In Christopher Nolan’s ingenious reverse - time thriller ‘Memento' the hero has lost his short term memory and has to remind himself each day, through a series of notes and tattoos, just who he is and what he is doing in order to continue looking for his wife’s killer.
The subject of this unique and extraordinary documentary employs similar techniques to maintain his identity and to enable him to make sense of the present and the past. The film’s director Toby Amies began by setting out to document the life of an eccentric Brighton resident who calls himself Drako Zarharzar. As filming goes on Toby finds himself drawn further and further into Drako’s strange world and their relationship changes and develops...
Born Tony Banwell, Drako worked for Salvador Dali and hung out with the Stones until a serious head injury caused him to lose his ability to remember new things - as he puts it ‘the recording machine in my head doesn’t work’. He lives in a tiny, cluttered apartment full of photographs, mottos and objects that each represent some memory or aspect of his psyche. This rich and chaotic environment is at once his home and a form of three dimensional metaphor for his mind. Drako’s zest for life and outrageous personality mean that he lives by his own uncompromising rules - the most important of which is 'Trust Absolute Unconditional’ - a phrase that came to him during a coma.
This fascinating film is by turns funny, touching and profound and will stay with you long after it is over.
