For some people, grief isn’t easy when a parent dies, especially if that parent is someone you wish you would never become. Grief can stir up a mix of uncomfortable emotions, like shame, anger, and guilt, and it can be very confusing to explain what’s happening to people who aren’t experiencing the same. There’s plenty of that here in South African drama Prime, with Marius losing his racist father, but the way the film depicts this grief is quite hard to follow because of the way it handles its other genres. The human horror of becoming someone you’ve hated is muddled with the randomly arranged sequences, sluggish pace, and mumbled dialogue, which is a shame, because the ideas and images could have made a better movie.
A proud man's traumas and prejudice push away his loving partner, opening him to the seduction of an ancient evil.
Unwilling to forgive his father, Marius is surprised at his own sadness when his racist father dies. Instead of opening up to his loving partner Thembi, Marius takes time off to process his grief, which makes him vulnerable to the seduction of an ancient demon.
The sequencing. Certain moments are meant to be surreal dreams or important flashbacks, but while we know that Marius should feel confused with these images, the audience shouldn’t be as confused as he is.
I dislike rating a film this low, especially since films are hard to make and this is coming from a first time feature auteur, but I hope that the critical reception helps everyone involved improve in their next work.
