Written by Alexander Reams
The Year of the Everlasting Storm is an anthology film that brings together 7 filmmakers from around the world during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and shows what these filmmakers made at home and how they utilized this extended period of time, think a smaller version of the Netflix series Homemade.
Dir. Jafar Panâhi
45/100
Life is the beginning of The Year of the Everlasting Storm, brought to us by Jafar Panâhi, of Iranian New Wave and The White Balloon fame. Its concept is a simple one, it follows Panâhi and his family as they navigate the uncertain times of the early pandemic days. The concept did pique my interest but unfortunately, after the 56,783rd shot of a lizard doing nothing I lost interest, had there only been 56,872, maybe I would’ve bought in more. There is no substance here, the only goal is either to waste 20 minutes of your time or to show what the chaos and confusion were like during the beginning of the pandemic from a smaller perspective than what other projects tackling the pandemic are focusing on. The only avenue that the film succeeds is on the former’s goal. We never really know what is going on in the house, the camera is rarely used to tell the story, it’s almost an afterthought. I wish this wasn’t my introduction to Panâhi, but it was.
The Year of the Everlasting Storm Trailer
The Year of the Everlasting Storm is available to rent or purchase on most major VOD platforms.
You can connect with Alexander on his social media profiles: Instagram, Letterboxd, and Twitter. Or see more of his work on his website.
