Caroline Labrèche and Steeve Léonard
Radius

One of my great regrets is never having gone all the way through the various editions of the classic sci-fi series "The Twilight Zone." Perhaps I keep postponing because it seems like too big of an endeavor for me to tackle, and one of my greatest limitations is getting scared of anything I can't "measure." This prevents me from keeping control of the situation, and having control (or at least thinking I do) is something I always and anyway need in every circumstance. Nevertheless, I can confidently assert that I love those kinds of minimal, brief, and straightforward sci-fi stories with a typically vintage character that manage to be essential even in their brevity: telling a compelling story rich with insights in a short time and with limited means. With a limited number of settings and characters.

Clearly, this imagery has nothing to do with the typical blockbusters of the mammoth Hollywood productions, but fortunately, independent cinema (as already emphasized in the past) often offers us interesting insights. Take "Radius" (2017) by Caroline Labrèche and Steeve Léonard. This Canadian film certainly aligns with the type of scheme already mentioned, telling a story that also touches upon some of the typical themes of an imaginary Stephen King, which was very influential, particularly during the eighties and the beginning of the next decade. We are in Manitoba, in western Canada, and a man and a woman, survivors of an accident, remember nothing of their past or each other, but discover they are connected by a very particular bond of reciprocity. Liam (Diego Klattenhoff), in fact, in a way that goes beyond his will, cannot be approached: anyone who gets within fifty feet of him immediately falls dead. But if Liam is accompanied by Jane (Charlotte Sullivan), this power of his (which seems more like a kind of curse) is nullified. Held together by this sort of "bond," the two will try to reconstruct their story while escaping the police, who are on their trail, until the shocking and unexpected truth.

Many aspects, particularly those that are typically sci-fi, actually remain unresolved, which may leave viewers puzzled according to a typical scheme that leaves many doors open to imagination and interpretation. But my idea is that an explanation is not always necessary, and aside from that, it is perhaps this choice that makes "Radius" a good film: establishing how far one can go without then falling into banality or excess. In reality, as one will be able to see, there will still not be a lack of ethical and moral content, and according to a reinterpretation of the ancient "Dantean" law of retribution, bringing death ultimately reveals itself as a painful punishment that does not resolve anything, because violence cannot wash away the blood spilled with more violence but only makes everything around it desolate.