A suspenseful, Hitchcockian thriller with twists and shocks aplenty, Red Lights, which screened in Official Competition at Berlin this year, is the latest masterful work from French director Cédric Kahn (Roberto Succo, MIFF 2002).

Summer in Paris and the weather is hot, just in time for the holiday weekend. Insurance clerk Antoine (Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Marie-Jo and Her Two Lovers, MIFF 2002) waits for his lawyer wife, Helene (Carole Bouquet), eager to embark on a trip to pick their kids up from summer camp. Downing a number of beers, he watches TV reports warning that over two million people will be on the roads this weekend, and traffic will be exacerbated by roadblocks set up to catch a dangerous escaped prisoner. Helene finally arrives and the couple hit the road but tension mounts as they start to bicker. When Antoine makes one too many stops for a calming ale, Helene warns that she will be gone when he returns. Sure enough, when he leaves the pub, a note informs him that she has taken the train. Rushing to the train station, he is too late. Instead, he picks up a strange hitchhiker'

D Cédric Kahn P Patrick Godeau S Cédric Kahn, Laurence Ferreira-Barbosa WS Celluloid Dreams L French w/English subtitles TD 35mm/Col/2003/106mins

Cédric Kahn was born in Fontenay-aux-Roses, France in 1966. Films include: Railway Bar (1992), Zero Guilt (1997), L'Ennui (1998).