Of the films I had a chance to preview at New Directors/New Films, Before the Storm is my clear favorite. What starts as a seemingly harmless domestic drama turns into a dark thriller that unfolds with inescapable nightmare logic. A kid tired of locker room humiliation takes the advice of a middle-eastern immigrant who is being haunted by a violent past, and soon bloody horror explodes in the peaceful everyday suburban setting. Shots are fired after school, grown men cry in the supermarket's pet food aisle, and war crimes are confessed to on the bathroom floor between toilet bowl and bathtub.

Profoundly unsettling, exceedingly well acted, and crowned with a breathtaking climax, Before the Storm mercilessly drives home the piece of old bumper sticker wisdom that in a global village, nobody can be free as long as somebody is still oppressed. The political invades the domestic in a myriad ways until finally, the two are indistinguishable. Powerful stuff.

Written and Directed by Reza Parsa. Starring Per Graffman, Emil Odepark, Maria Lundqvist, Sasha Becker, Martin Wallstrom.

Sweden, 2000. 106 min.