Red Road

Aroview: Absorbing, unbearably tense drama of undisclosed motivations, which follows a lonely surveillance operator and her pursuit of a man throughout the dreary modernist tenements of Glasgow, Scotland.

A claustrophobic cousin of the Dardenne brothers’ unflinching formalism (namely, THE SON) and subsequent imitators (KEANE), this accumulates its mystery and anxiety through a cautious series of reveals. Will keep you guessing until its confrontational climax (a frenzied and unsettlingly sex scene), and though perhaps a little conservative in its third act, remains challenging and perturbing as a first-person experience.

NB: The first in a trilogy of features commission under the ‘Advance Party’ banner, which stipulates, among other rules, that each film will employ the same cast of characters and actors.

NZ International Film Festival 2007

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