While a fixed lens spies through bamboo blinds on elderly retirees in the building next door, an offscreen voice that is presumably Akerman's (speaking in accented English in the print screened in Berlin) reads random thoughts from a diary, or answers the phone. A bomb has gone off in the neighborhood. Her aunt committed suicide years ago. The speaker feels too unwell to go out and viewers are stuck in the apartment with her until the camera mercifully moves to the beach toward pic's end. Camerawork is soothing and hypnotic.

-- Deborah Young

Camera (color, DigiBeta), Akerman, Robert Fenz. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (Forum), Feb. 13, 2006. English dialogue. Running time: 81 MIN.