In the 1960s, an Italian monk said he had built a machine that could tune into the past like a television. He said he had used it to photograph the face of Christ on the cross. The device, according to him, was then locked away by the Vatican.

In CHRONOVISOR (2026), a soft-spoken academic follows the legend down into the archives, through old books and magazines and VHS tapes and dead men's phone numbers. The deeper she goes, the more the ground gives way beneath her.

The debut of duo Jack Auen and Kevin Walker, Chronovisor was shot on grainy 16mm and scored to Holst's The Planets. It blurs fiction and documentary until you are as lost and thrilled as the protagonist.

The film won the top prize at Jeonju after a standout premiere at Rotterdam. Be warned, though: it is a demanding, cerebral movie about the ecstasy of research, not a chase.