(Les fantômes)
Country: FR/BEL/GER
Technical: col 106m
Director: Jonathan Millet
Cast: Adam Bessa, Tawfeek Barhom, Julia Franz Richter, Hala Rajab
Synopsis:
A Syrian former detainee of the Arab Spring is living in Strasbourg as part of a covert group of fellow victims, primed to unmask their erstwhile interrogators who have also left the homeland. Stricken with PTSD, he becomes convinced that he recognises his tormentor, but is unable to do anything about it.
Review:
Deliberately paced, forensically shot in tight focus, this personalised drama treats a harrowing subject with restraint, but without understating the lasting trauma of all those involved. The lead delivers a remarkable performance, indeed all four performers do, but the film is dangerously short on incident to sustain it. Panahi's It Was Just an Accident (2025) deals with similar subject matter in a more chaotic, tonally rich, manner, but just as surely skewering its painful humanity.
(Les fantômes)
Country: FR/BEL/GER
Technical: col 106m
Director: Jonathan Millet
Cast: Adam Bessa, Tawfeek Barhom, Julia Franz Richter, Hala Rajab
Synopsis:
A Syrian former detainee of the Arab Spring is living in Strasbourg as part of a covert group of fellow victims, primed to unmask their erstwhile interrogators who have also left the homeland. Stricken with PTSD, he becomes convinced that he recognises his tormentor, but is unable to do anything about it.
Review:
Deliberately paced, forensically shot in tight focus, this personalised drama treats a harrowing subject with restraint, but without understating the lasting trauma of all those involved. The lead delivers a remarkable performance, indeed all four performers do, but the film is dangerously short on incident to sustain it. Panahi's It Was Just an Accident (2025) deals with similar subject matter in a more chaotic, tonally rich, manner, but just as surely skewering its painful humanity.
