Dawn and Zoran are newly married and heading up the motorway on the way to their first night destination. They stop off at a motorway service station but while Dawn gets a cup of coffee, Zoran goes missing somewhere. Searching for him, Dawn starts to panic about what could have happened, while all round her the characters of the service station and darkness outside starts to close in on her.
I did not think a great deal of the previous short film I had seen from Bowen but decided to give this a try anyway. The plot is simple and the majority of it is about Dawn left alone in the service station, panicked and alone. The narrative is engaging but many viewers will be disappointed by the way that questions are left unanswered and that we never learn where Zoran went, what his background is etc. I'll be honest and say this was a bit of an issue for me, even though I know that this was the point of the film like Dawn, we are left with questions and doubts.
Fortunately for Bowen, this lack of closure wasn't a massive worry because the majority of the film is about the threats, the panic and the fear of being left alone in the service station. Not the most welcoming of places at the best of times, Bowen's station is a nightmare. Sparsely populated it has lonely men, drunken yobs (classy), drug users, transsexuals and other unknowns. The strength of the direction is that all of these inconveniences close in on Dawn's muddled mind and all take on an increasingly sinister edge. Without the narrative it is not as strong as I would have liked but it is hard to fault the direction as the atmosphere it creates is just what the film needed. The actress playing Dawn is very good as she falls into this as well and leaves us with an uneasy mix of happiness and doubt at the end one night is not enough to dump her new husband but the faith and joy she felt the day before is shattered and will not be easily restored.
Not a great story then, because it does leave too much unanswered in favour of having the ending it has; this is good to a degree but it is hard not to want it to have answered all the questions that were thrown at us. What makes it worth a look though is a great atmosphere and sense of panic that is created by a convincing lead actress and strong direction from Bowen.
I did not think a great deal of the previous short film I had seen from Bowen but decided to give this a try anyway. The plot is simple and the majority of it is about Dawn left alone in the service station, panicked and alone. The narrative is engaging but many viewers will be disappointed by the way that questions are left unanswered and that we never learn where Zoran went, what his background is etc. I'll be honest and say this was a bit of an issue for me, even though I know that this was the point of the film like Dawn, we are left with questions and doubts.
Fortunately for Bowen, this lack of closure wasn't a massive worry because the majority of the film is about the threats, the panic and the fear of being left alone in the service station. Not the most welcoming of places at the best of times, Bowen's station is a nightmare. Sparsely populated it has lonely men, drunken yobs (classy), drug users, transsexuals and other unknowns. The strength of the direction is that all of these inconveniences close in on Dawn's muddled mind and all take on an increasingly sinister edge. Without the narrative it is not as strong as I would have liked but it is hard to fault the direction as the atmosphere it creates is just what the film needed. The actress playing Dawn is very good as she falls into this as well and leaves us with an uneasy mix of happiness and doubt at the end one night is not enough to dump her new husband but the faith and joy she felt the day before is shattered and will not be easily restored.
Not a great story then, because it does leave too much unanswered in favour of having the ending it has; this is good to a degree but it is hard not to want it to have answered all the questions that were thrown at us. What makes it worth a look though is a great atmosphere and sense of panic that is created by a convincing lead actress and strong direction from Bowen.
