Levitating

the locals and emphasizes the role of community, humanity and harmony. Levitating does something which many films fail to do, it doesn't preach you directly what it conveys, instead focuses on providing a story which is so hypnotic, electric and constantly gripping you into the spiritual trance world. It presents a viewing experience that's utterly unique, creative, and thrilling in a way that's rare in cinema, It makes you curious about artform/ritual, why it is performed, the history, the reasoning, it just fucks your mind with the things you are witnessing on the screen. Its just unbelievable. The specific ritual showcased in the film, called sambetan, is an invented, fictionalized art form created specifically for the movie. However, it is deeply rooted in real, ancient Indonesian trance and spirit-possession dance traditions that are widely practiced across the country. But even though its fictional world, its deeply rooted into daily struggles and the importance of community and age old traditions. The humans running from and reconciling with past trauma, about human connections to nature, about family conflicts, about holding onto what they believe in, all this laid out through a surreal ritual of animal spirit possession dances and absurd humor backed by magical music, a hypnotic traditional-modern combo that delivers this year's most spiritual viewing experience. It's one of the wildest films of the year where you will have a blast watching it.