‘A Cup Of Coffee And New Shoes On Review: An Extraordinary Bond Is Tested In A Deeply Moving Brotherhood Drama
In a beautiful apartment in Tirana, bathed in bright morning light, a handsome young man, asleep, prepares breakfast. He is later joined by his twin brother and his girlfriend, who turn on the radio and make the boys dance a bit before sitting down at the table. The meticulously observed morning routine, in which the Albanian writer-director opens coffee and Gentian Kosi's new shoes, is a satisfying slice of life that would be unrecognizable if not for baptism and clumsy dancing. And the wife goes to work and the coffee cup hits the floor so hard that neither brother responds with a heartbeat.
Brothers Agim and Gezim (Portuguese actors Rafael and Edgar Morais, who give a pair of brilliant performances), carpenters, have been deaf since birth. As a result, the close association we expect between identical twins is tighter; They communicate with others through gestures and lip reading, but a personal language has developed between them, involving exchanges of touch and glances rather than words. Their indisputable interdependence survives the appearance of a third party; Joy's girlfriend, Anna (a wonderfully touching Drita Kabashi), who in another film might have been a source of conflict or jealousy, has instead become an inseparable part of their lives, to the point of some; As long as he knows the priority of brotherly relations for both of them.
For a while, as Joy and Dawn go their beautiful way, drama emerges in Koci's narrative, even though they are disabled, they are fed up and busy, working in the middle of nowhere and smoking and played cards drunk with their friends. Or take a short detour to his town, where old men challenge "village boys" with raccoons and bear hugs. But this harmony is disrupted when Dawn shows signs of vision impairment. He hides his fear from his brother and Anna as long as he can. But his eyesight continues to deteriorate and the three return to the doctor, who gives a dire prognosis. In a few months, Dawn will be irrevocably blinded by terrible short-sightedness. Soon he needs the help of Joy or Ana for the simplest tasks: shaving, dressing, going to the bathroom.
Dawn's expectations of Joy add to her despair as the weight of the ruins grows, creating yet another mystery. Meanwhile, Gezimi's fear of her brother's growing depression adds to her inability to understand why he and Agimi are not emotionally compatible for the first time. The fact that Koçi, in his second feature film, 2017, After Dawn, clearly interprets all this without falling into total sentimentality, shows the limits of his style. The understated calm of Ilyas Adami's cinematography and the slow, steady pace of Merto Carra's editing allow the narrative to draw its strength from moments and relationships that occur as naturally as breathing. Dawn was frustrated trying to learn Braille. Gezi also watches Anna undressing in her bedroom. Anna comforts Dawn after an unusual tantrum at his birthday party; It's so small but so soft it makes her cry. They can barely stand.
The low end in particular allows the performance to flourish and all three tracks are amazing. And the cleverly and generously portrayed supporting characters are gritty and full of character, even though this is a movie where there are no bad guys, just good guys trying to be nice to each other. For others, or especially when it's luck. . For some it may be very unfair. However, the unique chemistry between the Morai brothers (who are deaf and learned Albanian sign language for their role) really elevates the film. A striking physical similarity magnifies the mood change or phase loss between them into a tectonic phenomenon. And the brief but intimate entry into the twins' shared world is also what makes the coffee cup and the new shoes, which builds the final scene to give a terrifying meaning to this inappropriate title. Such an unusual discovery. A true-life tragedy that lifts the heart even as it shatters the image of a deeply moving and unconditional brotherly bond.
