Up There

Dir: Zam Salim

2012

****

Zam Salim's 2012 Up There is a brilliant little independent film that proves you don't need a huge budget to make a great film, just a good idea and some capable actors. Okay, so you need a little bit more than that but this Up There has it, it is a fantastic film. It's a very British alternative to Albert Brooks' extremely underrated 1991 indie Defending Your Life. Both films deal with death and purgatory, and while both are similar, Defending Your Life deals with identity and ventures into the realms of reincarnation, while Up There explores the depressing realization of the end of life and the headache inducing bureaucracy and administration issues that one would encounter in purgatory should it exist. Premature death, never seeing your loved ones ever again, a world without you in it and an uncertain future are all rather terrifying, but Zam Salim's thought are concentrated on the paperwork that could create and the effort one would need in order to okay with it. Heaven is hinted at, it is the 'Up There' of the title and as you'd expect with a film about purgatory, this is about readying oneself for the afterlife. However, the film is full of people who feel even more lost in death than they did in life, they could all prove they are ready by making simple changes and performing simple tasks but that would be too simple and rather unreal. Our protagonist Martin (played brilliantly by Burn Gorman) struggles to find any enthusiasm in the afterlife and wonders whether his life really meant anything in the first place. It sounds depressing but it really isn't, it's not a black comedy either and as dead-pan as it is, it's also rather uplifting and probably the most charming film of 2012. It doesn't follow the usual rules of the supernatural either, our 'ghosts' can't walk through walls or float and often find themselves trapped in shops and peoples cars, which only makes it more endearing in my opinion.