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The Guilty: riveting and unrelenting

Sunshine Coast Film Society
guilty
Actor Jakob Cedergren in The Guilty.

As Denmark’s official entry for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2018, The Guilty is one of the more ingenious minimalist thrillers to hit the big screen in a long time and a huge achievement for director Gustav Möller in his debut feature. 

Demoted to emergency dispatch duties while awaiting a disciplinary hearing, a Danish police officer, Asger (Jakob Cedergren), answers a panicked phone call from a kidnapped woman. Filmed with claustrophobic intensity and impressive sound design, The Guilty progresses in real time with the officer speaking into his headset, desperately trying to prevent a tragedy. The search to find the woman and her assailant takes every bit of Asger’s skill and intuition. With the clock ticking, he takes matters into his own hands, tensions ramp up, and personal demons conspire against him. 

Like the gripping Tom Hardy film Locke, The Guilty is confined to a single location and is anchored by a brilliant performance from lead actor Cedergren, a tinderbox of an actor, who keeps the audience riveted throughout the film’s unrelenting 85 minutes. Garnering multiple awards, Möller’s film also has a few things to say about how the best of intentions can lead to disturbing consequences. 

Sunshine Coast Film Society (SCFS) presents The Guilty on Saturday, Feb. 29, 2 p.m. at the Raven’s Cry Theatre in Sechelt and Monday and Tuesday, March 2 and 3, 7:30 p.m. at Gibsons Heritage Playhouse. The SCFS’s AGM follows the March 2 screening. 

SCFS members: $5. Single event membership: add $4. All annual memberships and tickets for Gibsons and Sechelt can be purchased at www.scfs.ca or at the doors.

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