The unfortunately ambiguous title of Sunset refers to the European aristocracy in the years before World War I. The central character is Írisz Leiter (Juli Jakab), a young woman who has returned to Budapest from her boarding school to get a job in the high-end millinery shop that still bears the name of her dead parents. Írisz soon learns she has a brother she didn’t know about, and he’s some kind of criminal or anarchist, and she starts searching the dark reaches of the city to learn more.
The camera follows her like a shadow, peering over her shoulder, taking her point of view or skittering backward in front of her as she walks, fixed on her face. This filmmaking style will be familiar to anyone who’s seen Son of Saul, the Oscar-winning first feature by Hungarian director László Nemes, set in a Nazi death camp.
While Saul was a nightmare, Sunset is more of a fever dream. It’s generally mesmerizing, and lead actress Jakab holds the audience’s attention as she goes out on her usually unexplained explorations. The growing chaos and a series of disturbing, violent events are portrayed as sometimes out-of-focus backdrops for Írisz’s search for herself.
It’s pointless to try to summarize more of the plot because much of it remains ambiguous. Everyone in Sunset peppers everyone else with questions, and never are any of them directly answered. Nemes favors craftsmanship over storytelling and mood over clarity, weaving a haunting tapestry of impressions and inference.
Opens May 10 at Grail Moviehouse
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