The Days Between

What is essentially a simple romance of opposites - angry young Lynn, sexually and emotionally alienated by her obsessive swimmer boyfriend, falls for a non-German speaking student from Japan - is lifted way out of the ordinary by an immaculate visual style and a contemplative approach to character and location more familiar from recent Asian cinema. Hou Xiaoxian and Tsai Ming-Liang are the presiding influences, but the quiet spaces of contemporary urban photography and the fresh reflexivity in European film are equally present. Subtle, assured and, despite the slender narrative, engrossing throughout, it's an atmospheric study of isolation and yearning, telling on the pivotal shifts within relationships and calmly moving in its final moments.