Alex Burunova’s feature debut, Satisfaction, screening at BFI Flare, is a sun-kissed psychological thriller that explores pain and healing with unrelenting tension.
Screened this weekend at BFI Flare, Satisfaction is a work that grapples with trauma and desire. Excavating the complex, fragile relationship between composers Lola (Emma Laird) and Phillip (Fionn Whitehead), this twisting drama flits between their beginning and what may become their end. It is the feature directorial debut of Alex Burunova, known for her award-winning short Lonely Planet and Netflix documentary Enter The Anime. Grounded in personal experience, Burunova, who first told this story as a play over a decade ago, explores pain and healing with unrelenting tension in this sun-kissed psychological thriller.
At first, the film appears to focus on the slow and bitter unravelling of a couple on holiday. Set against the beautiful scenery of Antiparos, Phillip and Lola are seen to hold an invisible, silent yet unbearable weight between them. Shifting between this beautiful island and London’s East End, we begin to see a better image of the two and how they arrived at this point. The first hour unfolds under mounting tension, as a picture of what was and what has become takes shape. Lola, once animated and cheerful, is seen drained, quiet and cold in the present, only slightly revived when she meets the captivating Elena on a nudist beach. Their mutual attraction is palpable, and Lola’s open desire for her makes Phillip even more concerned.
Just as the spectator begins to grasp the couple’s relationship and its trajectory, and starts to suspect the reasons for its bitter tension, one violent, enduring scene ruptures the tone and narrative. Suddenly, everything before and after this moment is seen in a different light, and Lola’s trauma and pain are foregrounded.
Burunova does well in depicting the contrast between these very different times. In every way, Lola’s before-and-after is distinct. The colourful chaos of London is marked by pleasurable, discordant sounds that Lola is seen to enjoy as a composer. We see her draw inspiration from her surroundings, fully enthralled by her art and passion. By comparison, the Greek island, though breathtaking, feels isolated, shrouded in cool tones and tense ambient noise, as Lola struggles to focus on her music. At moments, the film frames the body against Antiparos’ natural landscape in ways that evoke Alain Guiraudie’s Stranger by the Lake, lending these scenes a similar sensorial intensity. Satisfaction’s sound designer, Javier Umpierrez, continues this sensoriality, creating a rich, complex sound for each landscape, blending field recordings to construct distinct atmospheres.
Sound plays a crucial role in the film’s exploration of trauma, shaping these sharp contrasts and forming the silence that descends when life feels suspended. At other moments, the loud crashing of waves, paired with shots of vast seascapes and large rock formations, heightens a sense of human insignificance and of Lola’s own helplessness.
Emma Laird (The Brutalist) gives an outstanding performance as Lola, portraying the boisterous rising star that was, as well as the angry, pained woman who comes after. Marked by trauma and weariness, Laird manages to embody a shell of a person, still searing with spite and bitterness. Fionn Whitehead (The Duke) captures Phillip’s character with understated strength, delivering the subtle resignation that defines his presence. Iranian-French actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi (Holy Spider) is the patient and beautiful Elena, whose openness reconnects Lola with her identity, her queerness and her desire.
With brilliant performances and meticulously crafted design, Satisfaction delves into trauma, healing and identity in a way that is both intimate and unflinching. Through a careful interplay of narrative structure, sound and cinematography, Burunova’s approach is immersive, drawing the audience into Lola’s emotional landscape and struggles. Some scenes are hard to watch, with the point of unravelling, nestled deep within the centre of the film, thoroughly harrowing and almost excessively long. Forcing viewers to confront the rawness of the pain depicted, it is a bold and thoughtful work that may prove overwhelming for some.
The film is a deeply personal and striking debut that balances beauty and brutality, intimacy and distance. It captures trauma with remarkable honesty, artistry, and resonance, while examining how sound can give voice to the unspoken.
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