Chaotic Ana is a very difficult conceptual film to watch, called pretentious and pointless by many, or challenging and profound by others. You cannot watch it as a linear story. This film requires of you a willingness to accept the odd, the chaos and the surprising. This film requires of you a willingness to embrace Medem's personal intimate story as it is related to Medem's late sister Anne, who was a remarkable painter.
Chaotic Ana touches Universal themes and myths related to the Female and the myths of the Motherland (from Oedipus and Electra to primitive matriarchal mythologies). In his odyssey of discovery of The Female, Medem takes us from the cave to the skyscraper using the Ocean as a linking element
Chaotic Ana is -despite some shocking violent scenes- an ode against male violence and wars, and against those individuals who start them; however, the film also shows a blind faith in the goodness of Human Kind despite the tragedies and havoc that we create.
Chaotic Ana is both a reflection on Death and the void left by the departed - Medem's tribute to his late sister.
Chaotic Ana is also an invitation to see Art as a form of individual expression, a timeless biography of the living, and a living legacy of the deceased. I especially liked some of visual shows shown in the House of the Artists.
The editing is complex and very dynamic. Every small detail in the film has a meaning and it is intricately related to what is happening in the story as a whole. This is one of those films that you need to watch more than once -if you dare or care enough- to get everything. The film continuously unsettles the viewer, and there are some gory, violent and shock sex scenes.
The international cast members are just OK in their performances, but this is not a movie for them to shine as the script is what matters, and they are, in a way, just Medem's "mediums".
Movies like this are never popular or highly rated, and are hated or loved, nothing in between. I loved it, but some of my friends -who are also fans of Medem- totally hated it. I always love a mental challenge, odd stuff, and artistic honesty, and this film has all of those things. However, the mediocre performances, the intellectual complexity of the script, and the length of the film do not help the viewer to connect with the film at an emotional level, just at an intellectual one, and not always. This is a pity, because that emotional connection is what Medem was looking for in the viewer.
This is a film not for the faint hearted. Not easy to watch. Difficult. Complex. Intricate. Interesting, nevertheless.
