Polish Premiere Magazine – 1996

The desperate cry of Ilona Pastorek’s mother and the words: “Promise, that you will find the killer” begin to obsess the main character Victor Mark [Richard E. Grant], a policeman from a small Czech town which has been horrified by the enigmatic murders committed on little girls in the neighbouring wood. In all three cases sexual motive is excluded, but everybody believes that as the little girls were undressed and there was a lack of evidence of violence, the killer was on good terms with girls before killing them.

This is the starting point of “The Cold Light Of The Day” by Dutch director Rudolf van den Berg.

The screenplay, by Doug Magee, was based on well known story by Friedrich Durrenmatt, entitled“The Promise”, which has inspired TV producers and film directors for years. The previous adaptation was made by Ladislav Vajda in 1958.

The action of the Van den Berg’s film takes place in present-day Czechoslovakia because the authors found that the East European context of the landmarks and the tensions related to them would help to heighten the psychological tension. However, it is only the background to a more universal story – that of the battle between doubtful morality areas and a frenzy “born” from a more noble passion – and is equally important in the mind of a possessed “madman”.

From the very beginning Victor, an intelligent policeman honest and devoted to his job, criticises his superior, Pavel Novak’s [played by James Laurenson] hypothesis that Alex – the bazaar dealer – is the killer. The course of inquiry taken and the constant accusation directed towards Alex appears to be a manipulation of justice which is only “explained” when it is revealed that Victor’s boss wants to achieve a result before upcoming local elections take place. Psychological torment used by Novak towards the suspect, resemble the practices he learned from his time in regimed service. In the past, Alex’s father was the victim of these practises. Alex’s father was a university professor who was once accused of subversive activity.

Alex, falsely accused, commits suicide and Novak soon receives congratulations for “solving” the case and his electoral progress is assured. Victor starts an inquiry on his own – though not as a policeman. He feels he cannot be a policeman after such a miscarriage of justice and searches privately for the real killer, truth and justice and to set his own mind at rest.

From a painful moral experience – and the promise given to one of the victim’s mothers – he tackles the case with obsessive determination. Put simply, he suffers greatly from the drama. His marriage has suffered and finally ends, and his beloved daughter must stay with her mother. He analyzes all of the evidence related to the murders and consults a friend of his who is a psychiatrist. Slowly he begins to make headway.

An chance meeting in the forest with a small girl Anna [Perdita Weeks], causes him to conceive a diabolic plan. He wants her to be the bait for the criminal, yet he is aware of the risk he takes in doing so – His obsession with the case wins out however.

Victor begins acting as an avenger and creates a provocative game of cat and mouse with the murderer. However, the situation becomes complicated. His opponent is sly and elusive, and Victor can’t stand the sustained tension that he has made by arranging the mysterious charade. An all-out spectrum of vital disasters “hangs over” him – it’s only the beginning of the game with the murderer.

“It was a proposal I couldn’t reject”, said the director Rudolf van den Berg. “This story has the emotive detective story tense, but a psychological thread is the essence of it – with the relative questions between good and evil – and the borders of freedom in activity and the so called “good” matter. All the characters are ambiguous – we can see their game with the surroundings and with themselves.

“The Cold Light Of The Day” has modern references, but the method of production by the prominent Slovak cinematographer Igor Luther [”Tin drum” by Schlondorff, “Danton” by Andrzej Wajda], transmits them to timeless “film reality”. Luther’s shots confer the aura of a gloomy fairy tale to the screen, fulfilling a moody psychologically thriller with moral complications visible in the behavior of the main characters.