Written and directed by Alex Burunova, set against the Greek isles, British composers Lola and Philip’s relationship lingers in silence. When she meets magnetic Elena and brings her into the fold, tensions rise, forcing Lola to confront her dark past. Starring: Emma Laird, Fionn Whitehead, Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Adwoa Aboah.
At the heart of Satisfaction is the very vital, poignant issue of sexual assault, and how it impacts relationships, mental health and its many other consequences. It’s a topic that absolutely deserves and needs continued exploration as it’s such a complex subject and it ceaselessly impacts countless people across the world. Especially when it comes to how it can make survivors look at themselves and impact their decision making. That’s really what Alex Burunova attempts to dig into with this film.
It follows Emma Laird’s Lola as the fractures from that traumatic moment continue to follow her, and the help that she needs to arrive at a place where she can confront those memories and feelings, in order to not be confined by them. It’s a meaningful story to tell, but it feels as though we’re only getting a small portion of it here. It’s as if it never progresses beyond that initial moment, it doesn’t take time to truly explore the other elements of abuse or the bigger picture of their relationship before moving onto Lola’s blossoming connection with Elena (Zar Amir Ebrahimi).
Part of that is Burunova brings a performative style to Satisfaction, it feels driven by a theatrical nature and influenced by a poetic vision rather than going for raw, powerful drama. That does give plenty of opportunity for Laird to bring a great deal of emotion to this role, which she does in spades, it’s an incredibly injured, vulnerable portrayal, but we don’t really get to know her character outside of that. Laird brings a quality to Lola that gives the impression she has been abused before, and that background feels intensely linked to what happens in the film, but is never developed.
There’s only a handful of elements to this story, and while each of them do work well, they’re not enough to sustain the film and to get to grips with the depth that Satisfaction is calling out for. Particularly when it comes to Zar Amir Ebrahimi’s Elena, she’s intriguing, alluring, intelligent, emotionally available and compassionate but we learn quite little about her. Ebrahimi, as she always does, brings such a wonderful presence to the film but isn’t given the space to make full use of her talents. Whereas it feels very appropriate to not dedicate too much time to Fionn Whitehead’s Philip. He hits exactly the right notes, establishes what kind of person his character is, and lets the focus mostly remain on the women.
The visual side of things is another solid element, but the cinematography intensely leans into that blue palette, which doesn’t create much separation between past and present. It also limits the variety to the scenes, making it overly consistent. Especially when it is so emotionally charged, it would have been great to see the aesthetic matching its ups and downs more succinctly, bringing a sharpness, as it can feel quite cold.
The directorial style can also tend to rely on the audience’s interpretation a little too often, allowing the dialogue to fade out and the direction to drift in an atmospheric fashion. It’s an interesting choice, especially with how they employ sound, and you can see the intention to not be too on the nose and add some individuality with the movement but without that bigger depth to the story to back it up, it doesn’t quite work as well as it wants to.
Satisfaction has the best of intentions and chose a very worthy topic, but the story feels underdeveloped. It’s rife with emotion and comes from a vulnerable, sensitive and thoughtful place, but it moves slowly and draws out a handful of moments. Especially its key traumatic scene which is overly extended and ultimately ends up taking away from the atmosphere. The performances are solid across the board, especially Zar Amir Ebrahimi who was a terrific addition. Unfortunately, it’s simply focused too intently and needed to widen its perspective and add more detail to reach the full emotional heights of this story.
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