Tamara W

Very rarely do I turn off a programme once I've started watching it. Tamara W was the exception to my rule.

The opening is initially intriguing, filmed in black and white but it takes us at least 40secs to actually see our contributor for the first time. Instead, we are given arty cutaways of benches and trees that at first may offer an insight into a possible meaning or moral within the story. However, there's only so many times you can stare at shots of a bench before you disengage. I came to the conclusion pretty quickly that all beautifully shot, the cutaways had no meaning at all and that the choice to saturate the film was more to do with applying an easy grade over colouring the piece properly. 

It didn't help that Tamara wasn't particularly endearing or expressive. Being the only contributor, you need her to be emotive, expressive and interesting, particularly in voice. She isn't. She has a story to tell but filmmaker Marko Vuorinen, does very little to help her tell it in any meaningful way. 

Here's the trailer: 

It is in essence, a transgender escort dancing and talking over abstract cutaways of objects and cityscapes - for 53mins. All I can say is thank god for the skip button. 

I'm sure that Tamara has a story worth telling, but the filmmaker just didn't give her the stepping stones she needed to make the story compelling for an audience. Therefore it's probably the first time I haven't stuck around to find out. Better luck next time? Maybe a shorter version is the way forward.