Set in an unspecified near future, Croatian director Nevio Marasovic’s THE SHOW MUST GO ON begins with a daunting play on the familiarity of a certain reality television show; a handful of contestants stuck in an enclosed space where their every move is exposed to both a variety of cameras and projected to thousands of baying voyeurs. The show, not unlike the transnational behemoth that is Big Brother, is called ‘Housed’, and what started as a ratings-hungry study in televised human interaction has escalated into its producer Filip Dogan (Sven Medvesek) striving to keep his subjects safe from the brutalities of a war that has just broken outside the enclosed space. Yet, as the ratings become increasingly more favorable as the war forces audiences to seek out the show as an escape from the brutalities of reality, how will Filip continue to keep them entirely out of the loop in their underground shelter?

As THE SHOW MUST GO ON begins, you would be forgiven for thinking that this 80 minute film will be a close study of the functionality of the group of individuals in the house, yet Marasovic quickly contrasts the internal claustrophobia with the foreboding atmosphere of a country besieged by the looming threat of war. As the sullied lead, Medvesek fully sells the inner turmoil of Dogan, a man trapped between the dedication to his popular show and protecting his family. Although slightly rushed, THE SHOW MUST GO ON is an intelligent and thought-provoking drama that builds to a cataclysmic open-ended climax.