DAY NIGHT DAY NIGHT

Forty-eight hours in the life of a young woman who has no name. She is nineteen, speaks with an unremarkable American accent, and her background cannot be determined – and she has decided to blow herself up at Times Square in New York. Why, we never learn. In the first half she submits to a group of masked men who prepare her: a false identity is rehearsed, trust exercises are held, every gesture controlled. In the second half she walks with a rucksack into the crowds of the city. Julia Loktev shot “Day Night Day Night” in 2006 in the USA, with Luisa Williams in the lead role.

The starting point was a report in a Russian newspaper about a Chechen woman in Moscow. Loktev withholds any explanation and instead observes procedures, waiting times, faces. The film premiered in 2006 in the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in Cannes, where it received the Prix Regards Jeune. “Day Night Day Night” was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2006.

Shown at the 2006 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2006 · Film Archive