Unmade Beds

 

Unmade Beds is a beautiful and sensitive account of a handful of 20-somethings living in a squat in East London. We follow wide-eyed Axl (Fernando Tielve), who has arrived from Spain to look for his long-lost father and ends up living in the same converted warehouse as Vera (Déborah François), a romantic who works in a bookshop. Whilst the characters are enviously good-looking and a little too cool for school, the film avoids descending into a trendier-than-thou work of style over substance by focusing on the fragile forging of human connections. And on top of this the elegant cinematography creates a dreamlike atmosphere; a couple who’ve just met drunkenly sway down a hotel corridor, a hand follows the banister of the stairs and we’re immediately taken into a blissful daze of drunken happiness. There’s also a wonderful soundtrack including songs by Kimya Dawson, Tindersticks and Jeffrey Lewis. A sleeper hit at this year’s Edinburgh Film Festival, Unmade Beds is a real gem. [Gail Tolley]