Psychological film 'Cache' to screen at ROOM Art Space

CAIRO – 4 March 2018: The 2005 Psychological French film "Cache" (Hidden) will be screening at ROOM Art Space & Café on March 4, 2018.

Director Michael Hanke crafts a chilling, complex story centered on the fact that there's more than meets the eye at viewers first see. Set in France, the film follows popular TV literature reviewer Georges (Daniel Auteuil), his wife, publisher Anna (Juliette Binoche) and their teen son Pierrot (Lester Makedonsky), an average middle-class family living a pleasant life in their small house.

Of course, the day Georges receives a mysterious video-tape in the mail, with only a crude drawing attached, is the day their life turns into a nightmare; the tape is of Georges and his family recorded somewhere on the street.

Gripped by paranoia, Georges tries to consult the police for help, but finds they're of no assistance as no direct threats are being made. The stalker is relentless, constantly sending in more tapes that grow more shockingly intimate and too-close-for-comfort. The conclusion Georges is left to draw is that the stalker is someone he once knew, and Anna becomes determined to delve into his past and protect Pierrot.

The plot grows to something beyond a story of a family being stalked however; Georges's current situation somehow ties back into the French occupation of Algeria in October 17, 1961, when hundreds of Algerian demonstrators were brutally slain in an act the country has tried its best to forget.

Hanke shoots the film with no music, creating a realistic and tense atmosphere even as the situation ramps up in intensity. It is not a film that is easy to understand, or easy to follow; it is the definition of occult (to obscure or hide meaning), requiring multiple viewings in order to make sense of the cryptic truths hidden within the story. The answer to the mystery, if perhaps there even is one, is something that couldn't possibly be seen at a first glance. Existing on multiple levels, "Cache" proves the power of film as a medium to inspire thought.

"Cache" won numerous awards at the Cannes Film Festival; the Best Director, FIPRESCI Prize and Prize of the Ecumenical Jury awards, along with being nominated for the prestigious Palme d'Or award.