Dante 01 is an intense, atmospheric SF tale set on board a psychiatric prison ship which has just taken delivery of a mysterious new frozen and shrink-wrapped prisoner. Stuffed with symbolism, and with its mythic course already set in the stars, it strives for the same rather cryptic sense of wonder as 2001: A Space Odyssey. Directed by Marc Caro (Delicatessen), it has a grimy, grotesque physicality: the prisoners’ psychological tumult is matched by bodily sickness, and the camera clings to their pallid faces, lurches around with the tortured, Christ-like Saint Georges (Lambert Wilson), and spins and flips like a soul buckling under pressure. This closeness to the characters, and the setting – the ship is its own, self-contained world, writhing with power struggles – creates a claustophobia which balances the grandiosity and universality of the mystical ideas. Repeated viewing might prise out the film’s secrets, or simply reveal that Caro has nothing substant­ial to say; the disturbing æsthetic will squirm into the viewer’s consciousness regardless.