Sleepless beauty film full#

Is her kidnapping motivated by this? Khvaleev and screenwriter Aleksandra Khvaleeva don’t really go into it, nor does it seem to matter all that much. We’re never given a chance to know Mila much beyond her job, fish and an abortion she (possibly) had a while ago. It’s hard to care about anything, though. The cartoons will stick with viewers far longer than any of the physical violence, which is brutal but repetitive. Part Monty Python, part Adult Swim animation from hell, these short movies depict masses of screaming genitalia, violated living orifices and screeching disembodied heads. Where Khvaleev’s low-budget Saw riff-off does shine – for want of a better word – is in its animated sequences, presented to Mila through VR headset. Why pick out the sleep deprivation element when that's just one aspect of Mila's ordeal? So complete is her physical and mental humiliation that the film's title becomes almost arbitrary. The lack of explicit sexual violence is surprising, but the only reprieve viewers (and Mila) can expect.

Sleepless beauty film full#

The film pulls few punches in its treatment of poor Mila – subjecting her to coffins full of rats, surgical procedures, a murderous pop quiz and obscene animated movies. Some of the technology is new (live-streaming, complete with all-too plausible commenters), but the game is the same. Director Pavel Khvaleev manages to out-nasty much of what came before and after, without bringing a great deal of novelty to the table. The demand for harrowing torture movies may have died down since the subgenre’s heyday, but films of their ilk keep popping up (see also: Jens Dahl’s Breeder). To what end? That’s not particularly important, but it makes its point effectively enough. While the ins-and-outs of her ordeal oscillate between a somewhat mild episode of Fear Factor and a particularly mean-spirited Saw movie, sleep deprivation is the name of the game. Kidnapped by a shadowy Dark Web organisation, teacher Mila (Polina Davydova) is locked up in a grotty basement and subjected to various physical and mental tortures.