Day Night Day Night

A 19-year-old girl prepares to become a suicide bomber in Times Square. She speaks with no accent; it’s impossible to pinpoint her ethnicity. We never learn why she made her decision; she has made it already. We don’t know whom she represents or what she believes, only that she believes it absolutely. Focusing on microscopic movements, the smallest gestures, and an economy of banal details, the film strips the story down to pure essentials, inspired in part by a Russian newspaper report and playing off a history of Joan of Arc films. The minimalism of the girl’s face is contrasted with the visual and aural noise of the city, where faith comes face-to-face with the possibility of failure.