A Moment in the Reeds (2018)

62% User Rating

1h 48min

Having moved to Paris for university, Leevi returns to his native Finland for the summer to help his estranged father renovate the family lake house so it can be sold. Tareq, a recent asylum seeker from Syria, has been hired to help with the work, and when Leevi's father has to return to town on business, the two young men establish a connection and embark on a romance set against the idyllic Finnish summer. However, looming over this chance encounter, is the father's imminent return to the lake house, the continuation of Leevi's studies abroad as well as Tareq's complex relationship with his family in Syria.

Mikko MäkeläDirector

Cast

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Janne Puustinen

Leevi

Boodi Kabbani

Tareq

Mika Melender

Jouko

Virpi Rautsiala

Pirjo

Reviews (1)

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CinemaSerf

Rating 70%

March 27, 2022

To be honest, I was slightly uncomfortable watching this - I felt as if I were intruding on something intimate and private! It's a gentle, enveloping, tale of two men who are working on a dilapidated Finnish summer house. The father of one of the men has to, frequently, leave them to their travails and slowly the two bond. Janne Puustinen is "Leevi", who is studying literature in Paris but has come back for a holiday to help his father restore their property so they can sell it; Boodi Kabbani is "Tareq" - is a Syrian refugee who is engaged as handyman. Their developing relationship is sincere and affectionate - sure, there is passion, but that's not really a focal point of the story. Both characters have baggage, and occasionally the appearance of the father "Jouko" (Mika Melender) serves to focus that. It is erotic, but in a seductive rather than rampant fashion and the beautiful lakeland scenery lends much to the intensity of this love story. I found it to be well paced - it is slow, but not laboured, and there is certainly a chemistry between the two men that makes this a thoroughly engaging film to watch.