Nitrate is a smartly prepared cinematic proposition whose reflection on aesthetics and prevailing narrative feed into one another, allowing the film to express itself in an artistic language unique to the 7th art, both beautiful and meaningful. At first blush, the narration is destabilizing. But it nests within a whole that is informative, poetic and charged with meaning, where recollections and trauma from a faded past still remain anchored in memories whose images are as long-lasting as they are evanescent, memories that reactivate a present that deftly juxtaposes spectacle and war, amusement and ammunition…

Hubert Sabino-Brunette
Teacher and programmer