Here in Asian Movie Pulse, we have been following Aneek Chaudhuri's career for quite some time, having already dealt with 7 of his movies since 2017. His works are unusual, frequently experimental in their approach but usually very interesting. Let us see how his latest effort fared.
“The Tale of a Santa and his Moth” review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative
The film begins with a black and white sequence, where a young woman, searching and discovering various random objects in the filled with leaves ground of the forest she is in. The movie soon changes setting completely, and we are introduced to ‘Pedro' a bisexual widower who is living a rather poor life in his cramped apartment, along with his daughter, who seems to be ailing from some condition, but also turns out to be the girl in the forest previously seen. The two barely have enough to live on, and Pedo also has to face the prejudice of the people who know his preferences, but still, when the girl asks to do something for Christmas, he tries his best to decorate the apartment, even dressing like a Santa himself. At the same time, though, when money are nowhere to be found he goes to the streets, still dressed as Santa…
The rest of the movie changes once more, becoming more experimental in style, mostly revolving around a decrepit building an old ma and a dog among others visit. All the while, the movie returns to the girl in the forest repeatedly, while intertitles in black and white, usually depicting words in French that signify the beginning of new chapters, also appear before each change of setting.
“The Tale of a Santa and his Moth” is a mixed bag, with parts that appear really good and others not so much. Regarding the second, the most problematic segment is the one in the house, as it presents a number of issues. Starting with the presentation of a homosexual man that is cliched on a number of levels, continuing with the lack of action, as a number of scenes just linger in the two protagonists essentially doing nothing, and concluding with the excessive use of violin-mostly music, the segment becomes quite difficult to watch after a point. The moment Pedro steps out of the apartment and the somewhat intriguing “twist”, and the father's effort to help his daughter in any way possible save this part somewhat, as is the case with the rather appealing set design, but definitely not to a point to justify its duration.
When the movie moves away from the apartment, towards the forest and the various urban settings, the power of Chaudhuri and Sreekanth Sivaswamy's camera finally becomes evident, in a series of vignettes that are rather appealing, also due to their radical differences, both in setting and overall presentation. Particularly the ones in the forest, where Usha Banerjee is quite convincing in conveying a sense of loss and pain in a fashion that can only be described as ritualistic.
The succession of the various segments also works well in that regard, also adding to the sense of disorientation that permeates the narrative, with Chaudhuri's editing being quite good in that regard, even if some disconnect with the apartment part does exist. The intertitles, however, do not make that much sense, and also appear somewhat pretentious in their “Frenchness”.
“The Tale of a Santa and his Moth” has its merits and the artistry and prowess of Chaudhuri becomes evident on a number of levels. However, the apartment segment, which is also the lengthiest in the movie, extending its duration to 83 minutes is quite problematic, dulling the impact of the rest of the movie. Essentially, it seems that the filmmaker was not sure which path to follow, of a family drama with LGBT elements or a more experimental one, thus coming up with a movie that would be better if it was two different ones instead of one.
