EIFF 2022: Three Times Nothing
Three homeless men win big on the lottery in this French comedy taking on the country's administration systems. The film's message gets lost, though, as the story descends into sentimentality
Lotteries, so we are told, have the power to change lives, and this couldn’t be more true than for Twiggy, Captain and Arrow, three homeless men on the streets of France. As this scrappy, mismatched crew attempt to cash a winning lottery ticket, director Nadège Loiseau offers farcical mockery of bureaucratic banks, real estate agencies and citizenship offices. However, comedy soon blends into tragedy as Twiggy’s attempts to improve his life are constantly rebuffed by these ridiculous administration systems.
Twiggy has been on the streets for seven years after separating from his wife, which caused his life to spiral disturbingly fast. He has not seen his kids since then. Here Loiseau follows up her first feature about unconventional motherhood – Bun in the Oven – with a tale of the struggles of fatherhood. Sincere and spirited performances from the three leads hold together the film’s themes of family and found family. At the same time, a brass band soundtrack that balances hopefulness and melancholy draws us into their quiet moments of shelter as much as their nonsensical bickering and laughter.
Loiseau begins to question how a lack of a robust welfare system has failed people like these men time and time again. The rise out of poverty presented here, however, is somewhat wanting, given it hinges on luck and chance encounters. What starts as a satirical commentary on the causes of homelessness, unfortunately, becomes a sentimental tale about friendship that, although endearing, eventually neglects to accurately represent the lives of unhoused people.
Kit Bithell is a recent Film graduate from the University of Westminster and part of Edinburgh’s International Film Festival’s Young Critics Programme 2022 – scroll on to read more from this year's Young Critics...