Part of the Narrative Spotlight section at this year’s South By Southwest Film & TV Festival — though this could also be an extension of the Global section — is the UK import SURVIVING EARTH.
About: Based on a true story, SURVIVING EARTH follows Vlad, a talented harmonica player who arrived in the UK after fleeing the conflict in Yugoslavia. Now a counsellor living in Bristol, Vlad has brought his love for Balkan music to the city with a band formed with his friends from work. As the band strives for success, Vlad is revisited by the traumas of his past and his carefully rebuilt world starts to fracture, jeopardizing the relationships with those closest to him and particularly with his daughter, Maria.
Reaction: Vlad (Slavko Sobin) has a pretty complex life, and is also out of money. All the time. He’s also pretty rude and angry to a lot of people around him. An early scene in the movie has him snapping at store employees about using self-checkout scanners, and it’s an early sign that he’s not the nicest person in the world. That said, Vlad does have an interesting personality as well, and SURVIVNG EARTH is about a man trying to get everything right with his daughter, the people around him and trying to create music when the world is against him. It lightly touches on the immigrant situation in England and shows the struggle. I just wish Vlad could be a BIT more of a likeable character in somewhat of a downer story, but then I also feel these little stories are happening everywhere, all the time, and I always wish people to do better.
This is one of the many movies playing in this year’s South By Southwest Film & TV Festival. For more information on the festival, point your browser to www.sxsw.com!