THE SENTINEL (1992) [Feature]

France (MIFF1993)
Director: Arnaud Desplechin

Alluring and labyrinthine, The Sentinel, is a wholly original and intriguing espionage drama — a suspenseful exploration of the legacy of Cold War politics.

At the centre of this intensely psychological thriller is a strange parcel which forensic student Mathias, finds in his luggage. Unwrapping it he discovers the mummified head of a middle-aged man. His growing obsession with, and dissection of, every tooth, hair follicle and bone of his macabre possession, draws him further into the web of questions surrounding the man's death — a nightmarish vortex of conspiracy and intelligence-service double dealings.
His roommate, a French diplomat, transforms his living quarters into a fortress, and it seems as if the cloak-and-dagger games these young men play about the borders in their own home is symbolic of the paranoid wargames that shaped their youth.

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