This is a thoughtful and original film and the polar opposite of any Hollywood movie. It's slight plot is not what the film is about, it is in many ways a mood piece. The opening image of a vast landscape a lone figure running along the horizon is accompanied only by the sound of the heavy breaths of the runner, and sets the tone for the entire film.
The film is character driven and contains long periods of near silence and beautifully shot landscape. Its basic plot, the investigation into the rape and murder of a young girl, would suggest it is a thriller but this film is about it's characters first and foremost.
Our hero Pharon is a policeman who lives at home with his mother He has suffered the loss of his wife and child, how we never find out. The crime he investigates pushes him into a state of utter despair. This despair is not shown to us with any overblown emotional fireworks but with a heavy and quite sorrow which he carries throughout the film. He is portrayed by Emmanuel Schotte who justly won the best actor award at Cannes, and was unjustly booed for doing so. This may have something to with the fact that he is retired accountant rather than an actor. His face expresses the sheer anguish is a man at the end of his teether, by expressing nothing at all save for thin smile that seems to come not from joy but to stop him from crying.
The center of the film is Pharon relationship with his neighbor Domino played by Severine Caneele who won best actress and boos at Cannes to. She is also untrained and delivers a wonderful performance.
The investigation moves at a snails pace, and probably offers a more realistic look at police work than most films as witnesses are questioned and requestioned.
It is a slow and beautiful film and reminded me strangely of Hal Hartly's work, in that the charters and actors seem to be doing very little but are expressing so much.
The film is character driven and contains long periods of near silence and beautifully shot landscape. Its basic plot, the investigation into the rape and murder of a young girl, would suggest it is a thriller but this film is about it's characters first and foremost.
Our hero Pharon is a policeman who lives at home with his mother He has suffered the loss of his wife and child, how we never find out. The crime he investigates pushes him into a state of utter despair. This despair is not shown to us with any overblown emotional fireworks but with a heavy and quite sorrow which he carries throughout the film. He is portrayed by Emmanuel Schotte who justly won the best actor award at Cannes, and was unjustly booed for doing so. This may have something to with the fact that he is retired accountant rather than an actor. His face expresses the sheer anguish is a man at the end of his teether, by expressing nothing at all save for thin smile that seems to come not from joy but to stop him from crying.
The center of the film is Pharon relationship with his neighbor Domino played by Severine Caneele who won best actress and boos at Cannes to. She is also untrained and delivers a wonderful performance.
The investigation moves at a snails pace, and probably offers a more realistic look at police work than most films as witnesses are questioned and requestioned.
It is a slow and beautiful film and reminded me strangely of Hal Hartly's work, in that the charters and actors seem to be doing very little but are expressing so much.