[All promotional stills in this post are from rigaiff.lv, used here on Fair Use basis.]
One film that made me realize how clueless and self absorbed I am this year had been Hatching, directed by Finnish director, screenwriter and actress Hanna Bergholm. The film had its premiere at Sundance festival back in January, after which IFC Films acquired the distribution rights. None of these facts were known to me before I went and watched the film at the cinema. But the real revelation came with certain scenes in it that showed somewhat familiar locations.
At the center of Hatching is Tinja (Siiri Solalinna) – a girl going through puberty. The 12 year old is a practitioner of gymnastics. Both writers, Ms. Bergholm and Ilja Rautsi have made the gloomy and macabre in Hatching quite plain; the title of the film has a lot to do with the onset of seditious teenage years, and there is mom (Sophia Heikkilä), a former figure skater, involved, who shapes the whole process.
Hatching is mostly a story about expectations and how those can’t be met by a child, and what the demanding approach by parent can lead to. This is all taking place in our era of online influencers: Tinja’s mother is a lifestyle blogger; consequently she uses the mobile phone’s camera a lot and everything in her life has to be top-notch. The film visually manages to live up to what the premise like that calls for: the props, the set designs, costumes, direction, cinematography and neat editing are altogether reflective of the idea. When the settings, people and circumstances change, everything still looks like part of the plan – I think successful work with the concept of contrast is one of Hanna Bergholm’s greatest strengths in this feature film debut, which is accompanied by indeed elaborate approach to everything that has to do with transformation, therefore I urge you, dear reader, not to be deceived by seemingly simple premise here.
Siiri Solalinna as Tinja in promotional still of Hatching movie.
The film manages to have and sustain an interesting angle, turning the screen for its viewer into a perspective of a young teenager; everything ends up being shown through the lens of Tinja without using the first person POV. Moreover, in a peculiar way this particular state of affairs allows for the film to display the conflicts between that what can be found in dark primal depths of human psyche and what the demands of a parent as well as those of the age of social media are. Not only there are clear signs of Tinja sabotaging herself on a subconscious level during exercises in gymnastics; the creature she’s hatched is, aesthetically speaking, an opposite of what one would see on her mom’s blog. There is a notable folk horror vibe to everything that has to do with the creature, starting from the egg found in a forest to how it’s being looked after by Tinja, to creature’s shape and behaviour. The most memorable moment in the film for me was one with Tinja’s tears that were absorbed by said egg; powerful allusion, in my opinion.
One other thing that is interesting to note regarding Hatching; despite its Finnish cast, director as well as producers from Silva Mysterium, the film had been filmed by Mistrus Media in Latvia, which is one of the countries not known for any real horror films. Certain filming locations are clearly distinguishable and hence provide the film with somewhat unique scenery, which you won’t see in any other film of the genre. It turns out even in Europe there are still places that can boost the visual experience with something a bit unusual.
Hatching is available on various online video on demand platforms, including Google Play Movies and Youtube movies.
Peer Ynt
Read my other reviews of movies distributed by IFC Films:
The Feast (2021)
Nitram (2021)
The Beta Test (2021)
Demonic (2021)
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