Day Night Day Night
I just watched Julia Loktev's first feature film, Day Night Day Night starring a first-time actor, Luisa Williams. The film starts with the camera on the no-named girl (Luisa Williams) and, with one brief exception, she's in every shot of the entire film. We see what she sees and hear what she hears (the amplified chewing while she eats is an especially nice touch). There's no explanation for who she is, where she comes from and no dramatic music cues to tell us what she's feeling. Nonetheless, what could have been a formal exercise in filmmaking takes us on a journey that's nothing short of riveting.
The journey of this girl goes into some sensitive subject matter in a completely fresh and compassionate way. Luisa Williams' performance is sure to be noticed and I think she'll be showing up on the screen again soon. Ultimately, the journey is a spiritual one and left thoughts and images lingering in my mind long after the film ended.