual Comedy in Silent Films

Tuvala is also very funny, in a slapstick kind of fashion. The humour is a throwback to the days of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, the silent clown heroes. Although dialogue is used, very sparingly, in Tuvalu most of the story is conveyed through facial expressions and gestures. The absence of dialogue helped the multi-lingual cast and crew to gel, and also gave the film widespread audience appeal As lead actress Chulpan Khamatova said, speaking at Berlinale:

““It makes absolutely no difference where you live - Russia, France, America - as long as you speak the same language, over and above words, which everybody understands.

Despite being made a decade ago in 1999, Tuvalu is still making waves internationally thanks to film festivals and art house screenings. It was one of the most talked about movies at the 2000 Berlinale festival, but it only got a limited release in the US and no release at all in the UK. The few Brits that have seen Tuvalu are passionate fans such as the director of the Glasgow Film Theatre, Jaki McDougall, who arranged a special one off screening of the film in April 2009. With international distribution so meagre, the chances of catching Tuvalu on the big screen are slim, but it is definitely worth looking out for on dvd.

The copyright of the article Tuvalu - A Film by Veit Helmer in European Films is owned by Michelle Strozykowski. Permission to republish Tuvalu - A Film by Veit Helmer in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.