This week Sri Lanka gets crossed off my Letterboxd Map with The Red Suitcase.
Title: The Red Suitcase
Director: Fidel Devkota
Premiered: September 8, 2023 (Italy – Venice Film Festival)
Runtime: 1 hour 27 minutes
The film opens with a phone call in Nepalese. We don’t see it, we can only hear what’s being said. A migrant worker is away from home, his wife having given birth to a daughter. While he’s eager to get back, there’s a work opportunity in Qatar that he just can’t ignore.
Later, we pick up at Kathmandu Airport where a driver has been assigned his next route. He’s to collect a consignment from Qatar and take it to the remote mountain town of Beyul. Tucked in with the rest of the load is an unregistered red suitcase along for the ride. As the driver’s journey gets underway, the landscape begins to shift from barren to lush as he ascends into the fog. Keeping the driver company is a radio call-in show where a caller is telling what appears to be a ghost story.
On the same road, making the same journey on foot, is a man in worker coveralls pulling a red suitcase. He walks through the night, unbothered by both the cold and fog. The worker and the driver never cross paths. The contents of the suitcase remain a mystery.
A joint Nepalese and Sri Lankan production, The Red Suitcase made a deliberate choice to have the first three minutes be a black screen while a phone call plays out. It’s the film’s way of telling you upfront that patience is going to be required.
Honestly, from then on it’s largely an exercise in observation. The landscapes are gorgeous and the score does a nice job casting an eerie mood over the course of the journey. But pretty landscapes and a solid score can only get you so far when the film itself doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.
There is very little dialogue and what we do have feels like an afterthought. There’s a slight pause before every line reading, like the actors were waiting on a cue that came a beat too late. The awkwardness keeps the audience at an arm’s length.
The bigger overall issue is context. Without a decent understanding of Nepali social and governmental issues, the stakes never register. You’re just along for the ride.