LOOK, STRANGER

The unpopulated landscape seen through the car window seems to be fading into the rain; the passenger’s searching, suspicious eyes (represented by the panning camera) see no more than isolated details of rolling green hills. Like many other things in this war-torn non-place, the tranquillity of the scene is deceptive. Only fragments remain of human relationships, biographies, memories and dwelling-places. The young woman wants to go north, to her home, and pays a young man to take her there. Their journey through the war-scarred territory begins on foot, overshadowed by a presentiment: the woman will find nothing at home as it was before. With its calm yet terse images, its lack of dialogue, Arielle Javitch’s melancholy, sometimes enigmatic, debut feature is carried by the absolute determination to believe in hope.