Brussels-based French-Estonian actor and filmmaker Manoël Dupont’s first feature, Before / After [+lee también:
entrevista: Manoël Dupont
ficha de la película], which has just world-premiered in Karlovy Vary’s Proxima Competition, tells a loose story of two men forming a bond as they travel to get hair transplants in Istanbul. Largely improvised, with actors and non-professionals playing versions of themselves, it is an interesting effort that ultimately does not manage to fully engage the viewer.

Jérémy (Jérémy Lamblot) and Baptiste (Baptiste Leclere) meet in a surprising way: as the former is hitchhiking on a turnaround, the latter picks him up. It turns out that the large, mellow Baptiste is homeless, living in his car, while the short, intense Jérémy has inherited the house of his recently departed father. He asks Baptiste if he wants to stay the night, and this introductory scene is rather odd. With no electricity in the place, Jérémy shows him around with an actual torch, lit in the house’s modern fireplace. The image is dark, reddish and shadowy, with DoP Thibaut Egler following them through the large building and often filming them through door frames or window panes. They quickly strike up an unusually candid conversation, when Jérémy asks Baptiste how he would describe him to a stranger. He points to the fact that both of them are balding, and the next thing we know, they are in Istanbul.

The day is overcast but very bright, following the nocturnal sequence, and starts off with a quarrel that already implies both protagonists’ characters: Jérémy is insecure and needy, whereas Baptiste is distant and quirky, and both are self-centred in different, very human ways. This creates small but insistently recurring bits of tension, like when they are in the hair clinic trying to decide which method to go for. On the other hand, there is a need for closeness and belonging, which turns into an intimate relationship. This is shown as quite shy and gentle, with little kisses and hugs, and we don’t detect much passion. But with the loose way that Dupont directs and Romain Waterlot edits, we are not sure if this is due to narrative ellipses or to the protagonists’ behaviour.

Egler’s cinematography and Theo Rota’s score follow this pattern. The camera is usually slightly off-centre and handheld, sometimes shakily following the character from a medium distance, while the synth-driven music oscillates between wistful, dark and sentimental, often in the same piece.

In the background, Turkish elections are taking place, and the pair attend an Erdogan rally. They meet a likeable Syrian man while drinking on the Bosphorus pier. In the clinic, the real doctors and nurses are amused by the duo’s questions. All of these segments have a strong documentary, natural feel, fitting well with the ever-shifting emotional tone.

Obviously, balding is a big identity and security issue for most men, and an apt metaphor for the theme of change and transformation. It is clear that Dupont is aiming for the unsaid and unarticulated, and the space between what we feel and how we feel about it, but the nature of the narrative proceedings leaves the viewer feeling stranded in this territory, rather than inviting them to freely explore it. Still, at the end, one clear emotion expressed by Jérémy manages to wrap the film on a heartfelt note.

Before / After is a production by Belgium’s Les Films de la Récré, in co-production with RTBF and Proximus. France’s Outplay Films handles the international rights.