Inbetween

Inbetween is the story of Jan Markowicz, a young American bomb maker and aspiring painter who is trying to escape from his involvement with an international terrorist organization (based loosely on the SLA and Bader Meinhof Gang) dedicated to the destruction of American corporate power and globalization. Set in 1993 in London, NY, and Tokyo, it is as much a moody psychological drama as it is a stylish thriller and intimate dialogue on the nature of love, obsession, and inner transformation. Jan backs out of a Heathrow bombing plot when the photo of a mysterious singer sparks an overwhelming feeling of empathy, awakening him to the futility of violence as a means of social change. He then 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 gang. As the plot unfolds, Jan becomes convinced he is destined by fate to meet the singer, while Martin sinks into paranoid delusions, convinced that Russian would-be dictator Vladamir Zhirinovsky is plotting the overthrow of Europe, 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 in his desperate hope that he might meet her and impress her, while also planning and executing an attack on Luinstra’s London hide out. Needless to say, Luinstra has other plans. The story comes to a riveting crescendo at the London parliament. Inspired by former successes Performance and The Crying Game, but with the raw energy of Naked, Inbetween 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 of the story is life affirming, as Inbetween is ultimately about love and redemption in the face of violence and futility.