The Guilty

★★★★ OUT 26 OCTOBER / CERT 15 / 85 MINS

DIRECTOR Gustav Möller cast Jakob Cedergren, Jessica Dinnage, Johan Olsen, Omar Shargawi

THE AUDIO PROVES as crucial as the visuals in 30-year-old Gustav Möller’s feature debut, as Copenhagen cop Jakob Cedergren is consigned to emergency dispatch duties while awaiting a disciplinary hearing and employs unconventional methods in a bid to end a hostage crisis. Keeping the camera close to the macho maverick’s face as he tries to stay in touch with a woman who has been abducted by her violent ex-husband, Möller makes immersive use of ambient sound and disarming silence to ratchet up the suspense until events take a decisive and unexpected turn. Exuding self-righteous hubris, Cedergren is superb. But the real star is sound designer Oskar Skriver.