“Substance” by Sai Kiran Dubakka

“Substance” is a complex film with many facets, stylistic and narrative. The theme of guilt and redemption underlying the film leads us into an unstoppable whirlwind of events and emotions, reaching to touch us as if we were also involved in this murky story. The screenplay is very solid, to say the least spectacular in its great dialogic dynamism. This film expands in numerous directions while being structured mainly in a series of “pictures” made up of only two characters. In this sense, direction, writing and production can be considered true wonders of independent cinema.

The great narrative awareness and the power of the topics covered is wrapped in an articulated and extremely peculiar aesthetic. We find ourselves in front of a work that leaves nothing to chance and that affects every vision more deeply within us. Director Sai Kiran Dubakka seems to draw on different sources to build his cinematic taste. In this film, the influences of Eastern and Western cinema come together in an incredible combination. The quality of the film is also technical: the editing and the cinematography of this film add a fundamental value to the vision and make the film, along with everything else, practically unmissable.