René

Back in 1989, award-winning Czech documentary filmmaker Helena Třeštíková began filming a teenager called René as part of a broader project on juvenile delinquents (she has admitted in an interview that her decision to focus on him was taken when he tried to rob her). Over the next 20 years, she watched the young man grow up (mainly behind bars) as major socio-political upheaval and transformation changed the face of his home country. In René, we see a tortured soul in constant, head-on conflict with his own self and with the law, seeking a path towards redemption. With Třeštíková’s camera going in so close that not a single pit or crease in René’s skin remains that has not been transformed into a diminutive map of a life wasted with abandon, and with a wonderful soundtrack of forlorn electronic chords wrapping everything in a haze of almost tangible melancholy, this fantastically atmospheric documentary adds yet another dimension to the observational form, gracing it with an unforgettable protagonist.