A constant air of mystery pervades the mesmerizing psychological drama Snap. As Sandra (Aisling O'Sullivan, The War Zone) divulges her side of the story to a documentary crew, the film flashes back to an incident involving her 15-year-old son, Stephen (Stephen Moran), who abducted a toddler and held him captive in his grandfather's home. We don't know why Stephen took the child, nor what he will do with him—we only see them playing games and watching old home movies. As the film oscillates between Stephen in the past and Sandra in the present, their stories begin to unravel, and soon the puzzle pieces fit together to reveal the full picture of the abduction.

First-time writer/director Carmel Winters brings a quiet intensity to her debut, creating an unsettling but tantalizing atmosphere. A successful playwright, she brilliantly flushes out her characters using visual devices such as documentary video, Super-8, and mobile phone cameras that gives an immediacy to their emotional states. O'Sullivan gives a candid and brave performance that elicits the anger, humiliation, and relief of Sandra, and Moran confidently plays Stephen as a conflicted adolescent trying to make sense of the past that is driving him into the future.

Carmel Winters and Carmel Winters