Jackie works as a CCTV operator for Glasgow council. Daily she watches over a small part of the world, takes seriously her duties to protect the people moving about in her monitors. Jackie steers clear of involvements with anyone, has life sorted in a way that suits her. Her life has an order, a calm, she has orchestrated it to be this way because in the past Jackie has known the greatest pain a human can know. Then one day a man appears in her monitors, a man she thought she would never see again or wants to see again. Now the opportunity presents itself, she is compelled to confront him. - skip ad - Genres: Art/Foreign and Drama Running Time: 1 hr. 53 min. Release Date: March 9th, 2007 (limited) MPAA Rating: Not Rated Distributor: Tartan Films (US) Cast And Credits Starring: Andrew Armour, Nathalie Press, Martin Compston, Tony Curran, Kate Dickie Directed by: Andrea Arnold Produced by: Gillian Berrie (II), Paul Trijbits, Claire Chapman

Taking a page perhaps from the Dogma "vows of chastity," that restrictive aesthetic code for filmmaking laid down several years ago by a group of European directors, is a new project called Advance Party. The concept is for three directors to write and shoot scripts based on a group of characters developed by Lone Scherfig and Anders Thomas Jensen.

All stories must be set in Scotland and the roles will be cast with the same actors in each film. The first film, "Red Road" by Andrea Arnold, is a nervy and taut thriller in which a woman stalks a man whose past sin is only made clear at the end of the film. Where the series goes from here is anybody's guess, but "Red Road" certainly gets this intriguing project off to a rousing start.

The film should find its way into any number of festivals and make a strong showing in indie cinemas throughout North America and Europe. The filmmakers wisely projected the film at Cannes with English subtitles. While these are not the thickest accents ever heard in a Scottish-based film, this is a smart commercial move.

You might call the film "Rear Window Times 100." Jackie (Kate Dickie in a captivating film debut) works as a monitor of video surveillance cameras placed strategically around Glasgow. Essentially, she watches people all day, for security, of course, but it's a creepy job. She lives alone and carries an aura of a disturbing, possibly tragic past. Her only seeming recreation comes in occasional loveless fornication with a married man.

One day she sees a man on her monitor she never expected to see again. She learns he has gotten out of prison early for good behavior. You suspect the reason for his incarceration is connected to Jackie's past.

ShShe observes him for days before venturing into his terrain, in and around an ugly building of flats called Red Road. She eventually crashes a party he throws with his flat mates, Stevie (Martin Compston) and April (Natalie Press). She allows him to flirt with her before she bolts, vomiting in the elevator as she flees.

Her quarry, whose name is Clyde (Tony Curran), also carries an aura. His is of a sordid past but a determined effort to stay clean. Something almost like tenderness and regret dwells just beneath his rough exterior. His roommates, younger and more lost, might well be like he was several years earlier.

Using no music, Arnold builds tension and creates moods through the background sounds of Glasgow. Robbie Ryan's hand-held camera gives the film an apropos roughness that fits this tough cityscape. Danger seems to lurk everywhere even as people go about their normal activities, walking dogs or hauling dirty clothes to the Laundromat.

Arnold invests comedy and drama into the tiniest events Jackie observes on her monitors. The director fills her first feature with pent-up emotions that only reveal their origins in time. The production, down to telling details in the costumes and sets, unerringly and vividly lays out the world of the story's characters and their struggle to make untidy lives somehow work.

The next Advance Party film is eagerly awaited.