Based on Gurdial Singh's homonymous novel, “Crescent Night” is the third part in Gurvinder Singh's trilogy about patriarchal, hierarchic life in rural Punjab, after “Alms for the Blind Horse” and “The Fourth Direction”.
“Crescent Night” is screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam
After 15 years in prison, for committing a murder to avenge his father's humiliation over land disputes, Modan returns home, to find out everything has changed. His mother, who has been taken up in his brother's house in his absence, is rather disappointed there with her relationship with her son and his wife. Furthermore, the tension with his brothers is rather intense from the beginning, since they have started cooperating with a landowner who is now the “lord” of the area, although his tactics consist mostly from bribing and stealing. Modan is forced to move to his ancestral home with his mother, and soon even finds a wife, who is already, however, mother to an infant. Despite his efforts to live a calm life, the insults and the stealing continue, and Modan's suppressed anger piles up.
Gurvinder Singh directs a movie, which, unfortunately, has a significant narrative issue, since the way it progresses is quite confusing, with the flashbacks and the flash-forwards being placed in a way that makes it very difficult to understand when, or occasionally even what is happening. It seems that Singh considers that his audience already knows the book the movie is based on rather well, so he did not focus particularly on presenting a comprehensive story. Furthermore, some scenes, such as the one where his brothers accuse him for having a temper, are quite unconvincing, with the sentiment the director wanted to present becoming apparent just from the lines uttered, but not from the scene as a whole, whose conclusion ends up being totally unjustified.
This issue is rather significant, but, thankfully, all other aspects of the movie are top notch, starting with the overall atmosphere of tension that permeates the narrative, as Modan's anger and his effort to contain it are quite visible, as much as the fact that he will eventually fail. This aspect also benefits the most by Jatinder Mauhar's acting as Modan, who gives a rather convincing performance in his debut, particularly in the way he highlights the aforementioned psychological status. Satya Rai Nagpaul's cinematography also adds to the overall atmosphere, with him portraying the setting the characters inhabit as claustrophobic on a number of occasions, and particularly during the night scenes.
The comments regarding the relationship between the farmers and their land, the despicable ways of the landowners who try to steal it from the poor while bribing the authorities, and the ways pressure from all sides can lead to violence are all eloquently portrayed. The choice of not portraying the “villains” of the story almost at all, apart for two brief but key moments, also works well here, essentially intensifying the focus of the movie which is Modan and his friends and family.
“Crescent Night” is an interesting, artful movie, but the problems with the way the story unfolds essentially deem it a film only for those who know the source material well.
