Nimic
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Runtime: 12 minutes
Cast: Matt Dillon, Daphne Patakia, Susan Elle, Sara Lee, Eugena Lee
Synopsis: A professional cellist has an encounter with a stranger on the subway which has unexpected and far-reaching ramifications on his life.
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I4smRm1GVE
This new short film from the Oscar-nominated director Yorgos Lanthimos [The Favourite (2018), The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017), The Lobster (2015)] is co-written with his regular collaborator Efthimis Filippou, based on an idea by David Kolbusz.
Nimic stars Matt Dillon as a professional cellist and family man, whose encounter with a stranger on the subway has unexpected existential consequences on his life. Tense, eerie and wholly unpredictable, the latest work from Lanthimos marries black comedy with playful horror tropes to create a work that defies all expectation.
The film, which had its world premiere in August 2019 at the Locarno Film Festival, is perpetually surprising – an eerie, existential horror with stunning sound design from Johnnie Burn and creative and involving cinematography by Diego Garcia.
With scant dialogue and a score of discordant strings, overly contrived acting and Lanthimos’ trademark use of fisheye lens, every scene is permeated with an off-putting menace.
This mind-bending story of a professional cellist and the encounter he has on the subway which has unexpected and far-reaching ramifications on his life, lives firmly in Lanthimos’ unique cinematic universe which seems to pose questions about identity, perception, relationships and impasse.
Streaming on MUBI
Images courtesy of MUBI
