Famously singled out as the film that most terrified THE SHINING director Stanley Kubrick, this Dutch psycho-potboiler needles ruthlessly at grief’s desire for closure and barrels toward an ending that surely sets the tone for Bleak Week.

Rex (Gene Bervoets) and Saskia (Johanna Ter Steege) are enjoying a biking holiday in France when, stopping at a gas station, Saskia disappears. Confounded, Rex searches everywhere, but to no avail. Three years later, he’s still obsessed with finding her, pleading his case on television, putting up posters and ruining his new relationship in the process. Eventually an unassuming chemistry teacher, Raymond (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu), approaches Rex, intimating that he knows what happened.

“A brilliantly crafted intellectual thriller with a spring like a trap. It carries you down with it.” – Washington Post

About Bleak Week: Presented in partnership with American Cinematheque, ‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair’ is an annual film festival showcasing some of the greatest works of cinema from across the globe that venture into the darkest sides of humanity and the bleakest points in human history. The fifth annual edition in June 2026 expands to nearly 100 theaters across the U.S., Canada, U.K. and South and Central America, with each venue presenting its own original curated lineup of uncompromising films defined by unpleasant truths and raw empathy.

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