La sentinelle

A complex and original espionage film, which has little in common with other films from the genre. Protagonist is the young medical student Mathias Barillet, who has grown up among diplomats and ambassadors (and spies). He spent his youth abroad, mostly in Germany. He has moved to Paris, alone, for his studies and someone has saddled him with a very strange batch of contraband in his baggage: professionally mummified human head. When Mathias has recovered from the initial shock, he becomes fascinated by the head and in the university dissecting-room he sets out to examine the head in minute detail and identify it. His investigation reveals some less innocent details and he gradually becomes increasingly involved in the shadow world of the intelligence service.La sentinelle is alluring, obscure, labyrinthine; Mathias's fascination evokes a nightmare world. The many characters and subplots all remain subservient to the subjective observation of Mathias, who moves around this strange world almost like a sleepwalker.Desplechin is a representative of a new generation of French directors who do not avoid the sombre, complex and irrational. Camille Nevers (Cahiers du Cinéma): 'Arnaud Desplechin raises the stakes in the poker game of a cinema which is still modern.' Kindred contemporaries are e.g. Xavier Beauvois and Guillaume Nicloux whose films Nord and La vie crevée are also being screened at this festival.