The movie opens with a pregnant woman deplaning in Israel. The customs man finds explosives hidden in her carry-on bag. Questions burble up. Did she know the explosives were there? What did the authorities do to her? What did they do to her husband who presumably planted the explosives? Why would her husband sacrifice her?
We find out nothing. The movie leaps forward in time about 15 years to meet the son wrestling with these events, living with his sister's brother who makes a living extorting people. We are told his parents were killed in a suicidal car crash.
Then we begin to wonder if the whole terrorism and car crash story were fiction. Which scenes are flashbacks and which fictional dramatisations?
A female character (Arsinee Khanjian) morphs twice into a completely different being. We don't notice at first. It is like the floor dropping out from under you, leaving you dizzy.
The dialogue is quite natural with a Canadian accent.
The late Maury Chaykin has a juicy cameo as a somewhat demented man who imagines he is the tragic victim of an airline bombing that never happened.
The film is made of little clips, shown in random chronological order. I don't see the point of being so deliberately confusing, other than perhaps to reveal a little bit about each incident at a time. It is actually annoying being so deliberately toyed with.
It is a bit like layer upon layer of watercolours. You are never sure you have a hold of the objective truth.
We find out nothing. The movie leaps forward in time about 15 years to meet the son wrestling with these events, living with his sister's brother who makes a living extorting people. We are told his parents were killed in a suicidal car crash.
Then we begin to wonder if the whole terrorism and car crash story were fiction. Which scenes are flashbacks and which fictional dramatisations?
A female character (Arsinee Khanjian) morphs twice into a completely different being. We don't notice at first. It is like the floor dropping out from under you, leaving you dizzy.
The dialogue is quite natural with a Canadian accent.
The late Maury Chaykin has a juicy cameo as a somewhat demented man who imagines he is the tragic victim of an airline bombing that never happened.
The film is made of little clips, shown in random chronological order. I don't see the point of being so deliberately confusing, other than perhaps to reveal a little bit about each incident at a time. It is actually annoying being so deliberately toyed with.
It is a bit like layer upon layer of watercolours. You are never sure you have a hold of the objective truth.