Sydney Film Festival 2006: Pusher I

Pusher I, directed by Nicholas Winding Refn 1996.

With Nicholas Refn's third Pusher film making its Australian debut at the festival, lucky festival attendees were given the chance to either see the first two films in the trilogy for the first time or simply refresh their memory in prepartion for the third installment of the series. Not that its necessary to refresh your memory. The films do not continue one narrative, rather Refn opted to make each subsequent film feature a different character from the first film.

I never saw Pusher I when it came back and I definitely missed out. To me its the epitomy of how a gritty criminal underworld should be done. Too many films that cover this type of subject matter opt for a super sleek ultra polished feel complete with the overly clever lines and enough gunfights and explosions to last you into next month. Pusher I is none of this, instead its (gasp!) about the characters, everything else being secondary.

If there were any questions about the visual style of the film, those are put to rest immediately in the opening frames. Each character is introduced, name in simple, bold white lettering at the bottom of the screen with the character facing the camera directly. The screen is almost completely dark though, so you can't actually make out any details of their faces, leaving you to glean only the most generic knowledge of what each character looks like.

What follows is an equally dark and gritty film about a low-level drug pusher named Frank and his partner Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen from Adam's Apples). When we are introduced to the two of them things are going well. The camera follows them around as they alternate between making quick drug deals and extended periods of just hanging out and being "guys". This is part of what I really enjoyed about the film. It seemed to feel no pressure to throw action or sex at you to keep you entertained. Instead a good portion of the film is simply spent with Frank and Tonny as they go through their daily routine. It serves to really make you feel like you know and understand each character, and once you come to that realisation is when everything falls apart.

Frank runs into a friend he made while he was in prison and agrees to sell 200g of dope to him. The problem starts with the fact that Frank already owes his supplier 50,000 and this new deal really puts a strain on the relationship. When the actual deal falls apart, leading to Frank's arrest and 200g of dope in the local lake things get become ugly and only get uglier.

The plot is definitely not very original in nature, but in the end its not the plot that makes the film a joy to watch. Its the characters that populate Refn's world that make things interesting and thankfully he is very aware of this. Its rare to find a film of this nature that you can term a 'character piece' but judging from Pusher I its a shame there aren't more films that could fall under that type of category.
***Three Stars