In this exceptional feature debut, director Bas Devos eschews traditional narrative to draw his audience into the post-traumatic dream state of disassociation. Violet begins with a striking shot: teenage Jesse (Cesar De Sutter) helplessly witnesses the random murder of a friend. The film moves from that point not searching for meaning, but rather, plunging into the perspective of the stunned survivor, becoming an immersive study in the human experience of isolation.

What is perhaps most strange about grief is how the world carries on, seemingly unaware of your sudden detachment from it. You eat the same food, climb into the same bed at night. But the morning after the candlelight vigil, workers have to throw away the flowers and stuffed animals. Devos’s meditative approach induces in its viewers the same sense of eerie detachment. The filmmaking on display here is a masterclass of control. Every filmic element sculpts a contour of this surreal world. Meaningful sound design, beautifully naturalistic performances, and the strikingly graceful, patient 65mm cinematography of Nicolas Karakatsanis; all immerse us in a hyperreal, alien world. This subjective reality is uniquely cinematic, something that can’t be put into words. It is, by turns, beautiful and dreadful. It’s the world we live in, gone terribly cold.

“Intensely stylized, highly original and utterly mesmerizing” – Ronnie Schieb, Variety