Fish Tank Andrea Arnold

Mia is a troubled teenage girl living with her promiscuous mother and younger sister in Essex. Between dance moves and an imposed adulthood, she falls for her mother’s young boyfriend, and the energies start to become slightly more fragile.

As clichéd as this storyline may sound, don’t make any swift conclusions about Fish Tank. What starts out as a British council estate family (melo)drama turns out to be an intense observation of the dynamics of human relationships.

Andrea Arnold knows how to set the mood for her gifted actors to perform. The feminine gaze upon them is consciously intimate, with a striking light that favours texture and tone. However, Fish Tank’s extraordinary certain regard on personal desires is the use of a sensuous slow-motion accompanied by a stylized accentuation of sound; once the breathing slows down, it’s all about heartbeats. Still, even when we return to the hard realities of life, Arnold manages to maintain a dose of relief and the film avoids drowning in despair.

From a certain point through the film you might feel that credits could roll at any time, but each new chapter is a revelation, and ultimately, a reassurance that Britain’s got talent!


Eftihia Stefanidi