This is the second film by experimental Austrian director Martin Arnold, who has exhibited a significant amount of work at the Curtas Vila do Conde Festival over the years, and also presented an individual exhibition at the Solar – Cinematic Art Gallery in 2008. Like some of his other works, it is based on a short excerpt from a Hollywood film – in this case, “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Robert Mulligan (1962), featuring Gregory Peck – which is manipulated in various ways, duplicating the original frames and advancing and backtracking to create visual and sound rhythms not far removed from the techniques used in hip-hop. The extract, showing the family seated at the breakfast table, is of no particular interest and is not even a key scene in the film. However, through the use of loops and repetitions, “Passage à l’Acte” emphasises the behaviour paradigms (the authority of the father and passivity of the mother, attitudes emulated by the son and daughter) typical of the nuclear family traditionally represented by Hollywood, whilst simultaneously deconstructing the narrative and transforming it into a surreal and disturbing piece. (MD)