Grimmfest 2019 Film Feature - Quiet Comes the Dawn

Runtime: 98 mins

Directed by: #PavelSidorov Starring: #AlexandraDrozdova, #AlexanderMolochnikov, #AnnaSlyu, #OksanaAkinshina, #KuzmaKotrelev, #MiroslavPentsov, #AnastasiaKuimova, #OlegVasilkov, #ValeryKukhareshin

Grimmfest Feature by: Darren Tilby

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Synopsis: Following the death of her brother under mysterious circumstances, and haunted by a series of disturbing dreams, a young woman is persuaded to take part in a lucid dreaming experiment by way of “therapy”.

Grimmfest say: If there’s one thing that horror movies have taught us over the years, it’s that messing with your dreams is never a good idea. This stylish tale of a lucid dreaming experiment going wildly out of control only reinforces that notion. Playing at first like a Russian reimagining of Ramsey Campbell’s classic novel INCARNATE by way of Joel Schumacher’s FLATLINERS, it moves into ever more uncertain and surreal territory as the protagonists get sucked into a dream world and must confront their various demons if they are ever to escape. Slick, smart, and visually striking, it’s a very seductive little nightmare that you’ll be reluctant to wake from.

What I'm Expecting: It’s really hard to gauge what one should expect from this film. Flatliners is an obvious choice (with it being a horror movie), but Quiet Comes the Dawn isn’t forced to follow that same path. Other points of reference might include Inception; if the film takes a more thrilleresque route or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; if the film decides to lean more towards science fiction and explore what it means to be human. There’s also the chance (albeit, I think, a small one) that this setup – the different characters in a state of lucid dreaming, ‘confronting their various demons’ – could be played out like an anthology horror movie. However Quiet Comes the Dawn’s narrative unfurls, it’s always great to see more Russian-made films, which are hugely underappreciated, and underrepresented in Britain.

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