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THE PUNISHMENT
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A single-take missing child movie filmed on a Chilean backroad at the edge of a darkening forest, The Punishment elegantly turns a compelling and intense dramatic situation into an involving study of the psychology of motherhood. Matias Bize's ninth feature continues his filmic investigations into the intimacies of human relationships, this time infusing them with a new urgency and suspense. Bize's sure-handedness makes it a lesson in tech craft - one that won him the directing prize at Malaga - while Coral Cruz's script is grueling but rewarding ride: viewers are likely to take more away from the experience than they expected going in.
Much of Bize's work, such as 2015's The Weight of Water, which also deals with the loss of a child, unspools in real time. Like 2003's Saturday, The Punishment was shot in a single take, using a single camera. It's a high-risk strategy that surprisingly generates only a couple of longueurs and over-hasty moments here; the film was shot in full on seven consecutive days towards nightfall, with the version shot on the sixth day on display here.
Angered by the antics of their seven-year-old son Lucas (Santiago Urbina), his parents Ana (Antonia Zegers) and Mateo (Nestor Cantillana) have left him on a rural road and driven off in order to frighten him into behaving. Excessive or not, when they return after a couple of minutes, the boy has gone. For reasons that will later become clear, Ana seems shellshocked and oddly passive more than panicked, standing around while Mateo plunges into the woods, uselessly shouting out Lucas' name...
BY JONATHAN HOLLAND
READ MORE: 'The Punishment': Malaga Review | Reviews | Screen (screendaily.com)
