EXAM

UK, 2009, 90 minutes, Colour.
Luke Mabley, Adar Beck, Chris Carey, Gemma Chen, Natalie Cox, John Lloyd Fillingham, Chukwudi Iwuji, Pollyanna Mackintosh, Jimi Mistry, Colin Salmon.
Directed by Stuart Hazeldene.

An intriguing and clever film. It is not one that the general public would rush to see. It is a specialist film, very well crafted and asking for a thoughtful response.

The drama takes place in the exam room. Each of the characters is introduced as they prepare to come to the exam – make-up, combing hair, small personal things.

There are four men and four women. They come from different ethnic backgrounds. They are given precisely phrased instructions from the Invigilator (Colin Salmon) and given 80 minutes to complete their exam. An armed security guard is present to eject anyone who does not adhere strictly to the instructions.

The only trouble is that the exam papers are blank.

The purpose of the exam is explained right at the end so it is not just an exercise in futility but we spend the time watching these applicants for a job at a biopharmacy company (and trying to work out what we might do in such circumstances) interact to work out what is the question. At one stage, a candidate asks whether this is an exercise in group dynamics. It is.

The interactions reveal the characters, sometimes quite powerfully, even violently. Some are ejected. Some are prepared to use any means to stay.

The interest of the film is in the characters, in their response to a difficult situation, in their ethical or unethical stances and behaviour and in the puzzle as to find what really is the question.

The cast comprises character actors from stage and television. Jimi Mistry and Luke Mably are comparatively well-known. (And the thought occurs that the film could be described as neo-Kafakezque!)

1.An effective screen psychodrama? English production? Ethnic range?

2.Futuristic, disease and the world, multinationals and companies, the founder and his ambitions and aims, methods, mission, selection of staff?

3.The film confined to the one room, the different ways of photographing it? The walls, the screen, the desks, chairs? The guard? The sprinklers?

4.The title, straightforward? A test, an examination, questions? Answers? The need for lateral thinking, the use of the brain, ingenuity? Logic, precise language, the limits of language?

5.The introduction to each of the characters, preparing to come for the exam, shaving, hair, makeup etc? The different backgrounds? Ethnic?

6.The candidates assembling, the anticipation of the exam, their motivations, the company selecting some candidates, job applications, headhunting, competition?

7.The invigilator, his speech, laying out the conditions, issues of being expelled, the exactness of the rules, the pages, interference with the pages, leaving the room? The presence of the guard and his gun?

8.The mousy man, seemingly deaf, not involved, going out – and the revelation that he was the founder?

9.White, taking charge, bossy, his leadership, designating the names, nicknames? His being headhunted? His ingenuity with the pages, with the water? His illness, needing the medication, having the fit? The confrontation, his being tied up? The group against him?

10.The Chinese girl, her writing on the page, her being escorted out? Her upset reaction?

11.Black, African background? His wanting justice? Violence and non-violence? His interventions, change of heart, with White?

12.Brown, Indian background, being tested, the challenges, the moral situation, his eventually leaving?

13.The women, the psychiatrist and the workout?

14.The businesswoman and her determination?

15.The ordinary woman, her compassion?

16.The various devices used to discover what the question really was, using other people’s pages, folding the pages, the suggestion of invisible ink, the water and the sprinklers, the gun and the violence? Each of the characters determined? Those opting to leave? Those opting to stay? The means justifying the end or not?

17.The invigilator’s return, the founder? The aims of the test, to find somebody compassionate to administer the medication, the biopharmacy for the illness and for the world?