For Eva her job at the prison is everything – the beginning and end of her day, her refuge, her determination. Within the grey concrete walls she provides meticulous care and rehabilitation. Upon the arrival of Mikkel at the high-security sector, she is unexpectedly confronted by her past. As bygones resurface, her obsession with the convict intensifies. Eva pushes for a transfer to the most dangerous inmate zone, Centre Zero. Once there, she single-handedly assumes the role of justice, and Mikkel faces his greatest judge. The secret Eva harbours threatens the safety of them both. 

A finely spun thriller about accepting the past and the deepest shadows of revenge – that’s where Swedish director Möller operates with precision down to the square centimetre of the mise-en-scène. Screened at the main Berlinale competition, this piece chillingly and unyieldingly reveals the dramatic entanglement of the story – “unravelled” by Danish actress Sidse Babett Knudsen (cult series Borgen (2010–2022)). She creates a full-blooded character whose ethical dilemmas are at the level of Electra and a whole host of other prophets of justice out of ancient dramas. Illuminating the nooks and crannies of the psyche, the film poses a rhetorical question: after crime and punishment, are we prepared not so much to forgive, but to live alongside our wrongdoers?