ONE BENEFIT we get from a streaming channel like Netflix is it gives us the chance to watch European films that normally don’t get released here. They’re shown in their language with English subtitles, so the flavor of the original film is retained.
We’ve just reviewed the Russian sci-fi film “Sputnik” and now we’ve seen the 2021 film, “Red Dot”.
The film starts with a shot of the bloodied David (Anastasios Soulis) in the snow, then goes back to his college graduation rites in Stockholm. He proposes marriage in public to his girlfriend, Nadja (Nanna Blondell), who immediately accepts it.
Theirs is an interracial romance as Nadja is black.
In the next scene, a year and a half have passed and their relationship has turned sour. They’re fighting as Nadja complains that David doesn’t help in the household chores and prefers to just play video games.
David tries to appease Nadja by taking a leave from work and taking her to a camping trip to see the famous northern lights. They take their dog along.
In a gas station, they meet two brothers, Jarmo and Rolle, and Nadja finds them fresh and rude.
While getting out of the parking area, David accidentally bumps into the truck of the brothers but instead of saying sorry, he escapes and just drives away quickly.
They get to the inn where they will stay and Nadja frets when she sees the brothers also in the same place.
They later discover that the side of their car has been scratched and the brothers posted anti-racial stickers on them since Nadja is black.
Nadja retaliates by also scratching the truck of the brothers with a screwdriver and they see her doing it. She and David again quickly escape away.
The couple gets to the snow-covered camp where they will stay for the night.
Nadja confides to David that she’s pregnant, but what’s supposed to be a happy occasion is disrupted when they notice a red dot hovering on the wall of their tent.
They realize it’s the laser light of a rifle and surmise that the brothers are taking a nasty kind of revenge on them. Their dog becomes the first victim.
Soon they are running for their lives, isolated amidst the very harsh wintry landscape while the brothers hunt them down, turning their vacation into a brutal nightmare.
Up to this point, our sympathy is totally with the young couple who are fighting for their lives and we root for them so they will survive the attacks against them in a frozen environment.
The film’s first part is truly gripping, specially the cat-and-mouse midsection, but the film’s final act shows a flashback where it is revealed that the brothers have a legitimate grievance against the couple.
After all, it would seem so trivial and petty if the brothers would try to kill them just for scratching their car. And it is then shown that their reason is something much deeper, more serious.
We realize this is not just random attack but something well planned. Of course, we will not reveal here what it is as it would spoil things for you, in case you’d decide to watch it.
Somehow, the revelation transforms our perspective about the movie and the lead couple. We lose empathy in the torture they’re being subjected, too. And it all happened because of a blow job. How sad.
And how irresponsible of them and of the director, Alain Darborg, with his very erratic work whose only advantage we should be grateful for is that his film’s running time is quite short at less than 90 minutes.
