Fermat’s Room

Colour, 35 mm
Spain, 2007, 88 min
Section: Variety Critics’ Choice

Synopsis

Math and mystery add up to an unlikely but engrossing solution in Fermat’s Room. Featuring four scientists struggling for survival in a shrinking space, skillfully turned plot develops with the same satisfying twists of logic its protags have to employ if they are to avoid a grisly fate. Young, sexy superbrain Galois (Alejo Sauras) is invited by the mysterious Fermat (Federico Luppi) to attend a gathering of math experts. Accompanying him are jovial, middle-aged Hilbert (Lluís Homar), depressive drinker Pascual (Santi Millán) and hard-nosed, attractive Oliva (Elena Ballesteros). In a remote old warehouse, the group is greeted by the elderly Fermat, who then gets a phone summons to hospital. PDA messages start arriving, with logic puzzles that have to be solved within one minute; after that, the walls of the room start closing in, courtesy of four hydraulic presses rigged outside.