With his firmly designed debut, Flemish filmmaker Kristof Hoornaert makes perfect slow cinema. Johan Leysen plays a hermit who leads a self-contained life in his simple house in the forest. On one of his strolls, he finds a half-naked young man, to whom he offers clothes, food and shelter. Their wordless companionship is put to the test when the police come to the door and the mysterious young man turns out to have committed a murder. The hermit faces a moral dilemma: should he help him or turn him in? The pure shots are back to basics – a window, the sun, faces – and Resurrection develops into a parable about cruelty in the world. The refined camerawork, in broad Cinemascope, is by the Lithuanian Rimvydas Leipus, well-known for the films of Sharunas Bartas, and Khadak by Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brosens. With his subdued acting, Leysen provides many clues to fathom his motives. His deeply-lined face tells a story of its own.
