Inside

On a quest to steal invaluable Egon Schiele paintings from a private collector’s unoccupied residence, art thief Nemo (Willem Dafoe) becomes trapped when the security system propels the penthouse into lockdown. He manages to stave off the alarm but, try as he might, fails to find an escape from this gilded cage. Now faced with a brutal daily fight for survival, the status symbols he is surrounded by become a mockery.

Inside marks Greek director Vasilis Katsoupis’s fiction debut, but the thrilling drama is executed with such singular determination, one would never have guessed. This tale of a Robinson Crusoe stranded in the midst of civilisation hits a topical nerve after our collective experience during the pandemic – both in terms of the situation provoking resourcefulness and self-sufficiency, as well as being an exploration of the unsettling solitude inherent in being cut off from the outside world. Self-reflexively, the feature also challenges the value of art in times of need.

The production and set design craft a meticulously precise world, from architectural details to the carefully curated art collection. While it is set in New York, the iconic skyline taunting Nemo through the windows, the feature was actually shot in Germany.

It is difficult to imagine anybody other than Willem Dafoe embodying this protagonist, purely because few actors are capable of engaging an audience for 105 minutes all on their own. Without any real external stimuli to bounce off, Dafoe delicately upends his interior life to invite the viewer in, without ever becoming overly performative. Every action is laced with meaning: the soliloquies Nemo holds watching security tape footage of the building as if it were television (his last connection to humanity just out of reach) would be amusing if his predicament wasn’t so lamentable. This is easily Dafoe’s best work since At Eternity’s Gate.

Selina Sondermann

Inside does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews from our Berlin Film Festival 2023 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Berlin Film Festival website here.

Watch the trailer for Inside here: