Hearts of Stone: Noomi Rapace anchors brilliant LGBTQ drama | Short Takes at CineWyre
This short is just too beautiful not to write a piece about. Audiences who came to Lytham last year will know this one very well, as it was a UK Premiere at the event. Now, we get to put the spotlight on the film which will close the CineWyre LGBTQ Voices strand.
A lonely street artist entertains people as a living statue, longing with an impossible love for Agatha, a stone sculpture next to which she can be found every day.
Tom van Avermaet's short is a long one - at 29 minutes, it's right at the upper end of the 'shorts' realm, but in those 29 minutes is a story that has room to breathe, characters that feel fleshed out and fully developed in a script co-written with Alison Kathleen Kelly, and a style that lent itself well to the Oscar longlist - all aided by fantastic production design, awesome cinematography from Hans Bruch Jr., and a good score from Marko Jukic.
Where this one simmers though is in its performances, and with a production credit to boot, Noomi Rapace delivers one of the most rounded characters in the CineWyre selection with this film, and combined with Jessica Barden as the statue she's lusting over, the duo are able to sell this relationship, tug at the heartstrings, and deliver a sapphic romance that lands with audiences with or without the dialogue.
THE VERDICT
Hearts of Stone is a film that I'm genuinely so proud to showcase to our TheJackSmit.com readers - having seen it quite a few times now for consideration, and of course being in the room for the UK premiere last year - this is one that embodies the high standard you can expect from a film festival, all, of course, thanks to Rapace and Barden's performances.
Rating: 4/5
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