Police Beat

Is it possible to completely detach yourself from what you are witnessing? Z, a young policeman hailing from Senegal, patrols the streets of Seattle by bike, but his thoughts are far, far away. By using his diary and reports as the foundation of the film, this is a crime movie that has more in common with the early works of Jean-Luc Godard than Michael Mann. Driven by form rather than story, the film revolves around about Z’s love- and homesickness and trouble of understanding the misery that exists on Seattle’s streets. He rarely ever interacts, and if he does, he rather frees than convicts. Still, his own problems come from the most basic and at the same time hardest thing to understand; love.The inspiration for the movie came from reading a local crime column, written by Charles Mudede, who came to co-write the film with Devor. The result of this intriguing collaboration speaks for itself – and does so in whispered block capitals. With a laconic pace that also resembles the work of Hal Hartley, Police Beat is a philosophical piece of cinema that might take its time to make itself acquainted, but it sure is worth the wait.MARTIN WEGELAND