In its short life on the film festival tour, ‘UNIDENTIFIED OBJECTS’ has already won three awards, for Outstanding First Feature (Frameline San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival 2022), Best Narrative Feature, plus a Grand Jury award for Outstanding Performance North American Narrative Feature, for Matthew Jeffers, at the L.A. Outfest 2022.
Coming from a background of commercials for companies like ‘Budweiser’ and adventurous music videos, debut Colombian-American director Zuleta has used these experiences by revealing the story through a series of carefully-crafted cameo scenes, so that this character and genre-driven story is not only a road movie, it moves further.
“Adromeda is a whole other galaxy… in Andromeda there are things like bridges and they sail across the universe travelling on energy.”
Interested in combining genres, Zuleta introduces Sci-Fi elements, with extra- terrestrial cops, alien abductions and nightmarish visions and fantasies. In turn, all this is encompassed by the other-worldly, original score by award- winning composer Sebastian Zuleta.
Matthew Jeffers as Peter Hobbes
There is a disarming down- to- earth simplicity in the relationship that develops between these two disparate characters. Sarah Hays’ Winona Jordan (J) a hooker by trade, is searching for her place in this world, (or another world), and her neighbour Peter Hobbes (Matthew August Jeffers) is a misanthropic gay dwarf. Winona manages to persuades Peter to take her back to Canada, to meet the aliens that she believes abducted her 10 years earlier and who are now coming to take her away. Initially, they are only linked by their shared loneliness.
This sounds wacky and it is. Winona is obsessed with the idea and is also clearly trying to leave part of her life behind and move forward (or up). Peter, on the other hand, has for some time, taken refuge in the solitude of his apartment, embittered and angry at the pain of his condition and tormented by guilt relating to the loss of his friend Shay. As he admits: “I am a circle inside a circle inside a circle. I am a college educated homosexual dwarf in a world where there is little to no patience for intelligence…statistically I am going to die sooner rather than later.”
When Winona begs him to take her to Canada ‘to see her sister’ for a generous sum of money, initially Peter rejects Winona’s request. Then, overwhelmed by the pile of unpaid bills, he finally agrees, but on the condition he goes too, as long as she respects a series of OCD demands: no smoking in the car, no parallel parking, no eating or drinking and half the payment up front, most of which are totally ignored in the end.
Winona and Peter are two misfits trying to find meaning to their lives. Winona, with her dreams of life on an alien planet and Peter who feels like an alien on this one. They are outsiders, they don’t fit and have not come to terms with who they are. Their relationship develops from trauma to trauma, and, despite it all, they develop an understanding. They may insult each other, but they do not judge. It is the undercurrent of love and friendship that carries them through. Peter, though suffers constantly from unconscious references to his place in the world: A couple of cosplayers they meet invite him to join them as an Ewok. He passes.
Peter’s misanthropic attitude to the world is challenged at every step by Winona’s spontaneous and free-minded spirit. The brutal honesty of the relationship is very powerful and moving, as they both grow into who they are and their lives are somehow lifted up, maybe into one of Winona’s imagined galaxies.
This is an entertaining and delightful film. Zuleta’s attention to detail and mise-en scène works at every turn. The bright pink car, a moving penis on the highway, Peter’s dreams of love with a lumberjack and Winona’s obsession with aliens, all add to the overall effect.
I found the ending a little too ambiguous for my liking. It did not seem to fit into the see it as it is element throughout the movie. I felt that it was an affectation not worthy of a good budding director like Zuleta. But in the end, what remains is the chemistry these two persons shared and the way in which they affected each other’s lives.
Mathew Jeffers and Sarah Hays
Director Juan Felipe Zuleta was born in Medellin, Colombia. As a child he was already fascinated by film. Later he moved to L.A., and then studied at the New York University, going on to work in commercials and video clips. He met Leland Frankel and they became a creative team.
Influenced by great directors like Tarkovsky and David Lynch, Zuleta is fascinated by the idea of people being where they do not belong, being themselves those unidentified objects.
The cinematographer Camilo Monsalve’s photography tends to be minimal and perfect for this script. He doesn’t try to be too clever, that could have happened with Zuleta’s play on genres. Monsalve holds tight to the story and creates magic with his framing, timing and light, keeping everything at a human level, keeping in mind the elements of colour and how they affect the mood and emotion of the scene.
Juan Felipe Zuleta
Screened on March 19th and 20th at the BFI Southbank, this film has just hit the circuit so it is yet to have a general release date in the UK.
UNIDENTIFIED OBJECTS 2022
Director/Writer: Juan Felipe Zuleta / Screenplay: Leland Frankel / Story: Juan Felipe Zuleta and Leland Frankel / Producers: Juan Sebastian Jaimes, Masha Leonov, Matthew Jeffers, Leland Frankel, Juan Felipe Zuleta,/Adam Piotrocicz / Music: Sebastián Zuleta / DOP: Camilo Monsalve / Editors Raphaël Lubczanski/ Juan David Villa.
