Subjective changes taking their roots after a loss - whether subjective, objective or both.
The characters experience losses that can be compared to a loss that one feels during
therapy – except that these actual losses are a lot more blunt and extreme.
Stephanie does not go into therapy but loses her legs in an accident – Ali does not go into
therapy but almost loses his son.
You've all seen the film. Ali, a poor homeless fellow, wanders around with his 5-year-old
son. There is no mother in the picture - and Ali himself is more a muscle-mum rather than a
dad. When I call him a mother, I mean that he finds it difficult to be a father to his son. Ali
goes to live with his sister Anna. He is strong and a fighter (we could even say that fighting
defines him) he finds a job as a bouncer. One night, a fight breaks at the club where he's
working. That's when he meets Stephanie. She has just been assaulted by a man and her
face is bleeding. Ali takes Stephanie home. Nothing much passes between them at first, but
he checks out her legs. This first “look” is highlighted here because it is very important in
the film. He looks at her legs up to the knees – namely up to where her legs will be
amputated after the accident. I think the director wanted to emphasize that. Deep down, it
8
all happened there, in this initial encounter. As if everything had been decided there, with
this first encounter dominated by the instant of looking