The Five Senses

With his film The Five Senses Jeremy Podeswa wants to remind us that our bond with the world is made up of human relationships. In his film he presents five possible variations on these relationships. The Five Senses is an ingenious and flexibly told drama in which the lives of several inhabitants of an apartment building who do not know each other at first are woven together. Podeswa uses the five senses as metaphors for the human failings of his protagonists. Each of his characters has problems that are represented by different senses. Ruth stands for touch, Rachel represents sight, Robert is fascinated by smells, Rona plays the sense of taste and Richard is an ophthalmologist who does not represent seeing, but hearing. He goes deaf and puts together a library of sounds before he loses his hearing all together. The story is set during three intense days and nights, after a little girl disappears in the park and worry about this incident forces the inhabitants into contact with each other. Jeremy Podeswa regards his film, that also provides a very realistic picture of modern urban life, as a journey from loneliness to a joint intimacy that is no easy destination, but is certainly worthwhile.