Written and directed by Alex Kruz, Fallen: The search of a Broken Angel follows the wanderings of Sam Ares as he navigates life in modern New York City. He believes himself to be a spiritual person, aligning himself with values such as vegetarianism to protect all creatures of the Earth. But his actions often seem contrary to this. A particular vice of Sam’s seems to be women. And a lot of them. Often the wrong kind.
The film contrasts this with a dual narrative following a woman called Kristina – an artistic soul that appears to be somehow linked to Sam despite the fact they don’t yet know each other. Sam’s aura must speak to her somehow, though, as she draws a picture of him. In this way, Kristina is posited as some kind of spiritual goal for Sam. A different path from the one he is currently on. But completely unaware of her existence, Sam continues down the route of seeking cheap thrills.
He’s struggling for money to pay rent and so crashes at a friend’s house. The friend is away, leaving his girlfriend, Hecate, alone with Sam. And Sam finds himself the object of Hecate’s desire. While he doesn’t initially actively pursue her, he also doesn’t shut down the advances. Another woman Sam is involved with attempts to lure him back with a fake pregnancy, then calls the cops to falsely accuse him of abuse when he challenges her on the fake pregnancy. The women in Sam’s life might be toxic, but he is by no means perfect. He senses this imbalance within himself, but instead of trying to fix it, seeks the advice of a psychic to tell him what’s going on. Leaving with more questions than answers, Sam decides to take a trip out of the city to reconnect with nature.
The spiritual dreams become stronger. During the day, Sam hikes through the desert. He meets a man who explains the significance of the landscape surrounding them. A Native American burial ground that was built on by people who stole the land. Sam feels and understands a connection with the Earth. This triggers a sort of awakening for Sam. While he clearly still has a long road ahead, it seems he may not be walking alone as his path finally crosses with Kristina’s.
A variety of creative elements are employed throughout the film, from interesting cinematography to edgy editing and colour grading. During the editing, Kruz has also utilised a lot of stock footage and images to help create certain moods and atmospheres. These combine together with a variety of genres of music, some of which was also created by Kruz, to create the ethereal vibe of the film.
It’s important to note that this film was made with no budget and no outside help. Kruz holds together the project with his own tenacity – writing, directing, editing and even creating the music for the film. The only area where this impedes on the film is the audio. Without specialist recording equipment, Kruz has tried to make up for the loss of audio quality by re-recording dialogue ADR. This often leads to some lip syncing issues. Despite this, it’s always impressive to see how independent filmmakers overcome issues with the resources they have available, and the dedication to re-recording almost all the audio proves how passionate the filmmakers are about the project. Aside from the audio quality, the narrated sections are very fluent and poetic, although some sections of the dialogue were a touch repetitive.
Christalo Castro as Sam is moody and restless, capturing the essence of someone who is spiritually lost. His foil, Serena Profaci, as Kristina, is quiet and mysterious. She divulges just enough to keep the audience interested, giving them the sense that her character has much more to offer. Millie Gibbons as Sam’s toxic ex is brilliantly unhinged and a touch frightening. Her character was very strongly portrayed and therefore felt like it could have played a greater part in the narrative. Stefanie Bloom as Hectete is dangerously alluring, appearing almost as a serpent to tempt Sam from a path of spirituality.
Check out the trailer below!