In an ongoing series, The Lumière Reader scouts for new and elusive films that have either fallen off the radar, or are yet to see the light of day in New Zealand.

MIRED BY a handful of boutique screenings (in Wellington, at least) that reduced its outreach to a select minority of festival goers last year, Steven Soderbergh’s DIY revelation Bubble deserved an audience, even if its contentious release history suggested otherwise. Unleashed simultaneously in theatres, on DVD and Cable TV in America last January, the film under-performed financially despite the promise of its experimental distribution. More alarmingly, it felt the wrath of theatre-owners already struggling with declining attendances; some dismayed enough by the film’s upheaval of traditional release windows to boycott its exhibition altogether. While readily accessible stateside, its availability here is undetermined, with a limited theatrical run unlikely, and its migration to Region 4 DVD format an uncertainty. A shame, given Bubble’s modest, immersive rhythms of small town disquiet and true crime intrigue place it among the best films of 2006.

Seizing upon the dead-end grind of assembly line workers Martha, a middle-aged Midwesterner, and Kyle, an idle twenty-something dropout, Soderbergh crafts a malaise of still life; a state of suspended animation broken when a new employee, Rose, threatens to upset the monotony of their routine. Cold comfort turns to simmering tension, and then murder. By turns spare and enthralling, Soderbergh’s economy of direction, an ominous doll factory as a loaded backdrop, and a trio of unconscious non-actors effectively playing themselves combine to render Bubble’s pixelated milieu – all shot in dreary, glazed-over HD Video that presents the image of a world not quite right. Sure enough, it’s not so much that Soderbergh’s players exist inside a bubble; it’s that within any stifling, oppressive environment, something inevitably bubbles towards the surface.

Aidiko Insane, on the other hand, has yet to reach an audience of any sort – after five years, all its makers want is to see it complete. One of a number of films (including Kombi Nation and Fracture) contracted out by the New Zealand Film Commission to the now-collapsed Kahukura Productions, Aidiko Insane since 2002, has gathered dust in limbo. By all accounts, its writer-director Adam Larkin, and his steadfast cast and crew have continued to plug away at the film’s completion: a darkly set dystopian thriller positing the conflict of rival gangs in a post-apocalyptic milieu, joined soon thereafter by a mysterious Asian man whose psychic powers promise to rock the proverbial boat. From the brief sample I’ve seen, this can best be described as a visually advanced, slickly serious take on the pulpy genre-mashing excursions of Tongan Ninja and Kung Fu Vampire Killers, replete with the influence of Ryuhei Kitamura movies and their punk martial artistry and liberal bloodletting. No one likes to have the wind knocked out of their sails, and Larkin and co. can attest to that. Best of luck to them in pursuit of the film’s release.—Tim Wong