Evolution (2016)

Perhaps it's because I watched this when it is -4 outside, but this is quite a chillingly haunting film that is probably most notable for the powerful efforts of the eleven year old Max Brebant as "Nicolas" and the very intangibility of just where and when this is all set. Ostensibly, he's living in a small village populated by women and young lads like himself. There are no grown-up men anywhere to be seen. When he goes swimming one afternoon he makes quite a startling discovery and it's his disclosure of that to his mother (Julie-Marie Parmentier) and her reaction that starts to stimulate interest from the audience in just what is going on in this peaceable, rather regimented, place. "Nicolas" is determined to get to the bottom of his new found mystery and as he explores he finds things his young brain struggles to rationalise (as did mine). Things become more curious when he is admitted to an hospital where the most peculiar medical procedures are carried out on him and on his friend "Victor" (Mathieu Goldfield) - but what they seem to be achieving beggars belief! It's the prevailing ambiguity that makes this an interesting film to watch. It has little actual structure and though there is a chronology of sorts throughout, we are never entirely (or even remotely) certain of our footing here. There's a glimmer of light towards the end when he and his sympathetic nursing friend "Stella" (Roxane Duran) appear to offer us some sort of solution, or explanation - but even then, a lot of this is left to our own imaginations about what we think it is/was all about. It's quirky and unusual and worth eighty minutes - but don't expect to get to the end with many answers.

_Evolution_ left me weirdly hooked and a bit confused. It’s a slow, creepy watch—really striking to look at, but it keeps things pretty vague. I liked the eerie vibe and all the strange, squirmy moments, though it did get a bit frustrating. Classic Hadžihalilović—answers not included.