Inbetween

Jan Markowicz is a young American bomb maker and aspiring artist trying to escape from his involvement with a secular terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of American corporate power and globalization. He backs out of a Heathrow bombing plot when the photo of a mysterious woman awakens him to the futility of violence as a means of social change.

He takes refuge with a young slacker couple in London, the enigmatic Martin and enchanting Liisi, with whom he quickly develops a close bond. Jan then begins to use his former girl friend and chilling terrorist accomplice Rosalyn - or is she using him? - to get at Luinstra, the head of the terrorist gang.

As the plot unfolds, Jan becomes obsessed with meeting the woman in the photo, who turns out to be a local singer, while Martin sinks into paranoid delusions and Liisi prepares to go on a voyage to Burma to fulfill a vow she once made to her deceased father. Jan begins to paint portraits of the singer, while also planning and then executing an attack on Luinstra's hide out. In a moment of inspiration Jan tries to meet the singer, but it turns out Luinstra has other plans and the story comes to a riveting crescendo on Tower Bridge.

Set in 1993 in London, New York, and Tokyo, Inbetween is as much a psychological drama as it is a stylish thriller and intimate dialogue on the nature of love, obsession, and inner transformation. Inspired by earlier film successes Performance and The Crying Game, but with the raw energy of Naked, Inbetween was made into a mutt-award nominated film in 2008 and portrays a dark underworld filled with hypocritical terrorist leaders and petty drug dealers against a dreamy, almost hallucinatory counter-world in which each character is locked in a universe of their own personal obsessions. Yet the message is life affirming, as Inbetween is ultimately about love and redemption in the face of violence and futility.

David Antonelli was born in Chicago and educated at Oxford, Caltech, and MIT. He has published 12 novels and one book of poetry. His film credits include multi award-nominated feature Inbetween (2008; 8.6/10 on IMDb) and Finding Rudolf Steiner (Official Selection Calgary International Film Festival 2006), He is currently a Professor at Lancaster University. and runs an Instagram page (@davidmichaelantonelli) with weekly reels reviewing books and music.