After an immaculate first half, Miroslav Terzić's third feature might divide viewers as to the payoff of its cold-sweat finale, but its icy formal rigor and raw ensemble playing impress throughout.
By Guy Lodge
Plus IconGuy Lodge
Film Critic
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Courtesy of This and That Productions The kids have never been less all right than they are “3 Weeks After,” a nightmarishly intense depiction of high school bullying and its consequences from Serbian director Miroslav Terzić that offers not a scrap of sentimental faith in future generations. Following an ill-advised — and very ill-supervised — class tour to the Balkans in the immediate wake of a tragedy that has left the school’s student body even more restive and less disciplined than usual, Terzić’s third feature works up an extraordinary degree of tension around the relentless targeting of one outcast child, culminating in acts of youth-on-youth violence that merit the strongest of trigger warnings whether or not they’re directly depicted on screen. The predatory precision of Damjan Radovanović’s camerawork alone is enough to knot the stomach; startling sound design amps up the horror even when our eyes are spared.
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