A Few Days in September 2006

Santiago Amigorena’s film is an electrifying thriller set in a paranoid post-cold war Europe. It’s also a drama about a half-brother and sister who are brought together by a French Secret Service agent, Irène (Juliette Binoche), at the request of their father, Elliot (Nick Nolte), a former colleague of hers now turned spy. Elliot has gone missing; that he’s holding information about an impending disaster is one of many problems that his trackers have to solve. A neurotic assassin (John Turturro) is another spoke in the works, and as the trail of espionage shifts from Paris to Venice, the considerable charms and skill of Irène are put to work.

“Helped considerably by cinematographer Christophe Beaucarne, the Buenos Aires-born screenwriter Amigorena makes a fine impression directing his first feature. They have managed to come up with sparklingly fresh images of the two cities, and contrast them vividly with night­time sequences that are pure noir, with rainy streets, blinking neon and dripping blood.” — Ray Bennett, Hollywood Reporter