Ghost Trail Review: An Unsettling Depiction of Suffering and Suspicion as a Syrian Refugee Hunts His Tormentor
A expression of a exile functions as the cryptic core to this slow-burning drama-thriller, the fiction feature debut of France-based film-maker Jonathan Millet. Presented as impenetrable, emotionless, reserved, yet revealing an unspeakable torment, a repressed, raw psychological wound, exacerbated by what is evidently a recent strategic vigilance.
The Quest for Justice
Hamid is brought to life by Adam Bessa, a former literature professor from Aleppo who is now in a European urban center in 2016, having endured abuse in a well-known Sednaya prison, and the loss of his loved ones.
He inquires displaced compatriots if they recognize a certain man, showing them a hazy photograph, claiming that this is his family member. Truthfully, it is a man who tortured him and Hamid is a participant of a ring focused on tracking down Syrian war criminals all over Europe.
Plagued by the Previous Events
Tormented, weary and discontent, Hamid’s only real relationship is with his elderly mother in a displacement settlement, with whom he has frequent video chats; this a tender performance from Shafiqa El Till.
Finally, Hamid notices a science major on a academic institution named Harfaz (Tawfeek Barhom) and, based on what he his scent, becomes obsessively persuaded that this is the individual. Might he represent just another innocent exile seeking to restore his life?
Doubt and Ethical Struggle
The student warmly invites Hamid to share a meal for lunch and there is an prolonged, captivatingly ambiguous conversational exchange, in which gently articulate Harfaz gives the impression of probing his views about the ruling authority, or cautioning him to just move past it all and progress, the way he has done.
Might Harfaz represent his objective – or his role model? Hamid must decide that, and then determine if he is going to take vengeance into his own hands.
Artistic Comparisons
In some ways, this is similar to Ariel Dorfman’s play Death and the Maiden, adapted for film by Roman Polanski, or the 70s postwar world of fugitive guilt in an influential work and another cinematic reference. The feature moves confidently across Europe and the Middle East and depicts a layered world of suffering.
The Specter's Journey is in movie houses from 19 September.
