Nina has difficulties like most teenagers. The everyday carousel of her worries is disrupted by a banal operation with her father’s phone, where she finds a photo of half-naked influencer Anna. She became famous for her controversial content and is currently missing. Nina decides to track her down. The free continuation of the series #martyisdead again mixes a modern thriller with an educational line.
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#annaismissing has been showing in theaters since last Thursday. | Video: Aerofilms
Last time everything was created as one of the first live web series for the Mall.tv platform. And the pioneering project of the director Pavel Soukup became not only one of the most recognized Czech works of this type, but broke through in the world. As the first ever homegrown effort, #martyisdead won the prestigious Emmy Award. Although it is an international offshoot of the more famous “television Oscars”, intended mainly for American work, it was still a significant success.
The new film called #annaimmissing, which has been showing in theaters since last Thursday, shares many characteristics with its predecessor – both positive and negative.
Thirty-three-year-old Soukup once again proves his directorial flair, whether for capturing the world of youth or building tension. It is precisely in the genre moments that the film seems most confident. Unfortunately, it is not possible to write too much about them, because it is the detective dimension and the investigation of where Anna is and what exactly Nina’s father has done, that has many twists and turns. In fact, more than would be desirable.
However, just a classy opening shot of the film’s titular protagonist sitting with blood and a horrified look on her face is enough to make it clear that the director knows his craft. Many more similar atmospheric moments follow. But is that enough?
Screenwriter Lucie Kryzová, who replaced the previous pair of Marty authors Jaroslav T. Miška and Jan Stehlík, despite the format of a feature film, creates twists in the regular serial rhythm, which sometimes gets a little tiring when watching “in one go” towards the end. Mainly, there are already too many revelations and points. Which is annoying, especially when it doesn’t leave enough space for some secondary characters.
Alexandra Vostrejžová as Nina and Magdalena Čečo as Robin. | Photo: Richard Hodonický
Already #martyisdead tried to be educational, especially on the topic of cyberbullying and its consequences. But he balanced the educational dimension quite successfully with a thriller pace or a distinctive style.
This time, the creators continue in a similar vein, #annaimmissing is, by Czech standards, a fairly superb thriller for most of the footage, but, like many local audiovisual works aimed at young people, it sounds strangely conservative.
On the one hand, the authors have a feeling for capturing the common language of youth, some debuting actresses and actors give convincing performances – especially Alexandra Vostrejžová in the role of Nina. But at the same time, the series permeates the perspective of people who consider the Internet and its corners to be evil places. And a large part of the plot ultimately has to do with Nina’s father, with maintaining family peace and safety.
Nothing against traditional values, it’s just strange how often even the most successful homemade works aimed at young people have the need to constantly pull on a kind of emergency brake, maybe so that it doesn’t get too loose. Although Nina is an active protagonist, the most painful and emotionally compelling scenes belong to her parents.
The film deals with many topics – from infidelity to parent-child relationships to the pitfalls of social networks, which tempt people to short-cut, often toxic behavior. Behind the many false leads regarding Anna’s disappearance, in addition to satisfying detective stories, there is also a lesson that not everyone who looks like a predator at first glance is a monster. The film is convincing in these condemnations of the short-cut pigeonholing of people that today’s fast-paced times wish for.
But every good detective story needs either a great plot point, or it must be able to imaginatively break away from the classic genre barriers. And this is where Anna fails the most. Not all plot twists are unexpected. The finale leads to more of an embarrassed shrug.
#martyisdead was a pioneering project for young people as well as a solid thriller, although there were already imaginative and formally significant works such as Semestr series directed by Adam Sedlák. #annaimissing still performs above average in the ranking of the domestic film competition. But it relies on similar procedures as Marty, it is a little more bound by noble intentions, and although it can bring the world of teenagers closer in details, it is not as fresh as a whole.
When leaving the cinema, the prevailing feeling is that the director Pavel Soukup, who already showed his abilities in the field of thriller and horror in a short film Lesapan from 2015, would have deserved a slightly better script.
Film
#annamissing
Director: Pavel Soukup
Aerofilms, in cinemas from August 10.
2023-08-16 16:27:40
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