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Eric Nazarian’s first feature film The Blue Hour, In Competition, also deals with death and loss. Nazarian sets four stories about everyday life in a working class neighbourhood of Los Angeles. A Mexican graffiti artist paints a mural on the river, an Armenian camera repairman attempts to communicate with his wife after the death of their daughter, a blues guitarist is taking care of his mother and a WWII vet spends his days preparing for lunch by his wife’s grave.

Nazarian demonstrates an uncanny affinity for the language of cinema. It’s an incredibly quiet film that attempts to "explore the theme of communication, even though most of the film is without directly spoken dialogue," he says. "By minimizing dialogue from the script, I wanted to explore the unspoken connection between characters that don’t communicate," he said. While the film is emotionally engaging, it loses some impetus by being sliced up into four narratives, where one might have generated more dramatic depth. However, having said that, like Woo, this is clearly another filmmaker to watch out for in the coming years. Nazarian grew up in the U.S. and cites his influences as Sam Peckinpah, Bertolucci, Visconti and Cassavetes. And like the late Cassavetes, Nazarian demonstrates an uncanny ability to compose the most striking images and memorable performances on a shoe string budget. Biggest names in the film are Alyssa Milano and Paul Dillon.