Coming from filmmaker and director Konstantinos Petsas, ‘City of my heart‘ is a lyric approach to depicting the city of Madrid, Spain. The director is successful in spotting and reflecting back the idyllic of the life in the city that one can sense he has a special affection for.
The cinematography, with its well framed stylised composition looking very photographic, is one of the main emotional boosters and a strong storyteller for the film. It manages to beautifully capture the fragments of existence that cast such a poetic aura over the city: people’s portraits, special places and street corners, the city scenery and surreal moments of life at a glimpse of time (e.g a pair of running legs cutting through the landscape of a rocky pavement in a square looking perennial). The visuals contain an idealised and nevertheless bohemian face of the much loved metropolis, managing to enclose its fairy mood for the audience’s delight. The beautiful visual aesthetics are backed up by a monologue taking the shape of a declaration of love obviously addressed to the city.
‘City of my heart’ is a beautiful cinematic experience mixing visual arts with poetry, crystallising its theme with much subtleness. The lyrics masterfully avoid straightforward descriptions therefore turning the film into an excelling visual storytelling. Konstantin Petsas’ short film is an emotional morphology of Madrid, an insight into the mechanisms that put it into motion and bring it up to life and nevertheless an immortalisation of its bright side. But beyond being a visual portrait or a poetic living of a moment, ‘City of my heart’ is also a memory because just like a memory it only retains and harnesses those best unforgettable parts experienced by the body and spirit.
The director’s ability to perceive Madrid and its ‘qualities’ and convert them visually is amazing. His power to draw the viewer in and subdue them to an extraordinary sensorial experience is incontestable.
‘City of my heart’ comes with our highest recommendations for its extraordinary capacity of visual lyricizing and the director’s proficient skill to turn emotions to screen.
TMFF RATING:
