Adam Matthews embarks on a journey into the weird and eerie as he reviews The Highest Brasil.
Mythic madness sold to you by Charlie Manson in a tracksuit: The Highest Brasil occupies the spaces of mundane liminality while offering the promise of a hedonistic utopia. As the directorial debut of Jeremy Curl, this unflinching poker-faced film delivers absurdist humour with a straight-up premise. Comically detached and clinically eerie, it’s evocative of work by Yorgos Lanthimos and Aki Kaurismäki, which also elicits laughs via aberrant characters. In that same vein, The Highest Brasil employs clever filmmaking in creating painfully awkward setups. Think Peep Show levels of discomfort.
Set in a quaint port town in the west of Ireland, the film follows passionless fisherman Seamus (Ger Staunton), a man going through the motions. His marriage to his American wife, Kathleen (Jennifer Breslin), is in decline. Seamus bears an unspoken past trauma that manifests with a compulsive, ritualistic therapy involving fairy circles. He must strip off and put back on his clothes before a drive. Meanwhile, Kathleen endures the stresses of her work at the local psychiatric clinic, which are further complicated by their domestic issues. As Kathleen endures this hardship in growing isolation and disillusionment, Seamus is coaxed into becoming a devotee of the innocuous Brendan (Stephen Doring), joining what turns out to be a bizarre utopian cult.
In his blue and pink tracksuit, Brendan claims to be the monastic Saint Brendan, and is the engine of the film’s comedy. He presents a non-threatening presence until he opens his mouth. That’s when Brendan manages to tap into his members’ sense of dissatisfaction. His infomercial-style selling of the hedonistic Hy-Brasil hammers the existential question: “Is this it?!” Even Brendan’s repeated use of the aria ‘Habanera’ from the opera Carmen recontextualizes and drives home the allure of his promised utopia.
Staging the meetings and invasive interviews in the town’s abandoned shopping centre creates great mise-en-scène with its liminal space acting as a purgatory for the characters. The shuttered centre represents pathological boredom and abandon. The choice of framing for the film’s main locations – its beaches, the harbour, the sea’s dark waters – is isolating and presents a pulsating sense of unease. At times, the sea is reminiscent of Hideo Nakata’s Ringu. Pregnant with Seamus’ grief, these evocative waves are foreboding, the same waves he navigates on a daily basis.
Doring does a phenomenal job embodying the charismatic ringleader character, while the rest of the cast deliver strong performances. Staunton’s impassive Seamus has strong chemistry with Breslin’s Kathleen. Yet a surprise standout is Tanja Karita who plays Tilda. The sole female follower in Brendan’s group, she’s in part a confidant to Seamus. From her strained grin in the opening to her unflinching smile, the film bookends with, she brings an awkward charm as her dynamic arc develops.
The film features several references to Irish folklore: the mythological motif of Land of Maidens, the eponymous Hy-Brasil, as well as the story of Brendan the Navigator and the Jasconius. To some degree, this narrative has a Lovecraftian influence. It lingers at the edge of eldritch where a maddening absurdity sweeps up the characters in a desperate attempt for answers, and a happiness that might not exist.
An impressive achievement as an independent piece of cinema, The Highest Brasil has a distinct and rough-hewn voice. While the pacing lags in certain moments, a strong comedic backbone and thematic crux lead to the inevitable climax. However, without giving too much away, there are elements of the execution that lack palpability. Also certain beats of deadpan comedy had an unaddressed tension, leaving the interpretation open to either completely earnest or as darkly comic.
An Old English poem ‘The Whale’ shares a similar tale to Jasconius in Irish folklore and whose moral is summed up as follows: “Such is the way of demons, the wont of devils: they spend their lives in outwitting men by their secret power, inciting them to the corruption of good deeds, misguiding.” The devil never comes in the guise you expect. At life’s crossroads, is the price of blind loyalty worth the hope of capturing a chance at happiness? What if that means crossing a murky boundary and setting sail from rational shorelines?
Ultimately, The Highest Brasil challenges viewers with a nuanced commentary on the search for meaning. It’s a film about breaking free from the harshness and transient lulls of daily life. This desire for escape and the unease is masked by delightfully grim humour. With this provocative and memorable debut, hopefully this is just the beginning for Curl and production company Brendan Films. Now to await their next weird and eerie collaboration.
The Highest Brasil is available to stream online now.
