One of the more compelling discoveries we came across on the festival circuit last year was Andrew Legge’s directorial debut Lola, a faux found footage film that plays with historical and science fiction. Starring Stefanie Martini, Emma Appleton, Rory Fleck Byrne, and Aaron Monaghan, the film follows two sisters in 1941 Englad who invent a machine that intercepts broadcasts from the future. With World War II dawning, they use it to change history. Picked up by Dark Star Films for a U.S. release in theaters and on VOD on August 9, the first trailer has now arrived.
Here’s the official synopsis: “1941, sisters Thom and Mars have built a machine, LOLA, that can intercept radio and TV broadcasts from the future. This allows them to listen to iconic music before it has been made, place bets knowing what the outcome will be and embrace their inner punk well before the movement came into existence. But with the Second World War escalating, the sisters decide to use the machine for good to intercept information from the future that could help with military intelligence. The machine initially proves to be a huge success, rapidly twisting the fortunes of the war against the Nazis. While Thom becomes intoxicated by LOLA, Mars begins to realize the terrible consequences of its power.”
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Unfurling over the course of some years, though running just 79 minutes, Lola works small wonders with the time-hopping narrative techniques of found footage. Legge also peppers the period setting with nice inaccuracies—two decades before Primary, Thomasina has pioneered vérité and the lightweight handheld recorder. Lola is often at its best when charged with those jolts of anachronism. With their device the sisters watch Bowie play “Space Oddity” on the BBC and observe the Apollo 11 moon landing. They ingrain modern slang into their lexicons. In a later scene they belt out a hit from the ’60s to a room of WWII officers, like Marty McFly with ‘Johnny B Goode.'”
See the trailer and poster below.
Lola opens on August 4 in theaters and on VOD.