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The Acceptance
Film: 30 Nov 2010
By: YogeshKhubchandani


http://www.3stonespictures.com

Certain unforeseen events can almost literally befall us, unexpectedly and violently tearing into the web of our interconnections and relationships. In Yogesh Khubchandani's new film, The Acceptance, one such event has disrupted the existence of Elli (compellingly played by Alicia Lobo) to its very core. Khubchandani's poetic, spell-binding film uses images and sounds to create an urgent sense of mystery as he traces her inner journey from near despair to a calm acceptance. Khubchandani masterfully recreates a seamless interleaving of the inner imagination and outer events that constitute Elli's flow of experience. Intense emotion is experienced as sudden silence and a sense of time slowing almost to stop as the character focuses full attention on the anger or fear or frustration and the rest of the world disappears for that stretched-out moment of time. Several threads weave themselves throughout the film: the restorative power of nature, thanking God for what we do NOT have, vegetarianism as identity, the relationships between mothers and daughters (the male characters rarely appear on screen).

Khubchandani also did the sound design for the film, using the sounds of birds, wind and water contrasted with the rattling drones of machines to underscore his themes. Like the images, the sound slips easily back and forth between realism and the logic of dreams. Kyma played such a large role in this transformation, it even gets a credit at the end of the film!

Discussion (Descriptions, reviews, discussion):

After the initial screening of The Acceptance in New York City, the director was barraged by questions when he took the stage. But he declined to speak about the film, suggesting only that if people still had questions, they should watch the film again, adding "there are no symbols in the film; I just had one impression that could not be expressed in words, and so the film came out." Perhaps audiences can find an answer in the film itself when Elli's mother asks, "Can't we see the beauty of things as they are—without understanding them?" To see whether you can solve its mysteries, order your own copy of the film on DVD at: http://www.3stonespictures.com