Amulet Movie Storyline. Tomaz (Alec Secareanu) is a soldier in the final days of what looks to be a Central European conflict, assigned to man a quiet checkpoint in a pine forest, two days’ walk from the nearest village. The connections of his mother have spared him from combat. His chosen reading material, Hannah Arendt’s On Violence, might be for his doctorate in philosophy, but it seems ominous in light of the later revelation that he preventively duct-tapes his hands together before he goes to sleep.
He offers shelter to Miriam (Angeliki Papoulia), a frightened woman who startles him, running out of the woods, but Tomaz appears continually to be fighting dark impulses where she’s concerned. He finds a small carved figurine buried in the ground — the amulet of the title — and offers it to her: “Perhaps she will protect you.”
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Sometime later, Tomaz is in London with PTSD, living in a refugee shelter and working as a day laborer until his housing is destroyed in an arson attack. He’s found, dazed and confused, by Sister Claire (Imelda Staunton), a kindly nun whose habits are revealed to be more and more secular each time we meet her. This will surprise no one, since you don’t cast the wickedly amusing Staunton to say rosaries.
Offering cryptic words of comfort, Sister Claire sets up Tomaz with a live-in job at a run-down house on the city outskirts, where Magda (Carla Juri) takes care of her invalid mother (Anah Ruddin), supposedly nearing death upstairs. Socially awkward Magda seems reluctant to have the stranger under the same roof, but the nun reassures her, “It is time.”
Tomaz’s apprehension suggests he knows that a wailing crone in an attic is rarely a good sign, particularly once he catches a glimpse of the feral old woman’s violent abuse of Magda. But he stays on and keeps getting drawn back each time things get ugly enough to send him running; Secareanu plays those conflicting impulses with haunted helplessness. There’s something poignant about his eagerness to prove to Magda that he’s a good man, as if he’s also trying to convince himself.
Amulet is a 2020 British horror film written and directed by Romola Garai and starring Carla Juri, Imelda Staunton, Alec Secareanu, Angeliki Papoulia, Elowen Harris, Joey Akubeze, Jacqueline Roberts, Yonah Odoom, Charlotte Chiew and William E. Lester. It premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was released in the United States on July 24, 2020.
Amulet (2020)
Directed by: Romola Garai
Starring: Carla Juri, Imelda Staunton, Alec Secareanu, Angeliki Papoulia, Elowen Harris, Joey Akubeze, Jacqueline Roberts, Yonah Odoom, Charlotte Chiew, William E. Lester
Screenplay by: Romola Garai
Production Design by: Francesca Massariol
Cinematography by: Laura Bellingham
Film Editing by: Alastair Reid
Costume Design by: Holly Smart
Set Decoration by: Sofia Stocco
Art Direction by: Lucy Gahagan, Katerina Michail
Music by: Sarah Angliss
MPAA Rating: R for some strong violence, bloody images, a sexual assault, and brief language and nudity.
Distributed by: Magnolia Pictures
Release Date: January 26, 2020 (Sundance), July 24, 2020 (United States)
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