Director: Jonathan Millet

Stars: Adam Bessa, Tawfeek Barholm, Hala Rajab, Julia Franz Richter, Shafiqa Al Tal

Inspired by true events, French director Millet’s film works both as a gripping slow-burning thriller, and as a study of alienation, loneliness and trauma. We first encounter Syrian man Hamid (Bessa) in the back of a dark, frighteningly cramped truck with other prisoners. They are dumped and left for dead in the Syrian desert by soldiers. Cut to two years later where Hamid has somehow survived and is living in Strasbourg waiting for his German asylum papers to be processed. He occasionally speaks to his mother (El Till) who is living in a camp in Beirut assuring her that he is studying in Berlin. Hamid also has meetings with his ‘handler’ (Richet) on a park bench who passes information onto him. It emerges that he is part of a cell working across Europe charged with tracking down escaped Syrian war criminals. Hamid, a former literature lecturer, becomes convinced that Sami (Barhom), a regular-looking postgrad student, was one of his unseen torturers from when he was held in a Syrian jail. As Hamid obsesses over Sami, he eschews any distractions or pleasures. When attractive Syrian fellow refugee Yara (Rajab) asks him to call her, he answers bluntly  ‘Why?’ illustrating his desensitisation. Cinematographer Olivier Boonjing’s camerawork is intimate and attentive while a propulsive electronic score by Yuksek ramps up the tension. Bessa delivers an extraordinary, contained performance as the damaged, dogged protagonist, and the sequence when Hamid finally confronts Sami is a masterclass in controlled, loaded suspense.

David Willoughby

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