It might be best not to approach this as comedy. It did make me smile a few times, but the emphasis on real characterisations – just slightly heightened – makes it more like tragedy. The marriage really is heartbreaking. That too is daring – a bit like the tone of some recent left-field comedies out of Britain – although I would never call this imitative. I think I can safely say no one has done a film like this before – perhaps for good reason.

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Self-conscious does not begin to describe it. A comedy in gibberish where everyone gets naked on a snow-capped mountain does not have spontaneity in its arsenal. It does have the benefit of oddity, incongruity, weird playfulness, even pathos, but funny is mostly a valley away. On the other hand, humour is in the eye of the beholder. Lovers of the bleakly absurd might find it an awesome giggle. I’m reluctant to shut that door. It was selected for the Sydney Film Festival, after all.

Apparently the movie – funded in part by Australian money – was written in English. The actors rehearsed in English, then switched to the made-up lingo for takes. As a technical feat, it’s impressive – the actors all seem to be speaking the same gibberish. As for laughs, it has a few, but too few to mention.

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