A spiritual sequel to a previous film, Forest, a drama made with very little money, populated by amateur actors and characters with different relationships in crisis, composed in a series of vignettes. Here, we see a return to style and genre, with new characters in an equally claustrophobic environment, where Fliegauf explores themes such as abuse, trauma, loss and revenge.
Making a film in vignettes that doesn’t look like a random set of short films is no easy task. But that’s exactly what Hungarian filmmaker Bence Fliegauf did. In 2003 he gave us Forest, an omnibus film, and now he raised the bar again. This claustrophobic sequel debuted in the main competition of the Berlinale. The camera closes on the characters and is attentive to the smallest details. It has its furtive moments, as if spying from a distance, but there are other scenes of great intimacy, as if we were a friend invited at some point to testify or to judge. The dramatic intensity of some of the stories is such (we are in pain and abuse territory) that when we move on to the next episode, the previous one doesn’t let go and we try at all costs to make connections between them. And these invisible bonds are part of an everyday life that could be ours; nothing extraordinary on the one hand, with capital importance on the other. Restlessness passes through. (Miguel Valverde)
