Solo (Souléymane Sy Savané) drives taxi number 64 for Willard's Cabs - telephone number 725-2227 - in Winston-Salem, a town in North Carolina, America. His passenger is William (Red West), a man in his 60s. William gives him a hundred-dollar deposit of a thousand-dollar offer to drive him up Blowing Rock mountain in a few days' time on 20 October - one-way. Solo questions him, William is rude and brief in reply. Solo is worried that William intends to commit suicide.

Solo drives William to a cinema, where he sees him speak to the ticket attendant (Trevor Metscher). Solo picks up William from Crystal Towers block of flats and is concerned when William gruffly tells him that he's sold his flat and wants to move into a motel. Solo has to pick up a drug-dealer friend Roc (Lane 'Roc' Williams), and William and Roc share the ride as Roc stops off to sell drugs. Solo takes them both to a bar run by a friend (Evelia Garcia) who he primes to extract William's history - William's wife left him 30 years before - while he plays pool with Roc. It's too late to find a motel and Solo takes William home with him to the house of his surly ex-wife Quiera (Carmen Leyva) and her six-year-old daughter Alex (Diana Franco Galindo). Next day he takes William to Room 213 at a motel, and asks the janitor (J Malaak Juuk) to keep an eye on him. Truculent Quiera kicks Solo out, and he moves into the motel with William, who doesn't want him there or in his life. Solo is trying to get a job as a flight attendant on an airline, and, as he drives William around, gets him to test him on the airline's manual in preparation for his interview, and to correct his English (Solo is from Dacca, Senegal; William is American).

Solo notes the days counting down to 20 October and tries to engage William, to open him up, to get details from him of his past life. Married? Children? Grandchildren? Not much comes out except that William liked Hank Williams's music and used to ride a Harley Davidson motorbike. William is rude - he has every right to be, he wants his privacy and Solo is intruding - and tells Solo clearly that he doesn't want to give information. William takes various final actions - he has no possessions, he closes his bank account at Summit Credit Union, he punches Solo in the face, he gets rid of him - 'If you like the place you can keep it when I leave next week - the rates are very fair' - he gets another driver for the final ride. Solo continues to probe, he is worried, he cares. He can't find out information but suspects the boy taking tickets at the cinema is William's son or grandson. Eventually, before the final drive to the top of Blowing Rock mountain, he finds some touching details about his relationship with William, and William's inner thoughts. But can he prevent William from committing suicide? The title, and William's consistent approach towards finalisation show clearly the story's direction.

Goodbye Solo is a touching look at an unresolvable conflict. On the one hand, William has decided for his own clear personal reasons that suicide is the correct conclusion to his life. On the other, Solo cares about his fellow human beings, and wants to prevent a man, however good or bad he may be, and whatever his past and secrets, from killing himself. One has closed down the options of life, the other wants to see hope and a future blossom. The film creates an atmosphere in which emotions flourish - Solo's warm and playful relationship with step-daughter Alex ('When you grow up, you'll understand' / 'I don't want to grow up and learn all that bullshit'), his easy-going friendship with Roc - in a realistic world containing hard-thought-out rationality: William's reflective determination. The story takes place at the stage where the path towards fatal action is unstoppable, and all alternatives have been put aside. Can hope and love stop reality? In a lesser film, and many lesser scripts, yes of course, and how trashy and unbelievable they often are. It's the strength of this potent story, by Bahareh Azimi and Ramin Bahrani, that there's no whimsical sentimental escape. Rather, the inevitable is described, recorded, and faced.

Red West delivers a riveting performance as William, his face lined, crows' feet at the edges of his eyes suggesting the past availability of a smile. Much of William's on-screen time shows him thinking, occasionally speaking - and it's the evocation of what those thoughts might be that delivers the film's shocking emotional power. Souléymane Sy Savané evokes Solo's sweet nature - a saintly figure without saccharine, a manly, concerned man, a Good Samaritan who refuses to pass by a soul in distress. The strength of his delivery of Solo (and of the script) is its control of emotion - within the character there's a balance of feelings, and an acceptance of the inevitable, providing a strong sense of reality.

Smaller performances, and their script-lines, add depth and colour: Mamadou Lam's fellow-cab-driver Mamadou; Diana Franco Galindo's delightfully accurate child Alex; Lane 'Roc' Williams gentle bad-boy Roc; J Malaak Juuk's exactly-evoked motel janitor; in fact, all the performances. Ramin Bahrani's direction conveys the atmosphere of the town, the contrast of day and night, the feeling of urban night-time, the contrast of the country. Vignettes such as Solo's interview are perfectly inserted, providing a roundedness and credibility - it feels like a real week in people's lives. Michael Simmonds's cinematography is breathtaking - gorgeous city colours catching the tones of artificial light, interior light, sunlight, shadows, the skin-tones of people's faces. Ramin Bahrani's film-editing complements his direction, particularly when the camera stays on people after their scene has officially ended. There's a lingering feeling to the filming, which in a gentle way underlines the script. It suggests that each person is important, that their reactions and after-thoughts matter, that no-one is dispensable.

