Day Has Conquered, The

Award-winning French director Jean-Gabriel Périot, a specialist in highly original short documentaries, puts questions to eight unwilling inmates of an Orléans prison. They appear on camera in precisely placed frontal shots and confide their wildest dreams and most oppressive nightmares, allowing us to delve deep into minds altered by a life behind bars. The well-planned shots have their own rhythm and the music faithfully corresponds to the mood of the individual dreams, whose seeming absurdity aptly reflects the grueling mundanity of prison life. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)