I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
A lifelong friendship forged in childhood begins to fracture as a group of friends approach thirty, strained by the pressures of contemporary Britain’s class system.
Childhood friends from a concrete housing estate, now in their thirties, spend a night out like in the old days. The dance moves to a banger from way back when remain the same, you can still exchange money for coke in a bathroom stall, and the blinking disco lights can drag you into a euphoric trance. The hangover, however, isn’t the only thing that gets worse as you age.
Out of the friend group, Rian has made it the farthest by getting rich on the stock market, at the cost of becoming an outsider. To cling to his roots, he funds Conor’s building development rising from the rubble of their childhood’s concrete colossus. He’s building new, fancy apartments that none of the locals can afford. Regardless of his university degree, Patrick supports his family as a bike courier while his wife Shiv cares for the children and her sick mother. Oli freelances as a dealer and tends to sample his own wares until he gets a job at Conor’s construction site. The higher the building rises, the more visible the cracks in the foundation become.
Clio Barnard, who has been compared to legendary director Ken Loach, offers a fresh contribution to the tradition of viewing the British class system critically via film with I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning. The film is an ode to friendship at a hinge point in life where more doors are closing than are opening. The party scenes taste simultaneously like the delight and bitterness of growing up.
Sanni Myllyaho (translated by Ailiina Saaristo)
Screenings
-
Kinopalatsi 2Sun 20.9. at 13.45–15.34109 min, 1/3
-
Kinopalatsi 2Tue 22.9. at 21.00–22.49109 min, 2/3
-
Kinopalatsi 7Fri 25.9. at 20.45–22.34109 min, 3/3