0
0
The country is Lithuania. It’s not the pretty and cultural part of the country. It is the one that smells of industrial waste. Aptly titled Toxic in English (Akiplėša in Lithuanian), there is toxicity in the town’s air where 13-year-olds Marija and Kristina aimed for the runways and haute couture. In writer-director Saulė Bliuvaitė’s IFFI Golden Peacock-winning drama, the starry-eyed teens also deal with disability, desertion, deficiency, and the need to enter adulthood fast.
Going by age, it isn’t unusual for the girls to become friends. Soon you realize it is more of a workaround to toil together. It takes a rough beginning and a stolen pair of jeans to get the quiet Marija and street-smart Kristina to connect this way. They aren’t the nicest or the most inviting of girls. Along with a similar-looking bunch that must be the local equivalents of ‘Mean Girls’ who are more talk and less action, the duo sign up for a scammy modeling program. Toxic explores the arduous journey the girls go through to grab a contract in Japan or South Korea as promised. It does sound like a sweet deal but with Marija’s limp and Kristina’s oft-noted measurements, what are the odds of success?
Written by Bliuvaitė herself, the film evaluates possibly dangerous resources that might help the girls get a kickstart. At one point, we see Kristina – who constantly weighs her weight issues – read up about ‘tapeworms’ on Google. At another, we see the meeker of the two, Marija refusing to give a massage in exchange for money. “It’s just a massage,” Kristina tries to convince her but to luck. In another instance, the latter refuses intimacy with a man who seems to like her. Kristina spontaneously blurts out, “I can do it for money,” and regrets it in a second. The next image we see is that of the guy from the car window. Still sighing in disbelief, he lights a cigarette as Bliuvaitė keeps the camera focused on her lead girl.
Toxic also attempts to traverse the mindscape of the town’s young men. It nearly shocks us with the possibility of sexual exploitation whenever the guys – who are way older – interact with the girls. But Bliuvaitė knows when to pull the plug. Toxic isn’t “that” film. You know it all along. Additionally, it explores familial bonds in the background in a minimal yet sufficient manner to tell us why the girls’ reflexes are the way they are.
It is decidedly not filled with beautiful frames even as Toxic is a film about external beauty. Its prettiest shot is when one of the girls gets a photo shoot done. Vytautas Katkus lenses the town with an air of gloom that you root for the girls to land up in a better place. Composer Gediminas Jakubka, too, creates a soundscape that is tense and often eerie. Nobody should belong to this depressing town that does nothing to emancipate youngsters with big dreams and no resources.
Leads Vesta Matulytė and Ieva Rupeikaitė work wonderfully around their oppositely sketched parts. Still, Toxic is never a talky film. The girls know each other – as if on impulse. It is their chemistry that makes their (debut) acts come magically alive. The film also leaves a hint or two on the nature of their friendship and it is in these unexplained bits that Bliuvaitė emerges a winner.
When Toxic closes on a sober note, the screenplay highlights its intention to not knock your socks off in loud letters. Bliuvaitė has no sermon to serve here. If you may ask whether it is a gratifying end, I would say it isn’t. Also, would I have traded it for a more conclusive and dramatic finale? Not a chance.
Rating: ★★★★ 1/2
