A drug dealer travels to Uganda in search of a psychedelic drug that grants its users insightful powers.
Review by
Benjamin Poole
Directed by: Dan Moss
Starring: Nicolas Fagerberg, Rehema Nanfuka, Esteri Tebandeke, Andrew Benon Kibuuka, Paul Dewdney
What a curious product Imperial Blue is. Ostensibly a
thriller, the promised rush of the opening sequences turns out to have
been cut with the substandard materials of would-be travelogue filler and
the stringent dust of domestic drama, compromising the purity of this
particular genre merchandise. We open in the slums of Mumbai, in one of
those prefab structures which colonise the city like massive skeletons.
Within such a hollow edifice, our man Hugo (Hugo!), who is some sort of
drug dealer, has arranged to pick up a couple of bricks of hash from his
connection. I say some sort of drug dealer because it is difficult to get
the measure of this guy. Of all the places available to him, he decides to
do a transfer worth in excess of a thousand pounds within this
cinematically wide-open space which has no visible means of evading
feds/rival gangs. He also exactly resembles those burn outs you see in
festivals: tie dyed clothes, beardy, wall eyed. Not being funny, but if
anyone looks as if they are holding it is Hugo. He is perhaps the worst
person in the world you would trust this sort of risky business to.
Of course, the deal duly goes south. Meaning that Hugo must then go cap in
hand to his boss and co (a gang who dress like extras from the
Matrix sequels - if , say, you were yourself chemically
relaxed when watching this then you may get a fair bit out of the
inadvertent absurdity of it all). Thing is, though, before the coppers
bust in, the Mumbai dealer gave Hugo this mad blue powder: a psychedelic
which allows the user to experience vague glimpses of the future. And so,
instead of simply breaking his useless co-worker’s ankles, Hugo’s boss
instead allows himself to be persuaded that in lieu of paying back what he
lost, Hugo will travel to Africa to source this revolutionary trip
wholesale. But he can’t even be trusted with a pickup! I dunno, perhaps
writers/director David Cecil and Dan Moss were on drugs when
they put this crazy joint together.
Off to Uganda Hugo goes. I had no idea that the lifestyle of a low-level
drug dealer was so jetsetting! Problem with Hugo is that he wants his
drugs and to take them too; not long in town he gets all blooty and ends
up getting jacked by a sex worker. What a ‘bombaclart’, as an indigenous
character remarks, giving local flavour.
The idea of a drug that can tell the future is intriguing, as is the
concept of chemicals which act like software to the biological hardware of
the body; enhancing, but at the same time detracting, from our natural
evolution towards our human potential (like in that Bradley Cooper film
Limitless, remember that?!). In terms of narrative, the idea of a drug which
allows a flash forward is a storytelling gift, too, because what else are
psychedelics if not a way to discern our own plotlines and our place
within them?
Imperial Blue just says no to these potentially intriguing
avenues though, and, when Hugo follows the sex worker back to her village
where the blue snout is grown he gets involved with some sort of ongoing
conflict involving land ownership and a corrupt church. Hugo sometimes
loudly pontificates about the ineffectuality of the church (as is
authentically the wont of drug burn outs) but spends most of his stay
trying to knock off either the sex worker or her saintly sister, or
otherwise down the k-hole with the villagers grimly tolerating him with
all the practiced patience of a coffee shop worker in Amsterdam tending to
an overenthusiastic stag party member.
Imperial Blue, like its confused protagonist, has no real sense of direction. You
won’t need a toot of the Bulu to envision that in its final act, the film
not so much wanders towards an ambiguous resolution but gives up and just
collapses into one.
Imperial Blue is on UK VOD/Digital
now.
