Lili
2019 · 9m · Netherlands
Directed by Yfke van Berckelaer
Genres: drama, horror, thriller
Tones: dark, provocative, tense
A young actress's audition for an older man grows increasingly uncomfortable with every line read, in a single-take #MeToo-era horror.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Everyone's doing the #MeToo thriller now, but van Berckelaer's gambit—a single take that *refuses* to cut away—is almost too obvious, which somehow makes it work; the constraint becomes the subversion, trapping us in complicity rather than letting us edit our own discomfort.
A formally disciplined exercise in sustained tension that situates itself squarely in the lineage of real-time cinema (Russian Ark, Birdman) while interrogating power through unbroken frame; the single-take choice feels earned, not gimmicky.
The decision to never break the shot—to force both camera and viewer into the room without relief—is what transforms a timely premise into something visceral; it's the kind of structural choice that costs nothing but changes everything about how the horror lands.
Reviews
It was fun seeing her read the same lines with different emphases and attitudes. They did a lot with a little here.