Tribeca 2021: Last Film Show Review

This will be one of several reviews from this year’s Tribeca film Festival. To follow our coverage, click here.

Do you remember your first movie theater experience?

Last Film Show‘s purpose is to appeal to one’s love of movies and the extent to which they can impact our determination to not just recreate that feeling but to find diverse ways to share it with others.

Last Film Show recreates this experience through the eyes of Samay (Bhavin Rabari), a 9yr-old boy in a remote village of India whose life is forever changed after seeing a film in a movie theater. From there, Samay embarks on a mission of discovery as he attempts to not only understand how films are made but find elementary methods to spread the same joy and wonder he experienced to the people of his village. He does this in spite of the disapproval from his father, Bapuji (Dipen Raval), a local tea merchant who has been struck down by life and is unable to see the relevance of Samay’s determination to be something more than his pre-determined station which only spurs Samay closer to his goal.

Samay’s journey takes him to his local theater where he befriends the projectionist, Fazal (Bhavesh Shrimali), who aids him on his quest. As their friendship grows, so does Samay’s consumption of the art’s inner workings as he begins learning the essence of light, camerawork, and set-piece creation. But however inspired, Samay cannot fight off the inevitable as theaters begin shifting to a digital world. How Rabari emotes this sense of evolution is remarkable and is on full display in one of the most somber and moving scenes this year. Seeing the world through the eyes of a child can be a magical experience.

To have that same experience turned on an insatiable passion for something as impactful as cinema is stunning and Last Film Show expertly navigates Samay’s burgeoning journey of exploration and discovery with an art medium that is capable of providing so much more than just entertainment. In the end, the film is an ode to movies and the inspiration they can cultivate but also exemplifies an empathy in all of those that have ever fallen in love with the theater experience.

still courtesy of Required Viewing

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