Neither fish nor fowl, this moody Italian feature (2013) recasts a familiar horror-movie narrative in the languorous, poetic manner of the so-called “slow cinema” that’s pervaded the international festival circuit. A wildlife expert, living alone in the woods to monitor animal behavior, comes upon an abandoned village on the Slovenian border that’s haunted (quite literally) by the legacy of World War II atrocities. Like many recent art movies, this spends a long time vamping on pleasant nature imagery before getting to the meat of the story, which may not bother you if you’re a slow-cinema aficionado or a horror buff (the scares, once they arrive, are generally effective); otherwise, you might find this to be something of a slog. Lorenzo Bianchini directed a script he cowrote with his wife, Michela. In Italian and Slovenian with subtitles.
Across the River
1 hour 32 min • 2013