CAST (alpha order): Peter N Anyieth - DVD Seller. Jim Babel - Airline Interviewer. Lasheka Brown - Crack Passenger. Sarah S Brooks - Passenger with Hat. Alexandra Dimopoulos - Nurse. Neill Fleeman - Airline Interviewer. Jamill 'Peaches' Fowler - Pork Chop. Diana Franco Galindo - Alex. Evelia Garcia - Bar Owner. Chris Greene - Thug. Viktor Hernandez - Quiera's Cousin. Wel Mayom Jok - DVD Seller. J Malaak Juuk - Motel Janitor. Mamadou Lam - Mamadou. Carmen Leyva - Quiera. Damian Jewan Lee - Passenger. Linda Lindsly - Airline Interviewer. Djibril Lo - Bank Cab Driver. Ken Lugen - Taxi Cab Employee. Angus MacLachlan - Crack Passenger. Trevor Metscher - Ticket Attendant. Caleb Paul - Solo's Baby. Christian Prince - Thug. Greg Prince - Thug. Jeff Prince - Thug. Navani Reyes - Navani. Souléymane Sy Savané - Solo. Catherine Sewell - Hospital Receptionist. Norman L Sloan - Pharmacist. Virgilio Tix - Quiera's Cousin. Donald Wardlow - Sleeping Passenger. Pat West - Diner Hostess. Red West - William. Lane 'Roc' Williams - Roc. Source – www.imdb.com 29 September 08.

COMPANY: Director - Ramin Bahrani. Screenplay Writers (alpha order) - Bahareh Azimi, Ramin Bahrani. Producer - Ramin Bahrani. Co-Executive Producer - Steve Bannatyne. Co-Producer - Kathryn Dean. Executive Producer - Brian Devine. Executive Producer - Brooke Devine. Producer - Jason Orans. Associate Producer - Summer Shelton. Executive Producer for ITVS - Sally Jo Fifer. Original Music - M Lo. Cinematographer - Michael Simmonds. Film Editor - Ramin Bahrani. Production Designer - Chad Keith. Art Director - Adam Willis. Set Decorator - Adam Willis. Post-Production Supervisor - David Laster. Post-Production Supervisor - Adam Spielberg. Second Assistant Director - Alexandra Dimopoulos. First Assistant Director - Scott Kyger. Graphic Artist - Jennifer Wynn O'Kelly. Foley Artist - Leslie Bloom. Re-Recording Mixer - Tom Efinger. Sound Supervisor - Tom Efinger. Boom Operator - Jonathon FitzSimons. ADR Engineer - Eric Gitelson. Foley Engineer - Eric Gitelson. Boom Operator - Christopher Holmes. Production Sound Mixer - Jack Hutson. Sound Mixer - Giles Khan. Sound Recorder - Robert Kirk. Sound Designer - Abigail Savage. Re-Recording Mix Artist - Nicholas Schenck (as Nicholas J Schenck). Dialogue Editor - Brian Scibinico. Foley Editor - David Scott. Boom Operator - Brian Sides. Special Effects Makeup - Casey Tow. Still Photographer - Hooman Bahrani. Grip - Derrick Brown. Best Boy Electric - Matthew Clark. Grip - Keith Cutler. Grip - Cory Doggett. Second Assistant Camera - Vince Gonzalez. Grip - Anthony Gregory. Grip - Anthony Holderfield. Gaffer - Mark Koenig. Additional Grip - Marcus Mizelle. Key Grip - Joseph Paolini. Grip - David Short. First Assistant Camera - Linda Slater. Grip - Travis Van Sweden. Still Photographer - Travis Van Sweden. Casting - Maura Anderson. Casting Assistant - Freddy Schaefer. Casting - Summer Shelton. Casting Assistant - Sandra Trujillo. Wardrobe Supervisor - Victoria Hoke. First Assistant Editor - Salvatore Caino. Assistant Editor - Katie Haggerty. Music Supervisor - Joe Rudge. Music Coordinator - Nick Snow. Intern - Jacob Atchley. Manager Noruz Films - Hooman Bahrani. Intern - Alessandra Bazo. Production Assistant - Andrew Beguin. Production Coordinator - Kat Comfort. Script Supervisor - Nicholas Elliott. Titles - David Frisco. Legal Services - Jonathan Gray. Production Assistant - Christopher Holmes. Production Assistant - Javon Jackson. Intern - Trevor Metscher. Key Production Assistant - Rebecca Moore. Assistant To Director - Alex Moratto. Intern - Sarah Porter. Intern - Juliana Robles. Assistant To Producer - Pamela Ryan. Production Assistant - Casey Tow. Intern - Ben Wolf. Production Companies - Gigantic Pictures, Lucky Hat Entertainment, Noruz Films. Distributors - Axiom Films (UK theatrical), Imagine Films Distribution (Belgium theatrical), Imovision (Brazil theatrical), Maximum Film Distribution Canada theatrical), Xenix Filmdistribution (Switzerland theatrical). International Sales - Cinetic Media. Legal Services - Gray Krauss. Dedication - for Sandra Trujillo de Moyano (1974-2008). Credits Source - www.imdb.com 29 September 08; producer's notes at LFF screening 29 September 08.

END

John Park

reviewed Monday 29 September 08 / press screening / NFT 2, National Film Theatre London

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012

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