UK Premiere

Official Selection Feature

Short Synopsis:

While they have been changing TV channels, making pickles or discussing politics, the parents of 12-year-old Rado have not seen their son grow up. Now they cannot understand why, after disappearing for two days, he isn't sorry for the nightmare he has caused them and why he was ready to run away from home with the first junkies he meets on the street..

Review:

This laid back comedy-drama is about the older generation’s struggle to understand and communicate with their children, told from the perspective of a Bulgarian family. Emil and his wife are stricken with worry when their son Rado goes missing. They file a missing person's report with the police, but when Emil returns home he is shocked to find Rado casually hanging out with punk girl Courtney.

Rado's mother is just glad to see him alive, but Emil is dumbfounded by his son’s selfish, irresponsible behaviour and pushes the boy for an explanation. Things get more complicated when Courtney's friend Tenx turns up for dinner and Emil finds himself emasculated and put-upon in his own home, confronted with Tenx's nihilistic attitude and anarchic political views as well as some worrying information about Rado's behaviour.

Shelter is an incredibly impressive debut from Dragomir Sholev, with superb visuals and fantastically fluid camera work. Most scenes are seemingly shot in one take, the tension builds slowly and dramatically, and there is an over-arching sense of foreboding with Emil eventually losing his cool with his unwanted house guests. An expertly crafted, understated and thoughtful piece about breakdown in communication and the growing gap between generations.   

Sami El-Hadi

Telephone Booking: call 0871 220 6000 and say "Operator' for a human being at the cinema.

Practical Information

Screenings at Apollo Cinema Piccadilly Circus
19 Lower Regent Street
SW1Y 4LR
London
www.appollocinemas.com

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