Chulpan Khamatova, Denis Lavant, E.J. Callahan

Tuvalu is the name of an island which Anton dreams of escaping to -- a dream which seems unlikely to come true, given that he works as the maintenance man at the dilapidated and largely deserted pool ...( read more  read more... )owned by his father. Located in the middle of nowhere, the pool has been going out of business for years, but Anton goes to elaborate measures to convince his blind father that the pool is still popular and frequented. When Anton's entrepreneur brother Gregor hatches a scheme to have the pool razed and sold off as real estate, Anton must enlist the help of the few regulars who support the pool. Banding together, the group attempts to save the pool from a health inspection that will put it out of business, while Anton tries to win the love of his longtime friend Eva.

Flixster Users

92% liked it

1,763 ratings

Critics

73% liked it

26 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 41 min.

Directed by: Veit Helmer

Release Date: January 1, 1999

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DVD Release Date: September 24, 2002

Stats: 113 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (113)


  • June 28, 2009
    Con tal vez 2 o 3 minutos de diálogo es una película muy cargada de palabras y sentido.
  • April 19, 2009
    Probably the weirdest movie i've ever seen but the truth is i couldn't stop watching it not even for a second... Definately a must see!
  • February 25, 2009
    Una película muy difícil de describir pero es todo un placer verla
  • February 2, 2009
    one of the best M.O.S films ever.
  • September 16, 2008
    What a wonderful movie! yes, it's like Metropolis remade by Guy Maddin as a Jean-Pierre Jeunet love story, but somehow it's so much more than that. Every directorial choice Helmer made, from the perfect casting, to keeping the dialog gestural and nearly non-verbal, to the childis...( read more)hly simple plot, to filming in sepiatone with hand-tinted accents, adds up to pure cinematic magic. A movie that reminds you why you love movies.
  • September 13, 2008
    At first you really don't know what going on. But the uniqueness of the film is where it stands out.
  • April 22, 2008
    To say cute would be underrated. But it counts and carries a impressive massage about the break down of the eastern block with the minimal use of dialogue.
  • April 19, 2008
    It took a little bit for me to get into the rhythm of this one, but once I figured out what was going on, I really enjoyed it. It's along the lines of surreal fairytales like "Delicatessen" and "The City of Lost Children", full of bizarre characters and eye-catching production d...( read more)esign. What I really found interesting about this one is that for all intents and purposes, this could really be a silent film. There is no need for subtitles because the dialogue is minimal and you don't really need it to follow the action. You definitely get a strong Buster Keaton vibe while watching this and the final couple shots could really be out of a Keaton film. A great movie for fans of the out-there. Was recommended to me by a coworker and I'll be thanking her for the recommendation.
  • March 27, 2008
    Filminho estranho... Mas bem feito ^__^
    E relativamente mudo (!)
  • March 26, 2008
    Anton (el francés Denis Lavan, muy cómico sin mucho esfuerzo) es un hombrecillo (cual grumete de un barco), dedicado afanosamente a mantener limpio el negocio familiar: una alberca pública. Su único objetivo es lograr que no se venga abajo y, además, que su padre, anciano inviden...( read more)te, se convenza de que la alberca está llena de gente, chapoteando, divirtiéndose ruidosamente. El padre de Anton funge un imaginario papel de salvavidas, en su silla favorita a la orilla de la alberca, para que así pueda escuchar el ruido de la gente, que no es más que una grabación desgastada, que sirve para montar una de las farsas más tiernas que un hijo haya fabricado para el beneplácito de su padre.

    Estos y otros delirios conforman Tuvalu (Idem, Alemania, 1999), del director alemán Veit Helmer (quien coescribió el guión junto a Michaela Beck y Lyudmila Merdzhanska), una película conmovedoramente extraña, y también un interesante ejercicio fotográfico conformado por una serie de imágenes delirantes, ubicadas en un lugar atemporal e inespecífico.

    La película de Helmer, cargada de imágenes sublimes (hermosa secuencia en la que Eva ejecuta una danza acuática con un pez dorado), de la mano de un surrealismo inocente, humorístico (la máquina surtidora en la taquilla), homenajea el slapstick de Chaplin y Buster Keaton, a través de unos personajes tiernos y conmovedores, que consiguen levantar un verdadero teatro del absurdo.
    Más en http://pantallanueve.blogspot.com

Critic Reviews


December 14, 2001
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

A disappointment, a precious and grotesque exercise reminiscent of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Delicatessen, only less amusing. full review

View more Tuvalu reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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