Levers

In the Red River Valley, crowds have gathered for the unveiling of a sculpture, unaware that a similar shroud of complete darkness will soon settle over their own lives. When the sun returns after a global day of darkness, members of the community, including the mysterious sculptor and a dedicated civil servant, must grapple with a shaken sense of stability and a renewed understanding of their own mortality. Levers — the sophomore feature by Manitoban filmmaker and artist Rhayne Vermette (Ste. Anne, TIFF ’21’s winner of the Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Film) — reveals itself through tactile fragments and indelible images as a sensuous small-town surrealism is roused from the unsettling unnatural occurrence.

Though it‘s separated into chapters, with each introduced by cryptic, tarot-like titles and illustrations (including The Rock, The Sculptor, Judgment, The Bang, The Province), Levers is less episodic than oneiric. Characters drift between scenes and locations in a haze, with the film’s ominous, dreamlike atmosphere heightened by the refined use of multiple exposures and other in-camera effects. The visual syncretism is echoed in the deployment of Indigenous cultural markers alongside Catholic and esoteric symbolism.

While connections might be drawn to the uncanny, out-of-time aesthetic used by fellow Manitoban auteurs, Vermette — also at the Festival as cinematographer on Dead Lover — has already established her own signature style, working with grainy 16mm, shot here, in the filmmaker’s words, “on some broken Bolex cameras.” Elemental and enigmatic, Levers is a singular work by one of Canada’s visionary talents.

ANDRÉA PICARD