Look, Stranger

An unflinching portrait of desperation and survival, Look, Stranger depicts the homewards journey of a refugee woman as she tries to make her way across a wartorn country. Featuring another remarkably visceral performance from acclaimed Romanian actor Anamaria Marinca (4 Weeks, 3 Months, 2 Days), the film captures the particular horrors confronted by women under military occupation. But this is no simple essay on individual exigencies amidst war-induced lawlessness; it is an intimate story of one woman’s very personal flight.

Stripping the film of virtually any dialogue, Javitch relies instead on the interplay between Marinca’s emotional countenance and the gritty landscape she traverses. A harrowing juxtaposition is borne of the comparison, with Marinca’s pale face, at once vulnerable and resolute, set against a world of mud, barbed wire, feral dogs and ramshackle camps. A sorrowful grace is evoked through her character’s perpetual motion; though the world she inhabits is ugly, debased and antagonistic, there’s humanity in her perseverance, and a particularly feminine one at that. The character finds strength in both her integrity and compassion, leaning on the memory of a child by her side, refusing to compromise her honour.

It comes as no surprise that Javitch began her career as a dancer and went on to make dance films. Look, Stranger showcases a kinetic beauty that connects with the heart, operating on a sensory level of tactility and emotion. From the brownish mist drifting over wearied scrubland to the symbolism of heated stew at the refugee camp, the experience of the film is one of breath and touch, evoking the same inexplicable reaction of affective choreography. And like a dance, Look, Stranger combines the unique with the universal into a work that feels both urgent and indefinable; moreover, it signals the arrival of a talented new cinematic voice. —TIFF