Day Night Day Night

A stark wisp of a film, 'Day Night Day Night' was a last second addition to my festival-going experience, on this the last day of the festival. Each year I try to attend something I know very little about and this entry in the Visions program of the festival sparked my interest by its air of mystery: a story that for the first half of the film follows an unspecified woman spending what appears to be her last night on earth in a hotel room, followed by a tension-building second day on the streets of New York. The less you know about the story the better the experience. The actress who plays the central character, on screen every moment of the film, is mesmerizing as the somewhat clumsy yet fanatic young woman at a precarious crossroad in her life; much of the film is comprised of extreme close-ups of her face, the flaring nostrils and heavy breathing alerting us to the dark thoughts running through her mind. The audience is given very little back story of what brought her to this hotel room awaiting her fate, and the ambiguity pays off in the second half preventing the thrust of her mission from going down a well-trod path. This film could have easily stopped at a couple different junctures and been less successful as result, however the director keeps the story moving towards a surprisingly heart-wrenching moment that validates its whole purpose.

Grade: 8/10

When Hannah Arendt coined the expression "the banality of evil," surely she must have had something like "Day Night Day Night" in mind. With chilling detachment, this brilliant and terrifying film chronicles the last 48 hours in the life of a potential suicide bomber. It is a topic rife with all sorts of potential pitfalls, both political and cinematic, yet the movie succeeds as a work of art because it never resorts to sensationalism or exploitation to get its point across.

Filmmaker Julia Loktey has deliberately eliminated any back story that might explain why a beautiful young girl like "Leah" would be willing to perform an action as inconceivable and incomprehensible as the one she has planned here. The whys and the wherefores are really of little concern to Loktey. Instead, she has chosen to concentrate on the almost strikingly banal, step-by-step process "Leah" must go through to complete the deed. Indeed, it's amazing how, through context alone, even the most mundane of actions - brushing one's teeth, taking a bath, clipping one's toenails - can suddenly become imbued with the most terrifying significance and sense of foreboding. It's almost as if "Leah" is trying to hold onto a sense of normalcy for as long as she can, savoring the minor pleasures of life that she knows she will never experience again. In fact, in the stunning final half hour of the film, as "Leah" roams around the streets of New York City trying to summon up the courage to fulfill her mission, she begins to cling more and more to the simple joys of life - a mustard-covered pretzel, a candy apple - before taking that final plunge into the abyss. What's particularly disturbing is how unfailingly sweet and polite "Leah" is to the people around her - be they the common pedestrians or storekeepers who could easily become her victims, or the masked men who calmly, almost apologetically, feed her instructions on what she is to do when the fateful moment arrives. The scene in which they dress "Leah" up in terrorist garb and methodically "direct" her for a video that will be released after her death is one of the most chilling in the entire film.

Luisa Williams, who is never off camera for a single moment in the film, delivers an astonishing tour-de-force performance that is guaranteed to leave the audience stunned into silence. With very little in the way of dialogue to work with, Williams is forced to rely almost exclusively on facial expression and body language to convey a wealth of emotion. The incongruity between the character's sweet personality and demeanor and the horrific act of violence she is about to commit throws us completely off balance and makes us call into question our own perception of the world and the way it works.

Loktey employs documentary-style realism to tell her story, using her camera to record, almost as a dispassionate observer, the events as they unfold in the course of that 48-hour period.

"Day Night Day Night" contains more nerve-wracking suspense than a boatload of standard thrillers, yet it is a suspense that is honestly earned, for Loktey never stoops to implausible timing or hokey contrivance to create her effect. This is the stuff of real life - with all its attendant unpredictability and ironies - unfolding before us. We are forever focused on this young lady, who remains a fascinating and terrifying enigma throughout the entire hour-and-a-half that we spend with her.

Stated simply, "Day Night Day Night" is one of the most riveting and important releases of 2007.

48 hours in the life of a young woman. Day, night, day and night. This is as much as you should know if you are to get the maximum thrill.

The first sixty minutes is set-up. Mysterious, claustrophobic and schematic. The hue is gray.

The last thirty minutes is execution. Questionably realistic (can't say why without a spoiler) and overly melodramatic. Bright colors.

