Shot
on a
minimal budget (in the six - million dollar range) with a cast of largely non-professional actors (Kenneth Branagh the main exception), the picture is a tremendous hit among the self - congratulatory
film festival / arthouse crowd, who, after all, like to feel as though they're applauding the right things.
Shot
on film for a $ 10,000
budget, a
minimal - realist aesthetic was as much a necessity as an aesthetic choice, but for a
film that does not care to hold the viewer's hand, it was the perfect one.