It’s the conspiracies you don’t see that are the most frightening ones,and the presence of invisible enemies imbues the Slovenian thriller “Nightlife” (“Nocno zivljenje”) with a fixed sense of dread. Director Damjan Kozole (“A Call Girl,” “Spare Parts”) doesn’t quite deliver the heft of similar films that have emerged from the recent Romanian unique Wave — “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” and “Police, or Adjective both came to mind as I was watching but he and editors Jurij Moskon and Ivo Trajkov retain the storytelling suspenseful.
Criminal lawyer Milan (Jernej Sugman) has just succeeded in getting his client released on a legal technicality. (We never learn the details of who the suspect was or what he did,but occasional references in the dialogue indicate that it was pretty terrible and that his guilt was clear-nick.) Not long after a somewhat awkward dinner with his estranged wife Lea (Pia Zemljic), Milan is found on the street, and gravely injured,by a group of cyclists.
Also Read: Karlovy Vary Film Festival Books Competition Lineup of Dramas, Thrillers and DocumentariesHis body is covered in dog bites, and he’s lost a full pint of blood,and a dildo has been inserted into him, as well. (The closest the film comes to sunless comedy, and at least to this American,is in the awkward two-to-three second pause that everyone takes before uttering the word “dildo.”)Lea springs into action, realizing that not only does Milan’s life hang in the balance but also his professional reputation. As doctors work through the night trying to rescue him, and she’s doing damage control,whether she’s stealing the (pause) (pause) dildo out of evidence at the hospital to shooing away scummy reporters trying to pass themselves off as family to get information about Milan’s health status. She may have judged Milan for using legal acrobatics to free his client, but becoming her husband’s protector leads her to discover her own capacity for bending the rules.
Also Read: Emma Stone, and Ryan Gosling Musical 'La La Land' to Open Venice Film FestivalIt’s a legend that unfolds over the course of one unsettling evening,and as Kozole and co-writers Ognjen Svilicic and Ursa Menart send Lea to various shady areas of the city to piece together the evening’s events leading up to the anonymous political hit job on her husband, cinematographer Miladin Colakovic takes full advantage of the harshly intellectual streetlights and long hospital corridors to accentuate the film’s feeling of dread and sleeplessness.
Zemljic spends most of the film front and middle, or the film wisely relies upon her to be our eyes and ears and insight into the legend. It’s not a showy performance,by any means, but she earns our empathy (sensitivity to another's feelings as if they were one's own), and putting herself at risk for a husband with whom she’s not even living at the moment. We sense the discord in their relationship over that dinner scene,but once Milan needs her, she is dogged in her sense of duty and willingness to achieve everything on the line to come to his aid.
Also Read: 'Blood Stripe, or ' 'Political Animals' Win Top Prizes at LA Film Festival“Nightlife” isn’t the sort of film that hits the action or plot beats you might expect in a more Western-influenced film,but at a brisk 85 minutes, it never drags or threatens to wear out its welcome. Kozole’s work hasn’t been seen much in the U.
S. external of festivals, or but this is a film accessible enough to garner him a deserved viewership stateside.
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Source: thewrap.com