Anyone who still thinks of science fiction as an inferior genre surely has not seen Mamoru Oshii's AVALON. Filmed in Poland and starring a Polish cast, it is otherwise an entirely Japanese production - and it is everything mainstream American cinema is not. Quiet. Deliberate. And disturbing. Not in an overtly violent or heavy-handed way - but one that is achingly truthful.

The premise sounds typical for a story set in the future. Participants in an illegal virtual reality war game called Avalon risk everything to play. A wrong move can leave them brain dead. Sounds trite, but the plot's simplicity gives Oshii the space to explore more important matters.

Like many sci-fi stories, AVALON tackles the themes of reality, perception, and where the boundaries between the two are drawn or blurred. Yes, it has stunning imagery. Yes, there is MATRIX-like-freeze-frame CGI. Alternating sepia tones and shades of gray erupt into brilliant colors. There's even a little action in the game sequences. But unlike those sci-fi projects that give the genre a bad name, AVALON employs these devices in the service of asking the big questions. Loneliness. Isolation. Not necessarily uncharted sci-fi territory but never before presented like this.

Leading lady Malgorzata Foremniak's terrifically understated performance holds AVALON together - remarkable considering the film's scant dialogue. As Ash, a star Avalon player, she conveys the sadness just beneath her detached exterior with a refreshing subtlety and ease.

This is a slow film. And that is part of what makes it so compelling. We hear a lot these days about how we're constantly bombarded by stimuli. How we're unable to sit alone in silence because we might not like the company. Watching AVALON is a bit like that, as Oshii forces us to confront those issues that are usually buried under the superficial noise infecting most Hollywood films.

AVALON is beautifully unsettling

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