The Time of a Young Man About to Kill

One of the most interesting shorts in Busan, "The time of a young man about to kill" gave us the opportunity not only to explore an unknown world, that is this of blood feuds in Albania but also the chance to sink into a dense cinematic universe. A young Albanian, played brilliantly by Bartosz Bielenia, is seeking revenge for his father's death. The killer is nowhere to find and the young man kidnaps the killer's child and raises him until he reaches the 16 year of age, an age where according to an old set of Albanian laws, a child becomes a man and can kill or be killed. With a wise use of lenses and sound, the director (who was really really young!) succeeded to master a form where time doesn't really exist and where space brings the acts of killing so close to each other, that at the end they all merge into one. Without being easy to watch, it offers fearlessly a rare cinematic experience of human despair.