Cold Hell

Ozge drives a taxi in Vienna, trains in Thai boxing and lets nobody close. She witnesses a murder in the building opposite, and the killer notices that she saw him. When the police fail to care, she stops being hunted and decides to hunt. Stefan Ruzowitzky directed. Violetta Schurawlow plays Ozge, Tobias Moretti the exhausted detective. The film's engine is character more than genre: she is running from a serial killer and from her own family at once, and both arrive together. The fights are built on fatigue rather than choreography; nobody here fights elegantly. The killer's motive is religious fanaticism, and the film leaves that side underdeveloped; its real interest is in how the intended victim answers back. Ruzowitzky had already won the foreign-language Oscar with The Counterfeiters; here the choice is pure genre. Vienna at night, wet asphalt and neon: the cinematography is the strongest element. Who it is for: viewers who like hard European thrillers and revenge stories. Who it is not for: anyone uncomfortable with violence shown in detail.