Inspired by Jean-Luc Nancys memoir and informed by the writing of Robert Louis Stevenson, Claire Denis latest treatise on identity, communication and the political, cultural and economic ramifications of colonialism is nigh-on inpenetrable. And therein lies its fascination, as viewers are forced to work out how much of mysterious sixtysomething Michel Subors escape from French mountain seclusion to Tahitian dystopia (via a heart transplant and a Korean ship) is dream, nightmare, premonition or cruel reality.
Moreover, where in this mirror-imaged world do his estranged son, Grégoire Colin, and black-marketeering Russian Katia Golubeva fit?
