I don’t recognise the name of the director from any film I have seen before but from this one alone I can tell he has some serious talent. The way tension is built up through dialogue-less scenes with no music and just the character’s actions to carry it is really astounding. I was literally holding my breath at certain scenes; the lingering shots keep your attention rather than the naturally expected effect of boredom. And I can’t remember the last time a movie flew by as quickly as this one did; it hardly seemed like a half hour by the time the credits came up, never mind the one hundred minutes it actually is.
Although the back stories of the two main characters are never really gone into in any great detail, especially the male character, the film is constructed in such a way that it allows you to form your own opinion about what their stories might be instead of feeling annoyed that we didn’t get them explained to us in the film. I just love films like this that realise that the audience aren't complete idiots.
The ending jarred me a little bit, but in retrospect it’s literally perfect. An inevitable outcome once you think over everything that happens beforehand. I was left almost open-mouthed at the sheer power of what I had witnessed.
This film is bordering on a masterpiece; it’s not quite perfect in its totality but hey – what film is, right? This is international cinema at its near best and I encourage anyone out there to track it down ASAP.
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