Chad Shiira Friends by default, two a-holes, who just happen to be quadriplegic, hit the highway in "Aaltra", a road movie that subtly recalls David Lynch's "The Straight Story", since the journey is accomplished with a slow-moving vehicle, in which its occupants have opportune encounters with heretofore strangers. Neighbors at war before the accident, the neighbors bury the hatchet and join forces in a common cause; to sue the manufacturer of the agricultural tractor that left them in suspended animation from the waist down. For "Aaltra" to function as a comedy, the filmmaker needs to distance the audience from the pathetic condition of L'employe(Benoit Delepine) and L'ouvrier agricole(Gustave Kervern). The filmmaker has to erase the chair. Since both men lack any semblance of having scruples about other people's property and hospitality, this isn't hard. We soon forget about their inability to walk, as both men exhibit a negligence to be grateful for the kindness that strangers make the mistake of displaying towards these misanthropic "cripples"(crippled in the humanistic sense). L'employe and L'ouvrier are like that guy from "Murderball", whose friends testify to having the same type-A personality, before the accident that sentenced him to the chair. When L'employe and L'ouvrier were laid up in hospital beds, nobody came to visit them. As Paul the Beatle once sang, "the long you take is equal to the love you make."To further minimize our sympathies towards L'employe and L'ouvrier, the filmmaker employs formal elements to make their handicap more abstract. Chiaroscuro deemphasizes the immediacy of both men's conditions. The black and white photography blanches out the flesh tones from people, which makes the subject more like an inanimate object than a repository for memories and dreams. If blood is shed, the blood is black. Less visceral. Without realizing it, the viewer becomes more objective. In black and white, you look less human. Since "Aaltra" frees the viewer from the requisite compassion one contemplates towards people with disabilities, the film's success hinges on how, not if, these two disgruntled travelers avenge their gripe against the tractor company. It's not a tragi-comedy, it's a deadpan one. The manufacturer is Finnish-based. Filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki is from Finland.Fin.

Roger Burke Forget about Thelma and Louise (1991), The Sugarland Express (1974) and others: this is a road movie with a real difference – actually many differences.First, it's shot in beautiful, stark black-and-white, always the best, in my opinion, for watching faces – the shadows bringing out the grimaces, smiles, sadness, despair etc, in a way that colour misses. Second, most of the players in this story are nameless. Third, there is virtually no musical sound track; but there is a hilarious scene at a biker gathering when le chanteur finlandais (Bouli Lanners) sings – in English – the well know blues song, 'Sonny'. And, finally, the story is told more or less visually, as good cinema should; while the sparse dialog fills in the narrative 'gaps' for the viewer.It doesn't start as a road movie at all: two locals in a provincial town have an argument that results in both of them rendered paralyzed from the waist down. After a period of hospitalization, they both return to their homes in wheelchairs, realizing that their lives are ruined unless they try to get compensation from the company that produced the faulty equipment that caused their injuries. So, they decide to go to Finland together, to the headquarters of the company – Aaltra – and demand compensation. And so, they begin their journey…in wheelchairs! The rest of the story isn't really about Aaltra, at all. Instead, the directors – who also play the two paralyzed protagonists – use that scenario to explore and satirize how ordinary people treat the wheelchair bound and vice-versa, setting up some moments of side-splitting humour and irony as the two travel 3000 km to finally reach their objective. And, what an objective it is...which I'll leave you to discover.For me, this movie is a treat, a feast about why people go out of their way to be helpful, kind, difficult, unpleasant, devious, obnoxious etc – and what can happen when they lose the capacity for trying to understand another's point of view. It's an object lesson for all, and a very funny one to boot.Highly recommended for all lovers of good cinema and clever comedy.

stensson Belgian film is having a great period and Aaltra is another proof of that. It's rather back to the basics. It's so basic that the actors for long periods don't speak. They even don't have any mimic during these periods. Still much is said all the time.This is about the neighbors hating each other. Hate gets them into an accident and they both end up in wheel chairs. They begin to need each other and the silent and in many ways literally unmoving friendship starts.This is a black comedy where you after a while start to laugh, not at the two friends but at the circumstances around them. That's probably also the message.

sarbryt To me this film epitomises the surreal underbelly of everyday life. I don't think it constitutes a "spoiler" to say that the film portrays in a strangely endearing way the boyish pigheadedness of grown men and the strength this and their devotion to their obsessions can give them. It also portrays the bleak loneliness of the island each man can become if he's not very lucky and the unlikely ways in which this loneliness can be alleviated.Visually, I enjoyed the painterly quality of the over lighting of many scenes, which allows moments of reflection and, in the tradition of true art, encourages the viewer to see everyday objects or scenes in a new light. Again, I don't think it spoils anything as it's merely a brief passing scene, to suggest you look out for example for the tall thin man in the wheelchair at the railway station, disappearing into the light after passing one of the main protagonists in a doorway - it reminded me of the paintings of Francis Bacon among others. Even grim events can have a visual beauty, or at the least an arresting quality about them, and this is a film that has the courage to flaunt the fact and doesn't shy away from what is at first sight mundane or ugly. And as it highlights the hidden beauty of many ugly things so it also highlights the humour that can accompany the most unfortunate events. Even dreadful people have stories worth telling. As regards the humour, it is indeed black and cynical but at the same time, and as is reinforced by the ending, it actually leaves the viewer (or this one at any rate) with a warm feeling and a sense almost of admiration for the sheer dogged tenacity and survival instinct of the two main protagonists. Moreover, the humour marinated in my mind so that next day, when trying to recount some of the scenes to friends, I found myself crying with laughter so that I was barely coherent, and seeing even more humour than I had noticed at the time.This is not an unpolished piece of work; it is in fact skillful and deceptively subtle. A more obviously polished style would have sat uncomfortably with the spirit of the piece. It works on more than one level, rewarding anyone who can view it completely clear of any assumptions, prejudices or unnecessarily prudish criteria. It doesn't waste time being polite, it just tells it like it is. Remember you're just watching it. It's only fiction and art and you don't need to approve or disapprove. Just experience and hopefully enjoy. I can't wait for it to be available on DVD so I can share it with my friends.