Those looking for a little uplifting celluloid should stay away, as Damnation plunges deep into dense, dark Bergmanesque territory. It takes a straightforward love-triangle plot and shoves it into the rain-drenched, mud-slapped, desolate landscape of '80s Hungary.
There ain't much plot: maniacally depressed loner Karrer (Miklós B Székely) falls for a singer (Vali Kerekes) and plans to involve her and her husband (György Cserhalmi) in a smuggling trip. But his unrequited passion evolves, creating hate and alienation.
This entirely bleak, black-and-white bout of troubled philosophising is desperately slow-moving. Resolutely static in its camera work and full of far-too-long single-take scenes, the film crawls to a downbeat finale. This is Euro arthouse at its most sombre.
