ALEXANDRA'S PROJECT

Year: 2003
USA: Film Movement
Cast: Gary Sweet, Helen Buday, Bogdan Koca
Director: Rolf de Heer
Country: Australia
USA: 103 mins
USA Release Date: 14 January 2005 (Limited Release)


Synopsis

Steve (Gary Sweet) is a middle-management office worker happily going through the motions of family life as husband to wife Alexandra (Helen Buday) and father to their two children. On his birthday, he receives a much sought after promotion. With good news to share at home, Steve leaves work and heads home, in anticipation of a surprise party he suspects Alexandra has organized.

But when he returns home, all is quiet in their suburban townhouse. After searching the darkened house for party guests Steve finds nothing except a videotape labeled "Play Me." It is a recording made by Alexandra and their children wishing him a happy birthday. Once the children leave the screen, Alexandra begins to give Steve the most surprising present of all...an alluring striptease. He thinks all his birthdays have come at once...until, on the video, he sees a gun pointed at Alexandra's head.

In a panic, he races for the phone but discovers there's no connection. He tries to leave the townhouse only to find that his keys no longer fit the locks and the security shutters on the windows are locked tight. Remembering his mobile phone, Steve finds that his battery has been replaces by a bullet. Alone, frightened and imprisoned in his own house, Steve has no choice but to watch the rest of the videotape.