Benedictus - the name comes from a canticle which celebrates the birth of John the Baptist by praying for peace and deliverance from fear – is a political black-box thriller which presents an insoluble problem. Its considerable pleasures derive less from watching the efforts to solve it than from watching those efforts undone by greed, remembered humiliation and fulminating mistrust. More autopsy than surgery, Benedictus is nonetheless an extraordinary character study which makes the blood race and the heart break. [Read more...]