Tuvalu

Name: Tuvalu
Director: Veit Helmer
Released: 1999

Veit Helmer

1999

Synopsis

Set in a dilapidated indoor swimming pool (the Central Baths in Sofia), the film details the efforts of Anton, a clueless dreamer who yearns to sail the world, and Martha, the button obsessed cashier, to maintain the illusion for Anton's blind father that business is thriving. Working to sabotage their efforts is Gregor - Anton's brother - an amoral developer who is determined to raze the entire town and construct a sprawling condominium complex. Gregor engineers an accident that seems certain to doom the business and in the process steals away Eva, the beautiful woman of Anton's dreams. Will Gregor's dastardly plan succeed?

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Recommendations

100
Austin Chronicle
A concept executed with bravura style, intelligent curiosity, and playful wit.
88
Boston Globe
Astounding. It is also bizarre, challenging, and, at times, admirably overreaching. In short, it's the kind of ambitious little film that can leave critics in a swoon and American moviegoers scratching their heads.
70
Film Threat
Ultimately a rewarding -- if weird -- experience. It's just too bad that it takes so long to get there.
67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Has its own peculiar charm.
63
Chicago Tribune
It is filled with imposing and beautiful imagery, though it becomes increasingly monotonous.
63
New York Daily News
It may take a half-hour to get one's bearings, but there's a payoff in the subsequent charm of this nearly wordless, surreal comedy set in a decrepit bathhouse in Bulgaria.
60
Los Angeles Times
This one-of-a kind charmer casts an immediate and delightful spell.
60
TV Guide Magazine
The film's tone is a matter of taste -- the more you enjoy the melancholy silent comedies of Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, the more likely you are to embrace its sensibility -- but it's undeniably the product of a singular and beautifully realized vision.