Ava

“Any-space-whatever is not an abstract universal in all times, in all places. It is a perfectly singular space, which has merely lost its homogeneity, that is, the principle of its metric relations or the connection of its own parts, so that the linkages can be made in an infinite number of ways.”
—Gilles Deleuze, Cinema I: The Movement Image

Made up largely of short close-ups, Sadaf Foroughi’s debut feature , winner of the FIPRESCI prize at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, is modelled forcefully and at times faultily on a concept coined by former critic Pascal Bonitzer: (unframing), canted compositions that are not justified by the requirements of action or perception, images geometrically detached from those’s protagonist, who by no accident is an architect, speaks a little too openly to Foroughi’s own approach: “There’s more room for creativity in open spaces…More freedom for innovative designs.”