A personal tale based on the filmmaker’s own experience centering around the death of his father, this succinct film mixes a successful blend of realism, absurdity, comedy and drama to create a wondrous work of the Seventh Art.
From the very first scene of Iair Said’s Most People Die on Sundays, the audience knows we are in for a wonderful ride. At just 75 minutes long, Said’s narrative feature debut is a personal, irreverent and charming look at what it’s like to be a young, modern, Argentinian gay Jewish man. Now that’s a mouthful, and in the film, it’s even more of a burden, from what Said shows us. Directed and written by Said, who also acts in the film as the leading man David, Most People Die on Sundays is the kind of film that showed me something new, delved into a new prospective and in the process, made a true fan of the director’s work out of me.
Said is not your typical leading man. He’s taller than anyone in the room, he’s pudgy and overweight, he’s constantly in a state of half-awakedness due to the sleeping pills he takes to sleep, and he’s usually horny, in all the wrong moments. In one of many underplayed funny scenes in the film, the driving instructor tells David to put the gear in reverse, slowly release the clutch, and zig zag among the trees. He (Said) lets go of the clutch alright, and plants a big kiss on the instructor’s lips, crashing the car into a tree and securing a slap from the other man.
Even when we first meet Said’s alter ego onscreen, he’s a blubbering naked man begging his (off-camera) lover not to leave him. Soon after, David is on his way home to Argentina from Italy where, we learn later in the film, he’s doing a Master in Communications. At home, he reunites with an assorted cast of characters, including his bigger than life Jewish mom played by Argentinian screen legend Rita Cortese, famous Argentine singer Juliana Gattas and Pablo Larrain’s ex wife, Chilean actress Antonia Zegers.
David comes home for the funeral of his uncle (the father of Zegers’ character) but while back, learns that his mom (Cortese) plans to disconnect his father’s respirator, the only thing keeping him alive after he slipped into a longterm coma. Instead of tackling the issue head on, David continues to be as distracted as a fruit fly, both by the events unfolding around him, and his own frustrated sexuality. Said plays this so well, so on point, that I almost wished the film lasted longer just so I could be in his company longer. And mind you, I never ask for a film to be longer!
Serious and comedic scenes are intertwined without force into one other. As we watch the extended family celebrate Passover, the aunt asks David’s mom, “Do you respect?” talking about the flour to be used for the Holy Days, only to be made of matzah, thus unleavened. “I respect you all,” the mother answers, throwing David into a laughing fit that is soon followed by everyone around the table, and the scene seems so organic and natural that I could not help but feel I was one of the guests at the table, drinking the “expired” Kosher wine along with them.
While this is a short feature film, it is long on character arc and David’s eventual spiritual and emotional growth comes in little gestures and languid looks, not with a big bang as in most movies we watch these days. It is this understated development of characters and their relationships that will stay with me longest, after watching Most People Die on Sundays.
From left, Rita Cortese, Juliana Gattas, Antonia Zegers and writer-director Iair Said in a still from ‘Most People Die on Sundays’
In the past month, through a special industry event I attended in Doha, I managed to watch a couple of films, ahead of their world premieres, that also succeed in making a big impact through a quiet storyline. And I must say, in these days of loud social media personalities who impose their whims and opinions on everyone without any subtlety or class, a film like Said’s is something so unexpectedly precious that I feel like watching it again, and again, just to be sure I wasn’t dreaming it.
The Most People Die on Sundays world premiered last year in Cannes’ ACID sidebar, which is usually where groundbreaking talents take flight. It will open at the Quad in NYC on May 2nd and move over to LA on May 9th, screening at Laemmle Theaters. It is a Big World Pictures release.
Images courtesy of Big World Pictures, used with permission.