Four years ago, a series came out that pointed directly and without exaggeration to the problems that young people can encounter on social networks. Thanks to #martyisdead, everyone had to think about how easy it is to get into children’s rooms. With his urgency, he impressed not only Czech, but also foreign audiences, and eventually won an international Emmy award.
Now its creators, led by director Pavel Soukup, are trying to achieve similar success. However, the audience already knows their tools and the desired wow effect does not happen that way. Despite this, the #annaimissing feature kept the best of #martyisdead. Breathtaking tension.
Its foundations are built already in the first seconds, when the film finds itself at the very end. Fifteen-year-old Anna appears for a few seconds, crying and with blood on her face. Will he survive? Will he die? The opening slot doesn’t say more. Only then will a carousel of cinematic events begin, eventually leading you back to where you started.
Watch the trailer for #annaimmissing.Video: Aerofilms
#Tension
During a morning drive, fifteen-year-old Nina accidentally finds a photo of a scantily clad young girl in her father’s cell phone. Considering the topic, it would probably be better to say #nudes. He doesn’t give it to her and starts to find out who it is. Later, they find out that the picture shows the famous influencer Anna, who unexpectedly disappeared from the online world a week ago and has not been heard from since. The search begins.
With every step Nina takes, with every new discovery she makes, the atmosphere in the film thickens and the tension rises. Every ten minutes it seems clear that someone else is behind the disappearance of a young girl than you thought, and you mentally apologize to the characters you just seconds ago condemned and sent to the burning hells.
Several times the film – and with it your thoughts – come to an apparent turning point, which is soon explained and the search for Anna can continue. For a moment you hold your breath, for a moment you roll your eyes, for a moment you shake your head at the thought that this would definitely not happen in the real world. But the film is moving forward, so there is no time to dwell on it for too long.
During the search for the young girl, however, there are other, more serious stories taking place in the background, which are supposed to warn against the pitfalls of the real world. The whole narrative is imbued with an appeal to rethink your habits on often toxic social networks and think about what you share and what the consequences might be. There are also sexual predators and the hunt for them or false accusations – all condensed into just an hour and a half.
Between the sometimes more, sometimes less unexpected twists, half-hidden calls for caution and, quite surprisingly for a Czech film, also really funny and artfully used jokes like “if you were to sit down today for spreading disinformation, half of the Czech Republic would be sitting down”, you will realize that the rules of this game are seen somewhere before. Whether four years ago in #martyisdead, or a year later in the documentary On the Network. And that’s when the tension drops.
It will happen to you at the latest when you realize that neither Hercule Poirot, nor Sherlock Holmes, nor even Major Plíšek are solving this case. No big revelation, pieced together from the small fragments that have been lying in front of us all along, will simply not happen. On the contrary, an almost literal deus ex machina has to come to explain what happened to Anna. And in this respect at least, #annaimmissing remains far behind its award-winning predecessor.
Photo: Aerofilms
Struggle with success
Comparisons with #martyisdead are generally harmful to Pavel Soukup’s new project. But it’s hard to defend against him. For example, thanks to it, you will realize that a far more functional format for dealing with the topic of cyberbullying and the world of social networks in general is an internet series. In short, the short, clearly defined parts are much more similar to videos in the online world and are thus easier to approach the game. And although #annaismissing has clearly divided points that could possibly be cut into smaller units, it doesn’t have the same effect.
Despite this, the film flows almost without problems, which is helped by the performances of the young actresses, who have so far gained little acting experience. Whether it is Viktoria Vítová, who presented herself in the difficult role of self-centered and internally unhappy Anna, or Alexandra Vostrejžova, who portrayed Nina. In some scenes, their performances noticeably surpass those of their older colleagues by a decade or two.
At the same time, one cannot avoid the impression that the creators of #annaimmissing are just repeating the proven recipes that they tried with Marty and which have since appeared countless times in foreign and Czech productions. Chat bubbles that replace dialogue, sexual predators and even dickpics have all been here before and no one will be surprised. (Yes, unfortunately, dickpics really don’t shock anyone these days.) And while #annaismissing uses these elements to purpose, it’s not enough. In short, we have to expect more from a team that can boast of international Emmys. It’s unfair, but it’s true.
Movie: #annaismissing (2023)
Screenplay: Lucie Kryzová
Music: Jindřich Kravařík
Starring: Alexandra Vostrejžová, Viktorie Vítová, Marek Němec, Barbora Bočková, Magdalena Čečo, Petra Bučková, Vlastina Svátková, Terezie Holá
2023-08-10 13:00:12
#Thriller #annaimmissing #suspenseful #moment #disappointment #List #Messages
