Party

In a sunny wasteland, seemingly post-Soviet in terms of the abandoned construction and battered vehicles, young people gather. It's the former Yugoslavia, apparently the town of Vukovar, empty streets and a clear blue sky, preparations for a lazy day. On the horizon a water tower looms, almost science fictional in its outline. More prosaic a dishevelled yellow vehicle, clattering around the engine.

Once the truck is fixed, supplies are secured. Beer, cigarettes (lights), and then a bit of grass. It's going to be a party. Overgrown ruins, perhaps a monastery. The afternoon passes, moments of humour, and the group starts to disperse, wandering hither and yon until only Ona remains. Things take a turn for the sinister as she sleeps. There have been hints of oddity, an old lady's story for one, but this is something bleaker, startling in its simplicity. There's sex, certainly, drugs and alcohol, but the darkness is never explained. Indeed, it is all the better for it.

Written and directed by Dalibor Matanic, with a strong central performance from Leona Paraminski, it's technically adept, haunting. The music by Jura Ferina and Pavle Miholjevic evokes a sense of place, seeming a folk song if not indeed a lament.

Matanic is probably most famous for the controversial Fine Dead Girls, a prize winner at the Sochi Film Festival, but this would seem subtler fare. With strong performances from an ensemble cast, a brave degree of uncertainty in an ending that raises far more questions than it answers, this is good, very good. To say more would spoil its surprise, its mystery.