Unrest

Josephine is a wise and forward-thinking watch maker in a factory from 150 years ago. She fixes the spring mechanisms in watches that ensure movement and balance. Combining forces with a traveling anarchist from Russia, the pair attempts to alter the way that the town and its industries measure time.

Complicated like a watch and cerebral, Unrest unwinds slowly like the viewing of a masterful work of art. Ambient sounds of women singing, machinery, flowing water, summer insects, wind, and birdsong, combine with playful and beguiling camera work that, like the cinematography of Wong Kar-wai, often places the actors outside the focus of the frames.

After a late night of watching a midnight madness film at the Toronto International Film Festival and wandering through the city at night, I was not in the mood for this morning mindbender, so I need to watch it again in a better frame of mind, to fully appreciate its wonders.