If you threw some David Lynch and Wong Kar Wai movies in a blender along with the mood and palette of Blade Runner, mixed them up and threw them on a canvas, you would get a psychedelic Jackson Pollock work of twisted dreams and reality battered with ear and eye piercing sound and colors titled, Call for Dreams.

“Every act of recording transforms the present into memory.”
Eko runs an ad in the paper soliciting a Call for Dreams. She receives messages about people’s dreams on her cassette answering machine. If she chooses the person, she helps to reenact the dream, much like a call girl only without the sex. Somehow the dreams shared and reenacted become intertwined with reality. Or do they? There is a fine line between dream and dreamer, reality and alternate realities, perhaps even sanity and madness.

“There is no ‘real’ anymore. You choose to act in a reality of your choice.”
The world Eko resides in is eternally dark and raining. Blue and pink lights follow her juxtaposed with pungent greens and yellows, and pops of retina damaging reds. City nightlines are showcased as she hurls through brightly lit tunnels. The music, colors, and movements twirl surreally as in a dream state. Only when the camera focuses on a police officer in Israel does it appear anchored in reality and then like a puff of smoke, the reality changes.

“People want to remember events, not necessarily in the way they happened.”
Is the film about dreams, reality, or memory? Only director Ran Slavin knows for sure. If you are in the mood for a mind tripping, illusion of reality and dream, this might be one to try. Keep in mind, “Is the dreamer dreaming the dream or is the dream dreaming the dreamer?"

11 April 2024