(Bertrand Bonello, France, 2016, 130 min)

Sunday, Sep 10 at 07:00PM

The new film by Bertrand Bonello (Saint Laurent, House of Pleasures) is a terrorism thriller like no other, recalling Robert Bresson and George Romero in equal measure. A group of young, multiracial radicals with no stated ideology stage a series of terrorist attacks in Paris, then hide out for the night in a shopping center in this transgressive exploration of radical violence. Will they survive the unseen, encroaching authorities? Or, as the walls close in, will they even survive each other? Featuring a stirring soundtrack that includes Blondie, Chief Keef, Shirley Bassey, Bonello’s menacing electronic score, and Willow Smith, Nocturama presents no easy answers. What it does offer is one of the 21st century’s most stirring cinematic experiences.

“In Nocturama, Bertrand Bonello has made a film that mixes the more police-influenced elements of Jean-Pierre Melville with the abstract beauty of Stanley Kubrick through the prism of Sofia Coppola’s alienated youths.” – Kaleem Aftab, The National (UAE)

“Bonello stages bravura cinema choreography with a chilling confidence to match this circle of youth who may be some kind of ultimate realisation of Guy Debord’s Situationist revolution.” – Robert Koehler, Sight & Sound