Described as a suppressed footage film Subject is painfully constrained as it drip feeds paranoia, isolation, desperation and claustrophobia in a tightly wound up exposition. Director Tristan Barr who also stars in the feature essentially squeezes out every ounce of his experimentation into human frailty with the minimum amount he has at hand. The fact that his budget is tight, relies heavily on the delivery and execution, shifting perspectives along the way, and testing his character and the audience with every frame.
Dalensky (Barr) is a man about to serve a lengthy prison sentence but is intercepted by a secret government agency who offer him a deal in exchange for commuting his sentence. All he has to do is spend time in an isolated facility and monitor a strange creature. What appears to be a straight forward contract soon unravels to reveal the true question beneath it all… who is the real subject under scrutiny?
The Prognosis:
The real quality of Subject is from the approach that Barr takes on. To weave a troubled and tensely riddled piece though the constraints on show is cleverly told through a gradual process that steadily places its central character under the spotlight, By providing his audience with little clues to the history of his protagonist, Barr tweaks out the core of the matter, so that we are deprived of the full picture till the last. The journey to get there is equally magnified as he ramps up the tension. While it’s not ground-breaking, there’s enough energy on the screen and smarts in the direction to make this a bold entry into his experimental canon of work thus far from behind the camera.
- Saul Muerte