Den Skyldge (The Guilty): Review by @Kush_Hayes
Back in September I had the pleasure of going to a town in The Netherlands called Breda. While in town I spent a couple hours and walked over to one of their megaplexes. Pathe’ Breda. That day the only thing I hadnt seen was a movie called “Den Skyledge (The Guilty)”. Its Dutch. Theres no indication that there are any subtitles. I dont speak Dutch but this is the adventure. There are subtitles! Theyre in German. Or at least I think its German. This is the adventure. Thanks to phonetics Im able to piece together most of this 85 minute multi Festival Award-Winning feature. I leave unimpressed but amused and as noted in Microdose 40 my overall opinion is “Its 90 mins of a 911 operator at work”.
Thats still kind of true, but how funny is it that fully understanding makes things just that MUCH BETTER.
We meet Asger who was a police officer but was put on temporary assignment and we come in in the last 30 mins of his shift. He handles the normal nonsense modern society goes through no matter the county. One guy is a tweaker going through a bad trip. Another guy got robbed by a prostitute downtown. And with 10 mins left, a woman calls, at first it sounds like a crank-call, but then Asger the detectives instincts kick in. He quickly deduces this woman is being taken against her will and he starts trying to pull an information from her to triangulate her position better with GPS.
Visually, this is 85 mins of close ups of the lead actor - Jakob Cedergren and he sells everything that isnt nailed down. You sense his frustration, not just with his new assignment but his life and its mostly based on fragmented sentences and facial gestures. Angst and regret as well as sadness and rage all pour out of this mans performance.
Audibly, most of this movie is an old radio play. Its a shame that foley artists dont get more credit because lots of background noise that we’re only privileged to experiences through Asgers headset is whats pushing the story forward.
The story is a race against the clock, there are children involved, theres lives on the line, we are treated to an intense thriller that never leaves two office sets. This movie was edited to be conceived as happening in real-time however due to all the cuts was not filmed that way.
This was an great surprise considering that in my first viewing experience I was only slightly off about what was actually happening. I enjoyed its intensity and its narrative. I can see why its winning all these festival awards and would absolutely recommend it.
Five Blueberries out of Six
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