Cinema Without Borders: End of Innocence—Josephine
It takes a mere second to change our world. Beth de Araújo’s second feature film, Josephine, brings one such moment of real life horror alive on screen. A Sunday morning run to the Golden Gate Park with her father Damien (Channing Tatum) flips over eight-year-old Josephine’s (Mason Reeves) normal, sporty, soccer-driven childhood. She becomes an accidental witness to a violent assault on a woman that shatters her innocence, puts her safety at stake, leaves her battling her fears and confusions even as she grapples with the not-quite-clear and unformed ideas of crime, justice, punishment and redemption.
Josephine had its world premiere in the US Dramatic Competition section of the recently concluded Sundance Film Festival in which it won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award. It goes on now to compete this month for the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Araújo’s script is as complex and layered as it is compassionate in diving into the heart and soul of Josephine, her parents and the situation they find themselves in. But the nuances are relayed with simplicity and directness.
Araújo pivots things on Josephine and narrates things largely from her point of view. How she perceives the act of violation—from the inability to understand its enormity to the curiosity and many misunderstandings about adult behaviour that it leads on to. How the ghosts of that terrible moment keep lingering on and haunt her and how she is unable to exorcise them, nor able to communicate her traumas to her parents. How the battles of her mind impact her friendships and families, creates further conflicts among them. How her lost innocence and inexplicable anger and aggression challenge her parents as they try desperately, and unsuccessfully, to help and protect her. There’s no flawlessness to parenting, it’s more a trial and error driven by powerlessness.
Be it Gemma Chan as Josephine’s protective mother Claire, Syra McCarthy as the survivor Sandra or Philip Ettinger as the offender Greg, the entire ensemble acts in perfect unison. However, the film belongs to Channing Tatum and Mason Reeves. Tatum is exceptional as Josephine’s devoted, agonized father.
The pint-sized Mason Reeves carries the film on her slender shoulders in the titular role. She is present in almost every single frame and is the force that propels the narrative. Reeves, who shot for the film when she was seven, has gravitas and eloquence far beyond her years and is amazingly effortless in embodying the devastation and poignancy of the situation. Of course, much of it has to be credited to Araújo’s guidance and the bouncing board that the adult actors, specially Tatum, would have been for her.
Like Araújo’s writing, Greta Zozula’s cinematography is also centred on Josephine. Her visuals help turn the workings of Josephine’s mind tactile. Also, in keeping with the empathetic spirit of the film, she frames the vulnerable girl with rightful tenderness and care. She is equally a responsible artist in presenting the ghastly act for what it is, neither leaving it totally to the audience's imagination, nor pandering to the voyeur in them. Seen through the cherubic Josephine’s angelic eyes it evokes abhorrence, dismay and dread.
Josephine, both the character and the film, embody the emotional, ethical and philosophical values that are fast vanishing in contemporary times. The little girl is the conscience keeper, who forces the adults around her and the audience to reflect on our core moral codes, integrity and righteousness and the necessity to hold on to them.
Much as the film is devastating in underlining how we adults won’t quite be able to fix things for our young, that they are bound to get hurt in life but there’s a simultaneous hope in the resilience of children and the confidence that they will sort their own pain. A film of tremendous grimness, grit and grace that refuses to leave your heart and mind.