In an attempt to study the methods used by sexual predators on the internet, a pair of Czech filmmakers cast three young adult women who have the appearance of 12-year old girls, sit them down for ten days in front of a webcam in a facsimile of their childhood bedrooms and record their conversations with countless men online.

This is the kind of dark concept you might see in a confrontational American reality show. The idea is so absurd, it could be confused as an episode of Nathan for You. The filmmakers enter the experiment with promising goals, trained professionals and a strict code of conduct to limit the ethical implications of the project.

The following 90 minutes is about as icky as you can imagine. Knowing that the actresses are well into their adulthood doesn’t help to make the experience less discomforting. The filmmakers employ a unique blurring technique to protect the identity of the men who approach the girls to chat. Their faces are blurry and nondescript, but their eyes and their mouths are crystal clear and their gaze almost penetrates the computer screen we see them on. The effect is extremely unsettling.

There isn’t a lot of joy to hold onto here. It ultimately boils down to a series of creepy, older men requesting nude photos, sending nude photos and masturbating (sometimes in secret, sometimes out in the open). The girls are constantly bombarded with requests from anonymous men (over 2400 in ten days!?!?!) and despite leading every conversation off by underlining the fact that they are 12-years old, there seems to be an inevitability for abuse with every possible interaction.

There is a single moment late in the film where an actress chats with a young man, training to be a nurse, who upon hearing that the girl had been sending out nudes, pleads with her not to do that anymore and explains to her the implications of sending nude photos on the internet. As this conversation continues, the man’s face blur melts away. A real white knight. The effect would almost be cheesy and forced if it didn’t appear to be the one single time in this film that a man chose compassion over “some flashin’.” (sorry)

The final act takes us past the 10 day chat session to a mocked up cafe in downtown Prague. The girls meet up with 21 of the men who they had spoken with in the weeks before. In America, at this point somebody would jump out and we would have a “Gotcha” moment where they would be left to scramble for an answer for what they’ve been doing. Here we just watch the men push their agenda even further. There is a brief moment of justice when one of the actresses puts a man in his place before throwing a drink in his face and leaving. If not for the controlled environment appearing as a public place, this would be a very frightening situation.

A recent Netflix film has garnered a lot of controversy for how it explores some of these themes. It’s clear that the focus of this film is to show the methods that predators use online to gain the trust and take advantage of young girls. They achieve this with minimal interference and maintain an ethical approach throughout. Neither sensational or exploitative, Caught in the Net is rather a disturbing and educational study on the effects of the internet on young minds.

Despite the hurdles of launching a film festival in 2020, VIFF is returning in just over a week to stream more than 100 features and shorts programs for two weeks to residents of BC. If you had asked me a few months ago about the prospects of a festival this year, I would have expressed concern regarding the general quality of the offerings in such a chaotic year, but as the organizations that are brave enough to engage this year announce their selections, I’ve seen more than enough trailers and previews to know we are in for some cinematic treats, even if we have to enjoy the cinema from home.

Here’s a few narrative films that I’m excited to see at VIFF 2020:

ANOTHER ROUND – Thomas Vinterberg

Thomas Vinterberg’s films are hit and miss, but it’s impossible to deny the brilliance of his 2012 feature The Hunt. Here we see him reunite with Hunt star Mads Mikkelsen in a black comedy about a group of high school teachers who start experimenting with maintaining a base level of intoxication, in hopes of improving their lives.

I’m on the fence about this one, but with another Vinterberg-Mikkelsen collaboration and what looks like the director taking a step back in terms of scope, I am cautiously optimistic.

MOVING ON – Yoon Dan-Bi

First time Korean director Yoon Dan-Bi is already drawing comparisons to some of Asia’s greatest filmmakers in her gorgeous debut Moving On. Just watching the trailer had me tearing up and this film shot to the top of my list. A story about two children dealing with the aftermath of divorce as they learn to live with extended family. There are clear lines to be drawn to the complicated family dynamics in the films of Hirokazu Kore-Eda and an aesthetic that looks straight out of Taiwanese New Cinema. This is the exact kind of discovery I’m looking for when I dig through the yearly cinema offerings.

UNDINE – Christian Petzold

Paula Beer won the Silver Bear at Berlin for her performance in Petzold’s newest film Undine. I don’t know much about the plot of this film, other than that it is a romance and has an air of the supernatural. As a rule, Petzold’s films are not to be missed. I anticipate a tightly paced film that plays with our sense of time and place and featuring strong performances from the central cast. Reviews of this film have been mixed, but I have a feeling that this will be an underrated gem.

VIOLATION – Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli

This one has quite a bit of hype coming out of TIFF and is likely one of those films that would surely be introduced at the festival with a content warning of some kind. I’ve heard some whispers over the last couple months about this one and I’m hopeful that it will transcend it’s genre trappings and deliver a hard-hitting and affecting thriller. Rape/revenge films are pretty overdone at this point, but this one seems to have the right approach and I look forward to seeing a dark, disturbing revenge film that doesn’t glorify the violence it depicts.