Events

Desplechin’s feature debut is an absorbing, offbeat thriller set in the shadowy world of international espionage. Recently arrived in Paris from Germany, a young medical student (Emmanuel Salinger) makes a grisly discovery in his luggage: the shriveled, severed head of an unknown man. This shocking surprise plunges him into a Kafka-esque mystery as he embarks on an obsessive quest to determine the man’s identity. Channeling the paranoid, conspiracy-laden tone of the films of French New Wave titan Jacques Rivette, La sentinelle is a provocative, intricately constructed exploration of the traumas of post–World War II Europe and the lingering legacy of the Cold War. An NYFF30 selection. New digital restoration courtesy of Why Not Productions.