[CINÉMA] Islands, breathless Hitchcock polar under the sun of the Canaries

Tom is a lonely and a melancholic. Similarly, Tennis teacher in a Fuerteventura bobos tourist hotel. Nevertheless, in the Canary Islands, Tom faces a busy professional daily life and leaves little room for the unexpected. Consequently, In the evening. In addition, the forties decompresses in a box where alcohol flows to waves, ties as ephemeral as superficial relationships with local tourists and ends the night miserably on deckchairs, by the beach …

One morning, Anne, a tourist, asked him to teach tennis to her son Anton. However, Little enthusiastic about giving private lessons to a child. For example, but under the spell of the young woman, Tom gently agrees to stall a niche the next day. However, Very quickly, the teacher meets Dave, the husband, and helps the small family get a better hotel room. So, links are woven, gradually revealing the flaws of [cinéma] islands, breathless hitchcock polar a couple constituted too early and, it seems, out of spite. One evening, while Tom and Dave decide to go for a drink, the husband disappears without leaving any trace. Launched in search of him. while the police opened his own investigation, the tennis teacher and the young woman get closer …

A little novelty under the sun

Winner of the Grand Prix at the Reims Polar Festival of 2025. the new film by the German Jan-Ole Gerster does not deserve. Sort of postmodern fable with Hitchcockian patterns. intriguing music, Islands Play the map of the ambiguity, mystery and the plot indices scattered here and there.

Referring to the cinema of Antonioni. Dominik Moll at times, even François Ozon, but without the irony that characterizes the latter, the film rests a lot on its contrast between a latent tension, full of more or less held promises, and a tourist framework [cinéma] islands, breathless hitchcock polar in long and stretched time. All. for the benefit of a reflexive story on boredom, dead ends, sclerosis and need for some to change their life. Our “hero”, in fact, embodied by the talented (and too rare) Sam Riley, is at a crossroads of his existence. At the heart in spite of himself of a strange case of disappearance. Tom will find there, unconsciously, what to draw the excitement and the surprise which he lacked so far. Undoubtedly, we are told, the time of change has rang for him, it is time to rebut the cards.

Rather clever, Jan-Ole Gerster spares his suspense brilliantly, launches some false tracks and is continuously plays with our expectations. Not sure, moreover, that the end chosen by the filmmaker manages to satisfy all the spectators …

4 out of 5 stars