Nina, the feature debet of director Heitor Dhalia, is one of those works that allows us a rare look at the variety and mordernity of the Brazilian film culture that has an accumulated tradition dating from almost a century ago. Nina, the titular heroine, is a poor illustrator who struggles by, hand to mouth, stuck in the slum area of a metropollis. Nina manages to rent a flat from a witch-like hag but loses her waitressing job - her only viable source of income - due to her habitual drug abuse. From then on, it's a dizzy downhill ride into a nightmarish world filled with absurdity and horror - a blend of Franz Kafka with David Lynch. The witch - like hag of a landlady turns out to be a sadistic miser who puts lables on each and every piece of fruit in the freezer. She even locks it up lest Nina steal her food. Nina runs out of money and is left with no other alternative but starvation. She desperately tries her best to survive, even selling her underwear to a sexual pervert. Her friends' helping hands are too powerless to dissipate the deadly boredom and the self-destructive impulses already lurking deep in her mind. Ultimately she drives herself into the world of illusions and delusions burdened with the same moral dilemma as what Raskolnikov had to face in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. The director, Dhalia, having apprenticed in the gritty world of TV commercial advertising. Shows a captivating sense of vidual pleasure. The gloomy scenery of Sao Paulo reminds us of those vintage thrillers of the 50's and Nina, floating aimlessly in those stylish scenes, is hopelessly trapped between all the delusions and madness. Stylish black and white cartoon cuts, popping up unexpectedly through the breaches in the chaos, blend seamlessly with the main narrative sequences. The end result is surprisingly real and unique. (KIM Sang-hoon)