L

L begins with an ode to being a bear and ends with an ode to the sea. What happens in between constitutes one of the more original, willfully bizarre films of the year.

A man lives in his car. He’s 40 and separated from his wife and kids, who live in a different car. They meet in parking lots. A professional driver, the man delivers honey to a narcoleptic man and often dreams of his friend, who was killed when a hunter mistook him for a bear. Frequently late delivering honey, the man is fired, and his driving skills are questioned. Thrust into existential uncertainty, he abandons “car life” and joins a rogue motorbike gang.

Cowriter/director Babis Makridis and cowriter Efthimis Filippou (Dogtooth, Alps) propel us into a funky, surreal world of deadpan absurdism. Beneath the postmodern detachment lies a quite human struggle. Facing absurd existences, these characters are trying: to be better drivers, to be better bears. Even the score, a flawed rendition of Moonlight Sonata, is trying to be better. –Sundance Film Festival