Hidden

I attended the Gloucester Guildhall cinema with S on Thursday night and watched Caché, a French film directed by Michael Haneke, known as Hidden in this green and pleasant land. Having read up a bit about it since, it seems it casts a lingering eye over fairly recent French history and, in particular, the brutal treatment of Algerian immigrants by the French in the 1960s. A nation’s guilt is here examined through the actions of the main character Georges, a successful television arts show host, the Gallic equivalent, I suppose, of Mark Lawson. When he and his wife start receiving videos showing that the exterior of their splendid Paris home is being filmed at length, accompanied with disturbing drawings, they naturally become concerned. Georges, however, has childhood secrets that lead him to confront personal guilt while searching for the answers to his family’s treatment. Although some might consider this a thriller – and it certainly thrilled – this film’s examination of the machinations of an individual’s psyche, the aforementioned guilt, the desire for secrecy, and the primitive need to seek denial and apportion blame, remained the most compelling element. It has certainly made me think since.