The set-up half is mesmerizing. Conceived with a documentarian eye. The details of the exposition gotten out of the real world. It's all very instructional and scary in its cold-bloodedness.

I have two complains. First, miscasting of at least one of the secondary characters. For a narrative that makes a previous commitment to a clear political label, the ancillary woman is not credible.

Second, the execution half is drawn out. I can see the director fell in love with the situation and wanted to milk it to the last drop, but to an audience it goes on for too long. Cut this material in half and overall you have a great deal more impact.

To me this wasn't even about the complexity or minimization of a film.. it was the reality that sunk in knowing.. the turmoils and thoughts I've went through.. How far would I go as a teenager.. when I was a teenager, to change the world for my country? Being a soldier was never in my plans and making a name for myself wasn't my style. Don't get me wrong, this isn't about me either... it's about the fact of "desperation vs determination". Oswald, just the guy next door, no one saw that coming. Kip Kinkle (2 weeks before Columbine, Springfield, Or) had enough bullying for a change.. made some computer aided bombs and said "Amazing Grace" to mom and dad, before heading off to school in the morning. 2 students dead 22 wounded. ( A friend of mine was hit in the leg that day) Regardless... this film, is about elements beyond our self indulged lives. People merrily go about their day and randomly hand a young teenage girl change for the phone, unaware she's calling the very men.. who have planted about 20 lbs. of Semtex in her JanSport.

Everything we love and live for, everyone we hold dear is gone, within a Killswitch engage of a second.. and we didn't even realize we walked right past the girl.. and yeah so what if she was crying a little and had some urine on her pants.. I can't remember what she was wearing.. she looked American to me ,Officer!.. I mean I have a kid sister that age, mister detective..."

A young girl going from one random street clicking on a Mp3 player, and helplessly being devastated by the fact that she failed her people, and yet innocent bystanders just simply look past her, most not even noticing the possible brush of death knocking so closely at their door.. as they walk right by with their children.

Her untrue story is she has no family.. they died where she came from, and something tells you that if she had stated the truth these men would never let her go through with it.. and yet when she reaches out for her parents.. the shame of it seems to make herself dead to them, or she chose this for her punishment. But at what price and what reward.. Honor? Vengeance? No Self Worth? I mean teenagers are teenagers, no matter what country they are evolving from.

I believe she was faced with the same humanity we are faced with in every country. We need and we need to be needed. She was reaching out to be important and when she failed in an epic way.. she was no longer useful to herself.. it left her open to face the issue of being in enemy territory, and even more vulnerable and here we grow a bit more compassion for her character.

I loved the ending of the movie. Chills on so many levels and if you didn't get them, then you need some deep rooted nature and issues to dissolve within yourself and although I would never want anyone to succeed at these actual acts in reality, it is about time the people get a film where someone finally puts an end to it all. No endings like 2012. No islands to save the lucky innocence. If people want reality, and believe me a movie like this can't get any more true to the bone real, and then they want to complain about how slow and boring it went.. then I say let them have their oblivious ending. It wasn't supposed to have a hero or a fight scene .. running 'lola' or DEA busts. JUST RAW TRUTH. But the wake up call that we are so blind to hate and acts done out of confusion, fear, misunderstanding and pure hatred given from a higher command.. It's a sad and scary thing.. and I can only hope to understand someday why anyone feels compelled to be a suicide bomber. As an American citizen.. I think it's my right to know exactly why they hate us so much to do this? What is truly going on that we aren't being told?? This movie gives me the humanities version..not the stereotypical terroristic "Ironman" version. that was a great movie too. but Not even close on the same level of art!

Day Night Day Night is disturbing and scary, in a good way. Julia Lorkev has done an awesome job showing the emotions, inside battle and thoughts of a suicide bomber right before action, in a minimalistic way. She has wisely chosen the actress, the locations, the desaturated colors (especially in the first half). I especially enjoyed the closeness and the intimacy of the movie through its filming style. The other point that I noticed is the the way Loklev used some life routines (such as eating) and the contradictions they sometimes make, in such an artistic way to captivate such deep feelings. It is captivating, beautifully shot and definitely not an easy movie to watch.