20/05/2006

This year, UK filmmaker Andrea Arnold is the only debut director in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Last year, this former actress won an Oscar for her short film, Wasp.

Red Road [+see also:
trailer
film profile], screened last night for the press, was initially conceived as part of a project by Lars von Trier: three low-budget features by three young filmmakers using all the same characters.

Arnold was the first to complete her film, in which the two main characters are steeped into the tense atmosphere of a Scottish suburb. Jackie (Kate Dickie) works for a video surveillance company: one day, while monitoring the streets through the cameras, she recognizes a man whose image takes her violently back a dramatic event from her past.

Filmed in the sober Dogma style, with a subtle and sophisticated first part and a more “social” second half, Red Road’s ending is nevertheless disappointing. This £1.2m movie was produced by Sigma Films (UK) and Zentropa (Denmark), with the support of the UK Film Council, Scottish Screen, the Glasgow Film Office, and BBC Films, in association with Zoma Films and Verve Pictures. Trust Film Sales is handling international sales.

(Translated from Italian)