John Malkovich is best known for playing intense, slightly arrogant villains in all sorts of films, and, more recently, for portraying 'himself' in the oddball satire 'Being John Malkovich'. Now for the first time he has turned his hand to directing, and the result is 'The Dancer Upstairs', based on the novel by Nicholas Shakespeare.

It is an intriguing directorial debut. Where he might safely have chosen some bone-headed formulaic crowd-pleaser, Malkovich has instead gone for a subtle, probing film which eludes any easy generic description, and which, even more unusually, features an entirely non-American cast. Far from being the vanity project one might have expected, 'The Dancer Upstairs' is clearly a labour of love, with Malkovich's intelligent and unselfish direction reflecting a genuine affinity with his material.

The setting is an unspecified country in Latin America in 'the recent past'. When dead dogs with political banners tied round their necks appear all over town and various politicians are assassinated, newly promoted police captain Augustin Rejas is assigned to infiltrate the revolutionary group responsible and find their legendary leader, Ezequiel. As the investigation drags on, Rejas becomes torn between his commitment to serving justice and his fear of what the corrupt state may do to the revolutionaries once they are captured.

At the heart of this film is its protagonist, the half Latin, half native Indian Rejas, played brilliantly by Javier Bardem - a man who gave up a career as a lawyer because he wanted 'to find a more honest way of practising the law', a policeman who shakes visibly in the one scene in which he holds a gun, a bourgeois who cannot pay his bills and has a peasant background. Thanks to his complexity, Rejas is able to cross normal cultural boundaries and to carry us along in his travels through every section of society.

The elliptical style of 'The Dancer Upstairs' offers no easily digestible message, but rather leaves it to the viewer to decide what is the best way to act in a world ruled by injustice. A serious film which raises serious questions.

Anton Bitel, 22.01.03