Mayday

For our first international coverage of the Sundance Film Festival, we had carefully selected about twenty American films and we must admit that none of the films we discovered disappointed us and on the contrary, they perfectly reflect independent cinema with all its inventiveness, its lot of new directors and promising young talents. This is the case here of the writer and director Karen Cinorre who is making a promising debut with her first film Mayday.

As a strong storm approaches, a young woman, Ana (Grace Van Patten) at her workplace will find herself incomprehensibly transported to a parallel world in which she will join a team of female soldiers with different behaviors in a never-ending war. She will have to arm herself with her unfailing courage to not only integrate this troop but also to succeed in a perilous mission. In this world close to a dangerous sea, Ana will not only have to train in marksmanship but also prepare herself physically to take up a major challenge. She will also have to find a way to return to her world before it is too late.

While action cinema is dominated by men, it is interesting to see this independent film featuring a troop of female soldiers. Although the film will remind some people of Zack Snyder's excellent Sucker Punch, director Karen Cinorre takes her film in a completely different direction and puts more emphasis on the psychology of the characters. The careful direction is accompanied by excellent photography and an interesting cast (Grace Van Patten, Mia Goth, Havana Rose Liu, Soko). The will to propose a mix of genres wanted by the director works perfectly and keeps us in suspense throughout the story.

Mayday easily establishes itself as one of the best discoveries of the Sundance festival and we will follow with interest the upcoming films of Karen Cinorre. We also hope that this film will be distributed in the United States as well as in France... We will keep you informed of its evolution...

Mayday
Written and directed by Karen Cinorre
Produced by Jonah Disend, Lucas Joaquin, Karen Cinorre, Sam Levy
Co-Producer: Amanda Messenger
Production Designer: Ivan Velja?a
Costume Designer : Ola Staszko
Executive Producers: Gabriella Ludlow, Oscar Boyson
Starring Grace Van Patten, Mia Goth, Havana Rose Liu, Soko, Théodore Pellerin, Juliette Lewis
Music by Colin Stetson
Cinematography: Sam Levy
Visual Effects Supervisor: Andrew Lim
Edited by Nicholas Ramirez
Distributed by Mayday Pictures, LLC
Release date: January 31, 2021 (Sundance)
Running time: 100 minutes

Seen on February 01, 2021 (Sundance Festival)

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