The film Meander is presented by a little-known at the moment French director Mathieu Turi. One senses that the filmmaker was as tight on budget as Lisa was on limited space. In addition, the director explains little, placing hope on the viewer, who must think it all out himself. Okay, the viewer is not in the first place, but I would like to get some explanations and hints. It would be much more interesting to empathize with the heroine and follow the path proposed by the director with her.
Trying to get to the city on a cold night road, a young woman named Lisa apprehensively gets into the car of a mysterious stranger, who gently offers her to get to the city. While making such a decision, there were still notes of doubt and fear in her head.
Initially, the picture is that Lisa is lying on the road and decides to get up only when the car pulls up very close. What’s this? Suicidal tendencies? But let’s continue.
Her doubts were justified and the driver turned out to be a maniac, which was just being broadcast on the radio. Realizing that his fellow traveler has identified him as a wanted killer, he suddenly slows down. Lisa hits and loses consciousness. Then she wakes up in a cramped metal box, dressed in a strange suit and with a brightly glowing futuristic device on her wrist. Thus begins her journey through a system of narrow high-tech tunnels filled with deadly traps and clever obstacles. To gain freedom, you must reach the end of the path. For avid moviegoers, this is another revised chamber story and a clear reference to the movie “Cube”, only the number of characters here is reduced to an absolute minimum.
It is not known why the word “running” is present in the title of the film, since the tunnels are very narrow and you can only crawl through them. The original name of the film is “Meander”, which means an ornament with geometric segments located at right angles to each other. Remember the motives of Greek patterns. This is roughly what is meant. In this case, the title quite aptly characterizes the picture. After all, a sinuous ornament with straight lines resembles a labyrinth, in which all fantastic horror takes place. But this word will say little to the mass audience and the company came up with a more commercial name. However, the tie-in to the teen franchise obviously didn’t work here. Therefore, an urgent question arises: “Why running?” If most of the time the heroine overcomes obstacles by crawling. The desire to earn as much money as possible from the rental ruined everything.
In the film, everything is subordinated to survival and a collision with the personal tragedies of the heroine’s real world, which will become a more terrible obstacle on the way to freedom. The creators diluted the fear and the glimmering hope of a personal drama, sometimes allowing the heroine to straighten up to her full height. The rest will be covered in fog even in the finale. The film’s ending is open and has maneuvers for a variety of interpretations. Most of the time, it is proposed to experience a state of oppressive loneliness and claustrophobia that have saturated the walls of this labyrinth. The feeling of complete misunderstanding of what is happening and the creeping danger enhances the atmosphere of unrelenting horror. Only Lisa’s thoughts can be called “running” in this low-budget film, which is stuffed with references to other more commercially successful works. When the bracelet on her arm blinked, reminding her of the expiring time for passing the next test, her thoughts became lightning fast and feverishly rushed about in search of the right actions. This is due to the fact that the human value system is primarily focused on survival.
We promised to return to a possible suicide? As you watch the film, the fate of Lisa is poorly narrated and it becomes known that she could not save her child from accidental death and the girl died very young. This, of course, did not allow to live and breathe fully. Constant remorse, accusations against oneself and life with such a burden leaves its mark, and many, unable to cope with this, want to die. In this case, it is possible to draw an analogy between the trials of the heroine and her psychological dysmorality, which is experienced by a mother who has lost her child.
It can be assumed that the labyrinth was a testing ground for people who decided to commit suicide. And its successful passage was getting rid of suicidal thoughts and a chance to love your existence again. After going through all the tunnels and finding a way out, Lisa got rid of the feelings that pulled her like a stone to the bottom. She received the right to start a new life, but in another, unknown universe. This is another one of the possible options for interpreting the finale.
Since the movie goes beyond realism, it’s safe to assume that Lisa has died. Everything that happens to her is a kind of idea of the author about the test of the soul after death, something like Purgatory. And on how the dead person goes his way through the labyrinth, it will depend on where his soul will go. Well, Lisa coped and went to heaven.
