THE STORY – During a massive power outage, two best friends explore their sweltering city streets, seeking adventure and relief from the scorching summer temperatures.
THE CAST – Joshua Obra, Arianna Shannon, Dashawn Blackwood, Milan Deng, Trinity Lloyd & Ericka Leobrera
THE TEAM – Serville Poblete (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 82 Minutes
There are those who believe that year ‘round in Toronto, we live swamped by snowdrifts and some arctic chill, with polar bears wandering the streets and giant moose hidden around every corner. Yet for those that haven’t experienced it, a hot, sticky summer day in this city can be near infernal, a sweat-dripping exercise that turns our urban landscape into a formidable, sauna-like experience. It’s on one of those hot, lazy days that local filmmaker Serville Poblete sets his spare yet affecting film “Sunburn,” a detailed portrait of youth, friendship, and just trying to survive the heat set with the looming towers of Toronto’s St. James Town shading the courtyards where these characters gather.
This part of the city has its own storied past. Developed as a series of high rise apartments just to the north and east of the city’s downtown core, it has become a cloistered environment over the years, home to many that are economically disadvantaged but growing up within mere meters of the multimillion dollar mansions of neighbouring Rosedale. For many, these are places one simply drives by on the way downtown, passing the people lounging outside and giving little thought to their own experiences. It’s this sense of both isolation and shared community that provides “Sunburn” with much of its heat, showcasing a vibrancy and inter-cultural connection that’s too often blinded from even those living within proximity to these fellow Torontonians. Without being overtly political or needlessly polemical, Poblete’s take uses some of the same effective gazing at a group of individuals akin to Spike Lee’s masterwork of hot day portraiture in “Do The Right Thing,” while more closely adhering to the more subtle coming-of-age fare of the underappreciated and joyous “Crooklyn.”
Poblete’s ensemble is exceptional, and he captures each conversation with a documentary-like precision. The camera often lingers tightly on the faces of those we meet, allowing their microexpressions to be brought to the fore, akin to the same impulse to be drawn that much more intimately into the denizens of this single block of apartments while recognizing that an entire world can be contained within.
Briskly told in just over 80 minutes, Poblete’s film still manages to feel as languid as the summer day it captures. With an improvised feeling clearly drawn from a capable cast that go beyond so many tired clichés of young people onscreen, there’s a strong sense of place and time; that liminal moment for many where one needs to leave the comfort of one’s community, even if the challenges are overt. It’s these almost existential concerns discussed whilst laying about and dreaming of the impending arrival of the ice cream truck that give the film much of its power and effect.
“Sunburn” is a warm embrace of a particular group coming to terms with their own life changes as well as their sense of self and belonging. Told through a series of conversational vignettes, it’s a love letter to a community, and a vision of Toronto that’s too often masked by other, more mainstream or even clichéd representations. It’s a film that refuses to fall into the usual, rote elements emphasizing financial or social impoverishment. It instead focusses on that feeling where one bakes in the heat of the hottest day of the year, unafraid to get hurt a bit by the sun shining down, but warmed by the feeling of togetherness.
