Özge is a young Turkish-born taxi driver, who attends evening classes and is also an ambitious Thai-boxer. She rarely speaks and trains hard. One day she witnesses an extremely brutal murder. The suspect is an insane serial killer, inspired by Islam. And he is convinced that Özge has seen him. A life-and-death struggle ensues.

Cold Hell is a terrific film that pays loving tribute to both classic film noir and 80s romantic thrillers. The nighttime settings, wailing saxophone soundtrack of the first half evoke memories of a faded Hollywood tradition. In the second half, the film shifts to be more of a “cop goes against his better judgement to help protect the witness he may be falling in love with” story. However, the filmmakers aren’t afraid to mix these tried and true formulas with a strong dose of originality.

Violetta Schurawlow plays Özge, a non-devout Muslim Turkish immigrant who (for reasons we discover later) is estranged from her parents. Özge recalls the other such lonely, me-against-the-world characters who have been the center of many such stories before. She drives a cab and practices Muay Thai, a skill that become useful when dealing with a pair of men who are blocking her pathway that have mistaken her for a helpless girl.

One evening after work, Özge returns home from work to discover a strange smell. She follows the smell to the window where she looks across to the neighboring apartment upon a grisly murder scene. Horrified, she soon realizes she has locked eyes with the killer himself. Needing to find a safe place to hide out, she turns to her brother and then an ex-boyfriend to no avail. In a tragic turn, her cousin goes to Özge’s apartment and is mistaken by the killer who has been lying in wait for Özge to return.

Following an exciting mid film sequence, the movie changes gears to be more daytime set and become more of a 1980s style romantic thriller.  Özge, now with her cousin’s young daughter in tow, finds secret refuge with the lead detective and his invalid father.  As they try to find he identity of the killer and learn about each other’s pasts they soon find themselves becoming drawn together.

Cold Hell is directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky, who directed the 2007 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language film, The Counterfeiters. Ruzowitzky demonstrates the same skill he showed in directing that film in this film as well. Having each half of the film being of different style can be very difficult to pull off, but Ruzowitzky accomplishes this with great success. Likewise, Schurawlow as Özge, handles the change in her character with ease. She convincingly makes Özge a complete character who still feels like the same person even as she begins to drop her tough exterior.

The film does have a couple of issues here and there. However, these are mostly related to conveniences of story. Cold Hell has a running time of just under 90mins with lot of entertainment throughout.

Shudder.