Scales (2019) poster
2019 · fantasy · drama · feminist

Scales

Directed by Shahad Ameen1h 14m2019
  • sombre
  • measured
  • intense
  • inventive

Hayat, a 12-year-old strong-willed girl, lives in a poor fishing village governed by dark tradition, in which every family must give away a daughter to the sea creatures who inhabit the waters near by. In turn, the sea creatures are hunted by the men of the village. Saved from this ordeal by her father, Hayat is outcasted by her village and considered a curse. But Hayat never surrenders. When Hayat’s mother gives birth to her new-born brother, Hayat must accept the brutal custom by sacrificing herself to these creatures or find a way to escape.

Our read · Scales (2019) reads as a sombre, measured, inventive fantasy · drama · feminist entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook, with a strong directorial signature. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

Cast
Ashraf BarhoumBasima HajjarFatima Al TaeiHaifa Al-AghaHafssa Faisal
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The shape of Scales

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
Nearest by DNA

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Geometric closeness in the twelve-axis space — pure DNA distance, not “people also liked.” Distance numbers are listed under each title for sceners who like to know the maths.

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