The more appropriate term is perhaps "speculative fiction", not sci-fi, with all its machines and dystopias. The poignant movie Last Words is ravishing and expansive, powerful yet delicate, explorative and rife with parables, and seen largely through the eyes of a youth who could easily be one of today's climate/economic migrants, cruelly wrenched from everything loved and familiar, and now wandering through a foreign world with eyes wide open (unlike the stultified natives around them). The lad's spoken idiom is Pulaar, which is widely spoken in Senegal and the Gambia (languages credited by IMDb include only English and Italian, but there's also German). The US-born director Nossiter speaks impeccable Italian, so he "gets" the flow and sound of foreign tongues. My fellow reviewer malenor (so far only two of us, Jan 2022) was perhaps expecting Deep Impact or something similar. If s/he had smoked a joint and laid back to absorb this heartfelt yet anguished allegory, s/he'd have had an entirely different experience and might have found personal enrichment. This poetic epic is not for the popcorn audience.
Review of Last Words
