In a world where we often feel like just another data point, director Jan Komasa’s latest feature, HEEL, poses a chilling question: is our freedom worth anything if no one is watching? This "twisted thriller" functions as a dark, modern fable, centering on Tommy, a nineteen-year-old delinquent who spends his nights lost in a haze of parties and aggression. His life of chaotic autonomy is violently interrupted when he is kidnapped by a man named Chris and wakes up chained in the basement of a quiet suburban home. But this isn't a standard hostage situation; Tommy has been selected for a forced transformation by Chris and his "near-spectral" wife, Kathryn, who use psychological warfare to "reform" his behavior within their isolated family unit. The project is a unique collision of "Central European sensibility" and "British gothic restraint," filming across both Warsaw and the melancholic, windswept landscapes of Yorkshire. This atmos...