Tenderness (Neha) — Tenderness (Neha)- Blu Ray
Appearing in 1991 Neha was the first feature-length film from Slovakian director and writer Martin Sulík- who has gone onto helm twenty-plus films- both feature lengths, documentaries, and shorts- many of which have gained praise in both his own country & beyond. Neha is rather like a slowly unfolding grim flower- starting low-key & a little puzzling, before moving onto subtle & sly emotional discord- flecked through with moments of grim wonder. It’s a study of the human condition, but also a country in change/ flux- as it was made during the shift from Czechoslovakia to Slovakia.
The film focuses on young man Simon- who when we first meet him is living in the countryside, at quite logger-heads with his parents. Fairly soon he leaves for the city, rents an apartment, studies medical books, wear just white shorts & contemplates suicide. One night out at a near-deserted restaurant he meets middle-age couple Viktor(György Cserhalmi) & Mária(Maria Pakulnis), and slowly but surely gets pulled into the couples shrewd relationship that moves between hate & (sort of) love. Viktor is smug & blunt often belittling/bulling Mária, and she is somewhat lost-yet resigned to her life with Viktor. Simon slowly but surely digs himself deeper & deeper into the pairs life, becoming more infatuated with Mária, and manipulate by Viktor.
The three leads are well selected- Géza Benkõ is largely subdued, yet brooding & troubled as young Simon. György Cserhalmi is great a manipulative emotional sadist, and Maria Pakulnis- who both in looks & acting brought to mind a more low-key Toni Collette, is believable as both victim & temptress. The film largely takes place in the pair's apartment, Simons apartment- with jaunts out into the countryside ever so often. The score is very sparse for much of the film runtime- with only this wonky & jaunting string theme appearing when we get shots of Simon running, that appear throughout the film. Later on, as things start to slowly & slyly ramp-up/ reveal- more moody scoring is used, but it’s done sparingly. Neha runs just under ten minutes short of the two-hour mark, and I think it’s fair to say it’s extremely sparse & paired back in it unfold, with moments of fraught emotion & sly natural wonder- but if you slow down to the films moody crawl & let yourself get pulled into the three’s hate/love triangle- I’m sure you’ll be subtle enchanted by what we have here.
Moving onto this new release- which is the Blu ray world premiere of the film. The disc is region free, and features a new 2k scan of the picture- with English subtitles that can be turned on & off- the print looks good & balanced. On the extras front, we get an around a thirty-minute documentary about the film- this features interviews Martin Sulík, and other film crew members including the films soundtrack composer- this once again is subtitled and gives good insights about the film's production, the time it was made, and how it impacted Sulík later films. Next, we get Hurá-1989 short from Sulík- this is black & white, and runs around twenty-six minutes- it’s a follows an old man talking back through his life- first working in the government mines, then going into national service, and later going to prison for fraternizing with the Japanese. The film blends together moody interview footage, government films & propaganda- it’s an interesting short with the blend of film media type working well. Lastly, we get a twenty-page booklet with a new write-up about the film, stills, and full credits.
In finishing Tenderness (Neha) effectively grim & pared-back drama that flickers with moments of low-key wonder and thoughtfulness. So another worthy release from Second Run