Belgian director Fabrice Du Welz’s surreal, haunting follow-up to 2004’s Calvaire is, if anything, even more of an ordeal. Searching desperately for their missing son – lost in the 2004 tsunami – Jeanne (Emmanuelle Béart) and Paul (Rufus Sewell) are drawn into a world of cruel, feral children living deep in the jungle on the Thai-Burmese border.
A sense of dread weighs heavy throughout, reinforced by a score so intense that at times it verges on abusive. Yet this is also one of the most gorgeous-looking films in recent memory, with brave, unabashed performances.
Think Antichrist, but without the genital mutilation.
