A single travel writer undergoes a personal conflict on an unexpectedly extended stay in Barcelona in Alex Burunova’s Lonely Planet. A young American woman long estranged from her home country, and from any close source of immediate human affection, engages in a romantic encounter with a disarming local – they are of similar age and similar attractiveness though not of a similar attitude toward love. Her emotional resistance shows barely a sign of buckling even as her physical resistance soon subsides – her Spanish sojourn lengthening with each passing day.
Burunova is a sensitive filmmaker, gifted with an insight that she perhaps doesn’t put to perfect use in Lonely Planet, though her stylish short is certain to resonate with a lot of young women, and is an impressively assured piece from such an inexperienced filmmaker.
Lonely Planet is shown on Day Six of the Femme Filmmakers Festival.
