Julia Loktev, born into Jewish family in St. Petersburg, had visited the dramatic topography of the Georgian Caucasus. Filmed in the Kazbegi and Juta regions of Georgia, the landscape takes on the role of character, perhaps the most dramatic in comparison to the adventure-seeking couple, Nica (Hani Furstenberg, Israeli-born American) and Alex (Gael García Bernal). Their guide is played by Georgian mountaineer Bidzina Gujabidze), who has summitted Everest twice. The film's title evokes the Lonely Planet travel guides for the backpacking set, but there is a deeper meaning.
This is a film filled with tension, both from external forces as well as the sexual dynamic between the three travelers. Loktev is a minimalist director. You can hear a pin drop on the set and she wants you to dial in to every sound. The film dwells on the unsaid and the unsayable. We may indeed all be fundamentally unknowable, but perhaps more damningly, to quote from the passage Nica reads aloud, “we are overwhelmed and remain silent” (Jay Kuehner in Cinema Scope).
The director injects an amazing sensuality into the film, the sex scenes are hyperealistic. Have you ever seen a man pull out his lover's tampon ? It happens all the time, but not in front of the camera. There's not much dialog other than the practicing of Spanish verb conjugations. But ultimately, this is a film about what us not said.
Avoiding a spoiler, let us say that Nica is confronted by crisis in an incident with a man that might have killed her and another who hopes to exploit the situation. The couple's bond is corroded by crisis. Alex and Dato represent the polar opposites heterosexual women feel they must choose between (Garcia, Film Review, 10/25/2012). Nica is effectively "the loneliest planet." Nica feels her invincibility is the equal of the other men around her. After the incident, Nica falls victim to two other sexual assaults. The real intimacy exists between Nica and Dato because the setting for Nica's individuation is Dato's home ground of perilous landscape. Loktev explores the savagery of a world in which our spiritual needs are undermined by physical reality (Garcia, ibid.).
