scavenge Archives - Jeremy C. Processing

Redoubt (Värn)

Director – John Skoog – 2025 – Sweden – Cert. – 85m

***1/2

Convinced the enemy will attack soon, a man turns his small house into a fortress that can provide shelter for a small number of people – out in UK cinemas on Friday, March 27th

Before this film came along, ‘redoubt’ was not a word in my vocabulary; it means a small, possibly temporary, building turned into a fortress in preparation for war. John Skoog’s stark film, shot in equally stark black and white by cinematographer Ita Zbroniec-Zajt (Woman on the Roof, Anna Jadowska, 2022) is about a man living in an isolated rural community who, perhaps influenced by old government pamphlets about preparing for war, images from which pepper the film’s opening moments, decides to fortify his house as a refuge for his neighbours in the local community should the unthinkable happen.

It bears similarity to the Biblical story of Noah who is instructed by God to build an ark prior to the forthcoming global flood. In that account, everyone else thinks him completely nuts and just lets him get on with it, and the same thing happens here – people like him, and he’s tolerated as the local eccentric.… Read the rest

Kontinental ’25 (Kontinental ’25)

Director – Radu Jude – 2025 – Romania – Cert. 15 – 109m

****

Although operating within the bounds of the law, a bailiff is smitten with guilt and remorse for the effect of her job on a ‘client’– out in UK cinemas on Friday, October 31st

Carrying large bags, he scavenges at the bases of tree trunks in the woodlands, swearing profusely when his foot goes a foot in to the stream when he tries to fill his water bottle. In a bizarre nod to the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg, 1993) – or more likely those briefly seen in The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011), he rests beside a dimetrodon sculpture then smokes a cigarette by a dilophosaurus. He rides a ski lift, passes a father and small son on their bikes on a footbridge, downs his packed lunch with vodka on a river bridge. He hangs around cafes asking for either work or five lei. He says “fuck you” after the woman offering him an early Sunday morning cleaning job has left. He gets hassled by a robot dog. He returns to his boiler room home.

While he sleeps, the bailiff Mrs Orsolya Ionescu (Eszter Tompa) knocks on his door, gendarmes in tow, to evict him, Ion (Gabriel Spahiu).… Read the rest