Inside the 2011 Cannes Film Festival Day 5: Kamen Kalev’s The Island

In the hands of a budding Spanish filmmaker, we’d have a chilly, atmospheric mood piece, but in the hands of a Bulgarian, well the results aren’t even mixed, they’re dreadful. With Kamen Kalev’s sophomore film (his 2009 film, Eastern Plays was also selected by the section) we receive an unconvincing, ill-conceived faux thriller that never computes and yet all the elements are there – a threatening Black Sea, an ideal location and a pair of international actors working in a language that is aimed for a larger demo. The generically titled The Island is a vessel so far off the charts, that thesps Thure Lindhardt and Laetitia Casta who play a mangled couple of hit rock bottom, can’t keep their head above water as witnessed with their sub-par interpretation of the material. Here’s the premiere night presentations.