In Darkness (15)
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Dir: Agnieszka Holland
With: Robert Wieckiewicz, Maria Schrader
Running time: 143 minutes
SUBMERGING the viewer in a wartime tale of terror and suffering, Agnieszka Holland's drama sounds like a tough watch, and it is.
This Oscar-nominated picture is much more than that, however. Tense, riveting, deeply moving, it's one of the most unforgettable pieces of cinema you are likely to see this year. Had the Iranian Oscar entry, A Separation, not have been so outstanding, it is a fair bet Holland's picture, Poland's entry, would have won the Academy Award.
Based on a true story, In Darkness opens in 1944 in Lvov as the Nazi persecution of the Jews assumes ever more horrific forms. Faced with a choice of dying in the ghetto or elsewhere, a band of men, women and children goes underground to the sewer system in the hope of hiding from the terror, or finding a way to escape.
It is not long before they are discovered by Leopold Socha (Robert Wieckiewicz), a sewer worker who knows the tunnels like the pathways home. Socha agrees to help them but he is interested in his "charges" only for what he can charge them for food and protection. Bit by bit, however, a connection is made between Socha and those forced to rely upon him.
Holland, the director of Europa, Europa and Angry Harvest, has no hesitation in showing humanity at its best, worst, and most desperate. When she does cut away from what is going on underground, it is to remind the viewer of the horrors above ground. Slowly, shafts of humanity begin to pierce the gloom. Holland handles the transition with great care, always aiming for authenticity over sentimentality and her picture is all the more powerful for it.
Payback Season (15)
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Dir: Danny Donnelly
With: Adam Deacon, Anna Popplewell
Running time: 91 minutes
NEWLY-crowned Bafta rising star Adam Deacon (Adulthood, Anuvahood) plays a rising premier league star in Danny Donnelly's ambitious but ultimately second division debut. With his swish flat, sports car, and plenty of money in the bank, Jerome (Deacon) is living the dream.
Things take a turn for the nightmarish, though, when he goes back to the London council estate he came from and meets some old mates.
Donnelly has all the makings of a taut thriller here, with a brutally simple story of jealousy being played out by the always watchable Deacon and the equally impressive David Ajala as gang leader Baron.
Just a pity it looks like an Eighties TV drama, with performances from the rest of the cast to match.
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