Day Night Day Night

“Everybody dies,” says the subject of this oddly inert chronicle of a day in the life of a doe-eyed suicide bomber (Luisa Williams). “I want my death to be for you.” Who is “you”? Julia Loktev keeps you guessing about the motives of her heroine and the identity of the organization. (It doesn’t look jihadist — it’s more a Patty Hearst/SLA kind of outfit.) Instead, she focuses on details of style, as when three hooded bombers vote on which outfit the bomber should wear for the occasion. If any politics figure in the film, they’re sexual: the bomber meekly submits to the polite demands (including handcuffs and blindfolds) of her male handlers. Loktev herself, though exploiting the Hitchcockian ticking-time-bomb suspense, indulges in long takes, tracking shots, details of hands and feet, and a palette shifting from grays and blues to yellows and reds. The result is æsthetic and existential and, given today’s realities, largely irrelevant.