AIFF 2016: Indignation

    Based on a novel by acclaimed writer Philip Roth and being the directing debut of screenwriter James Shamus, Indignation is the story of Marcus [Logan Lerman (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)] a Jewish student who leaves his home and goes to an Ohio College in 1951. 

    Trying to get away from the suppressing environment that his family and the Jewish community he was raised in have created, Marcus is an idealist who aims to discover himself at his first steps as an adult. The conservative college he has attended, though, does not allow him to be as free as we wants as he soon finds himself in a vicious circle of must's and dont's. What is considered a given by his college: being a flawless student, having a normal social life, acquiring a girlfriend, being part of a fraternity, having a constant social interaction with his classmates is too much for an eighteen-year-old boy who only desires to realise who he is and what he wants from his life and the world. 

    And even though he has to prove himself to his classmates and the Dean alike, we understand that Marcus is not a weird or antisocial person. He is just someone who has gotten out of a really conservative family that has not given him space to grow and has been thrown in a different, yet equally conservative melting pot of customs, religions and habits. But Marcus has his way of coping. He is a smart student who has studied great philosophers and is always ready to refute anyone who might accuse him of improper behaviour. Moreover, despite the difficulties raised, he even gets a girlfriend, Olivia [Sarah Gadon [Dracula Untold (2014), 11.22.63 (2016)], a beautiful yet rather troubled girl who introduces him to the sexual world in an impulsive sudden way just to prove that she is a free mind - and ends up shocking the innocent Jewish boy that Marcus is hiding inside.

    Indignation brought to mind great films such as Dead Poets' Society (1989) or The Emperor's Club (2002) - every generation must have such a movie, I guess- because it discusses ideas about life and death, about the choices that make us who we are, and about the way we see the world and the way the world sees us -or should see us- based on our beliefs. What has stayed with me after seeing this thought-provoking piece of cinema is the exceptional screenplay, with the jaw-dropping dialogues and amazing diction. Additionally, in my opinion, Indignation has one of the greatest scenes in cinema, a long conversation between Marcus and his Dean [Tracy Letts (August: Osage County)] which is an example when it comes to dialogue-writing and expression of ideas. It is a must-see, for sure. 

Indignation was shown on September 26th and 27th.

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