The Vanishing

Language: Dutch                                                Year: 1988

After Rex spends three years looking for his partner when she mysteriously disappears, he is contacted by the perpetrator who offers to reveal what happened.

What follows is a genuinely disturbing psychological thriller that builds to a terrific finale. Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu is great in the role of  'menacing nut-job' creating an unnatural balance between psycho and family man.

Based on the novel by Tim Krabbé and adapted for the screen by the author himself, this is a horror classic that doesn't resort to CGI or sudden jumps to create a deeply unsettling picture. A rare film to score 100% on rotten tomatoes this is a truly original horror.

Also, don't accidentally watch the 1993 remake. I'm reliably informed it's horrendous.

La Antena

Language: Argentinian                                        Year: 2007

La Antena (The Aerial) is a surprisingly little known film. After doing well in it's native Argentina, it sadly avoided the limelight elsewhere.

This beautiful film uses stark, black and white imagery to tell the story of a society that loses it's voice. Although the inhabitants are physically unable to speak, this film is packed with metaphors about a society controlled and oppressed by government.

The film is written and directed by Esteban Sapir who has done very little outside of his Argentinan home (other than a Shakira music video!) but he is someone who has clearly seen his fair share of '20's Noir. There are  a lot of homages to cinema classics here with obvious references to silent cinema, in particular the 1920's German masterpiece 'Metropolis'.

This is a unique film with a story that is told in an original and creative style, delivering a take on a society that is not a million miles from home.