Dir. Julia Loktev
Starring Luisa Williams
She prays to someone. She could be Christian, or Muslim, or any other religion. The prayers are kept vague so we don’t know. The specific religion is not important. It’s all about the strong conviction she has to go through with the plan. We also don’t know her name or her ethnicity (thanks to smart casting), or her specific political opinions. What’s important is she has a strong belief that she wants to do something. Julia Loktev’s interesting experimental film Day Night, Day Night follows this young woman’s journey as she prepares to be a suicide bomber. This bold idea carries the film pretty far, but the lack of narrative rhythm and a huge misstep in the third act prevent it from being completely successful.
The film starts with the unnamed woman being picked up at the airport. From that point, she is taken to a hotel room where and is told to wait. Time passes as she paces the room, looks out the window (which gets her a warning phone call not to do that), and clips her toenails. Eventually, several men (of various ethnicities) wearing ski masks show up and take her (and us) through the extensively process of preparing for the mission. This sequence is appropriately tedious. Loktev rightly has no intention of make this seem like a thrilling venture.
One of the most interesting aspects of Day Night, Day Night is how it follows the rather mundane tasks of preparing for the bombing. The camera lingers on a blinking turn signal, as the woman is mere seconds from exiting the car to go and complete her task. The people who fit her with the bomb and explain her how to use do so in the most casual manner possible. It’s like they’re teaching her how to correctly use a home appliance. There’s a disturbingly amusing scene where the planners make her try on several different outfits as if it’s an episode of America’s Next Top Suicide Bomber.
This is all very interesting to be sure, but the lack of structure does make the proceedings tedious after a while. This wouldn’t be as much of a problem if Loktev had stayed true to her vision throughout. Unfortunately, she tries to get a little too clever with a sequence in the third act, attempting to inject some unnecessary humor into the film and completely undermining her central character’s plight. This sequence is surrounded by moments of excruciating tension, which lose a bit of steam when we see our usually quiet protagonist coming up with a clever quip like she’s walked off the set of 30 Rock. This brief moment is a huge miscalculation, ruining the consistency of the film’s style, and making the repetitive earlier scenes seem rather pointless.
The film isn’t completely apolitical. While avoiding the baggage that ethnicity or religion would bring, the depiction of the main character is very telling. As played by Luisa Williams, she is a somewhat naļ¶„ and very nervous, and can be seen snacking up to the very moment where she is expected to carry out the plan. We are given small hints that she was drawn into this because of something that happened to someone she loves, most likely her brother. This is not the typical obviously evil person that can be spotted in a crowd. She has the presence of someone who was that clumsy girl in your sociology class one day. This is a far more upsetting depiction than someone who is confident and more capable, which is why the little comedy sequence at the end is such a big mistake.
This film deserves bonus points for even being made. Unfortunately, it has very little chance of going anywhere. In an era where Hollywood pats itself on the back for the “courage” to tackle racism in the simplistic Oscar winner Crash, there is really no room for a movie about a suicide bomber. Hopefully films like this will get more and more attention and Hollywood will have the nerve to get more daring, but until then scour your arthouse theaters if you want to see films that really challenge you, and not ones where Sandra Bullock decides not to be racist because she fell down the stairs.
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