Night Watch

Reviewed - Red Road: ENGLISH writer-director Andrea Arnold, who won the best short film Oscar two years ago for Wasp, makes an astonishing full-scale debut with Red Road, the only feature from a first-time director selected for competition at Cannes this year, where it took a runner-up prize.

Set in Glasgow, Red Road features a thoroughly intriguing performance from Kate Dickie as Jackie, a lonely woman watching the world go by in her job as a CCTV operator for a private security firm. When one of her monitors shows a couple having alfresco sex in the city's rundown Red Road area, she is shocked to recognise the man (Tony Curran) and to realise that he has been released from prison.

It's clear that he is someone from her past, but Arnold withholds supplementary information for some time, to heighten the palpable tension as Jackie sets about following him, flirting with disaster while fully aware of the ever-present risk that he will spot her.

There are shades of Michael Haneke's best work about this often unbearably gripping psychological thriller. It is as frank in its sexual candour as in its scenes of unflinching violence, and it offers no soft dramatic compromises.

Arnold draws authentic performances from her small, well-chosen cast. The moody atmosphere is enhanced by the mobile, prowling camerawork and deft lighting achieved by Irish cinematographer Robbie Ryan, who recently demonstrated his aptitude within tight confines in another sinister drama, Isolation.

Red Road is the first feature produced by Carrie Comerford, who also is Irish, and she can be justly proud of it.