Much has been written about the role of the environment in this film. Rarely can natural (and outwardly naturalistic) settings have been so crucial to the action and ambiance of a movie. Manhattan springs to mind as another work in which the setting functions almost a key character (bet you didn't expect to see a comparison with Woody Allen in this review).

The director forces the audience to see something explicitly religious (and in the case of the guy, Christ-like) in the two leads, by depicting overt religious symbolism in their actions and gestures. There is nothing simplistic in this portrayal, however: the characters' actions are always underpinned by a faint whiff of shamanism, nature-worship or even downright satanism, bringing a delicious - and potentially controversial - complexity to the film.

The action appears to take place outside the modern world, or at the very least parallel with it (I referred to the "medieval" atmosphere evoked by Dumont's work in another review, and Hors Satan is a little like that too). In this strange parallel world, the police, for example, don't act as expected - in fact, nobody acts as expected. Despite the slow pace, however, I never got the feeling that the story was not moving forward (and I'm baffled by the failure of one reviewer to identify any storyline at all).

Much of the tension lies in the audience's fear - of what the characters will do to one another and to the landscape, of what the consequences of their actions may or may not be, and of what the movie's ultimate outcome will be. It is this elemental drama that drives the film forward - in a slow-burn movie in which death accounts for an amazingly high proportion of the "action" that actually does take place, life and death are in the balance in an extremely immediate and terrifying way. The central Christ-like character can be violent, and his actions incomprehensible, perhaps reminding us that Christ was himself capable of unexpected violence (for example when throwing the money-lenders out of the temple). Although of course the director also leads us towards a view of the lead character as a Satanic figure, particularly in one almost unwatchably horrible scene.

Perhaps the central achievement of this film - by an apparently atheist director, remember - is to have created a powerful drama with a complex Christ-like figure who reflects the mysticality and profound unknowability and yet the intangible magnetism of the original biblical Christ, while incorporating elements of the satanic into the character too. A difficult comparison for Christians to swallow, though.

People in a rural French village believe a mysterious drifter possesses healing powers and one troubled young girl in particular has embraced the stranger as a deliverer to ease her sufferings. The stranger spends most of his time walking and meditating like some Old Testament prophet in the desert. When he does speak it is only in terms of banalities. As we watch Bruno Dumont's "Outside Satan" we are drawn to this mystical figure. Is he an ascetic on retreat from the world? Is he a cult leader seeking gullible apprentices? Does he possess powers that transcend this world and if so what is the source of that power: good or evil? His behavior defies easy classification. I've never seen anything quite like this film and there will inevitably be numerous interpretations. David Dewaele is mesmerizing as the enigmatic protagonist. Alexandra Lematre is the sensitive young girl who travels from Goth rebelliousness to faithful acolyte. "Outside Satan" moves at a slow tempo punctuated with some jarring moments resembling the natural course of life and this is enhanced by the purely naturalistic soundtrack completely devoid of any musical accompaniment. This is avant-garde cinema and won't appeal to all tastes but if you're looking for something unique this certainly qualifies. It's been said that the notion of a devil provides religions with the means to reconcile the existence of evil with a world governed by a benevolent God. Perhaps it is this idea that Dumont is probing in "Outside Satan". What if there were no opposing forces and instead there was just one mysterious all-encompassing creation that offered no easy answers?

Set in the Côte d'Opale region of Southern France close to a river and marshland, an enigmatic loner referred to only as "The Guy" (David Dewaele) stays alive by poaching and building fires. A girl from a nearby hamlet also unnamed and known as "The Girl" (Alexandra Lematre) is drawn to him, feeds him, and provides companionship and they go on long walks together. Controversial French director Bruno Dumont's latest film, Hors Satan, is a puzzling, excruciatingly slow, meditation on the nature of good and evil and whether Christ and Satan could be two sides of the same coin. As the film opens, The Guy and The Girl meditate together in the open fields and pray together at the edge of the ponds, though it is not clear to whom they are praying.

There is no physical relationship, though The Girl seems to want it. There is little dialogue and the only sounds we hear are the ambient sounds of nature. The Girl follows The Guy without question and doesn't raise an eyebrow when he kills her stepfather whom she claims is tormenting her. "He won't ever bother you again," he says. The police investigate but no one is arrested and the couple remains emotionally detached from what is going on. The Guy's actions are morally ambiguous. Presumably to enhance their redemption, he clubs animals to death and severely beats a guard (Christophe Bon) who wants to get close to The Girl.

He is also a healer, however, as demonstrated when he restores a catatonic girl to life, but a grotesque sex scene with a camper borders on the unwatchable and raises more troubling questions about who he really is. While no meaning is attached to events, the film appears to be saying that good and evil are not mutually exclusive, that one can contain the other but its meaning seems muddled. The Guy may be Christ who has returned as a lion rather than a lamb, or then again, he may be Satan, or a combination of the two. Dumont's premise follows the tenets of religious orthodoxy postulating the existence of the Devil, but what he really seems to be asking is whether or not the end ever justifies the means.

In other words, does it matter what kind of methods you use if a desirable result is achieved? Apparently The Guy does not think it does. While Hors Satan contains many biblical allusions such as walking-on-water and resurrection and speaks the language of metaphysics, the film is hardly a spiritual experience. In Carl Dreyer's Ordet and Carlos Reygadas' Silent Light take on similar material, there is beauty, poetry, and humanity, significantly absent in this often violent film. Dumont once told an interviewer that "you don't have to be civilized in the movies, only when you come out of the theater," and said that "to be civilized you have to have the experience of barbarism."

Although the film falls short of barbarism,it is mostly an unpleasant experience with scenes of in-your-face ugliness, and I didn't feel any more civilized when I came out. Dumont says that his films are a slap in the face to get the audience to wake up. While this is a commendable goal, judging from the response of the sparse audience in the showing I attended where half of the audience walked out and the other half fell asleep, it seems as if the viewers may have failed to get the message. Dumont once said, "I'm not indifferent to the public. I will end up being a filmmaker for big audiences, I may be 70 by that time, but I will get there." If Hors Satan is any indication, he may get there, but it won't be in this lifetime.