The Limits of Control

An unnamed hitman travels through Spain, seemingly without a destination and following enigmatic routines: drinking espresso, exchanging matchboxes, waiting in silence. The plot dissolves into repetition and variation. Encounters seem like riddles whose meaning is never fully revealed. Jarmusch stages the journey as a meditative choreography. The camera lingers on architecture, landscapes and postures, while the dialogues oscillate between laconicism and poetic abstraction. Violence appears only as a distant echo, neutralised by the ritualised calm. The film questions perception, control and the power of imagination: it is less a thriller than a stylish, visual poem about the freedom of the gaze and the limits of narrative forms.
(Otto Römisch)