Italian
In crafting a quietly affectionate film about a man who thinks he might be an alien, “Sky Peals” director Moin Hussain manages to make an allegory about solitude and isolation with a deft and steady hand. The film’s lead character, a 30-something British man of Pakistani origin, could be a stand-in for millions who feel removed from their roots while living within cultures and among people who think of them as outsiders. Hussain’s skillful filmmaking avoids making obvious points, instead deepening the narrative as a singular character study with sci-fi elements.
Adam (Faraz Ayub) still lives with his English mother (Claire Rushbrook) while working as a night shift short order cook at a gas station diner. His life is small: just home and work, with no apparent close relationships. He has closed himself off from the world, having never been able to make real connections with other people. When he learns that his estranged father has died, Adam begins to feel a new affinity toward this man whom he has never known.
The eerie relationship with his father starts with a series of desperate voice messages he left asking to meet Adam. Soon after, he’s informed of the death and invited to the funeral by his uncle Hamid (Simon Nagra), who willingly tells him warm stories about his father’s side of the family. The Pakistani side that he has never known. He learns that his father was adopted and that no one in the family knows where he came from. He just turned up one day out of nowhere.
Popular on Variety Adam starts to think that both he and his father might be aliens, not only to Britain but to earth and humankind as well. At the same time, he starts to black out while having visions of a brightly colored place where spooky voices call out to him. This complicates his work situation where he has a new boss, Jeff (Steve Oram), and a new colleague, Tara (Natalie Gavin), both of whom start to show interest in Adam — something he’s utterly unprepared for.
The dichotomy between the two cultures he belongs to is further explained in Hussain’s screenplay. His Pakistani relatives call him Umer, while all the white people in his life call him by the more Anglo-Saxon name of Adam. Sublimating his identity even more, he responds to Adam and never even utters the word Umer. As all of this stress pressures him, Adam seeks medical help. But neither doctors nor group therapy can see beyond a confused and maybe slightly mad person.
Ayub gives a quiet and subdued performance that’s also startling in its accurate depiction of a man trying not to take any space in the world. No wonder no one remembers him. Even his colleagues keep thinking he’s a new employee. Ayub as Adam is taciturn, hesitant and always apologetic, keeping his eyes downcast and his shoulders hunched. Adam wants to disappear and remain invisible, yet Ayub somehow remains completely watchable and the focus of the audience’s curiosity. Hussain’s use of close-ups and medium shots gives the actor the space to tell this character’s story in small gestures and minute flickers of facial expressions. Adam has a knack for repeating what people tell him, as if he’s deciphering a language foreign to him. In those moments, Ayub makes the audience believe his character might really be from another realm and not human at all.
As “Sky Peals” continues, Adam begins to connect with Tara. While jerky and withholding in their first encounters, he slowly begins to understand that he might not be the only person who feels at odds with his surroundings. He also has an affecting moment with his mother, to which Rushbrook brings a warmth that punctures Adam’s timidness with everyone around him. It’s clear where the film is heading, but that makes it no less touching.
Not all the visual clues work. Sometimes they look like rudimentary special effects that conjure no real feelings. The film’s meditative rhythm might be too slow for some, yet once the whole narrative finishes, “Sky Peals” reveals itself as a journey worth taking. It leaves the audience enlightened and moved, but especially confident that they too will one day find the exact spot where they belong in this bewildering world.
