Tonight, as the fifth installment in their Spaces Between Realities: the Films of Michael Haneke series, the Austin Film Society presents Code: Unknown – Incomplete Tales of Several Journeys, starring Juliette Binoche.

Code: Unknown begins with a group of hearing impaired children playing a seemingly commonplace game of charades, and what is immediately apparent is that these bright young things cannot identify the emotional state that is being acted out in front of them; a little girl is trying to communicate, but the other participants are unable or unwilling to understand. And as is the M.O. of Haneke’s filmmaking, the answer of what she is acting out is never given, leaving you to form your own interpretation of her actions. This initial scene sets the stage for an assortment of miscommunications and assumptions brought on by the characters' attempts to interpret their world through the foggy microscope of an incomplete reality.

Following the first quiet shot is the initial flap of the proverbial butterfly’s wing: Jean, a teenage Parisian boy cruelly throws a piece of trash into the lap of a panhandling woman, provoking the anger of Amadou, a young Franco-African man, who asks Jean to apologize. When Jean brushes Amadou’s anger aside, the two get into a shoving match which results in both Jean and Amadou being taken downtown and the panhandler being deported. This initial confrontation influences not only the journey that each of these individuals will experience, but also their perceptions of the class/race/gender/etc. that all of the other characters belong to.

AFS Presents Code: Unknown
Tuesday, May 1st
Alamo Drafthouse Downtown
7pm, $4 / Free to AFS Members
[Tickets]