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After nearly two years, Kath (Shirley Henderson) is still trying to find out why her sister Annie suddenly disappeared without a trace. When a police video shows where she was last seen alive, Kath feels she has found a portal of sorts that allows her to go into the netherworld and communicate with her sister. Recurrent images of her sister are on the other side of a river that she cannot reach in time or she finds her sister below water. While the river most obviously parallels the River Hades, her desire to cross the river also begs the question that if in her search for her sister she is putting her own life at risk. From the beginning of the film, it's obvious that Kath is disturbed, even though she is willing to express feelings most adults tend to hide. Shirley Henderson's acting is excellent. From childlike to erotic, from sad to simply fucked up, she has a ageless quality about her that immediately garners sympathy from the audience. As she sees a therapist and spiritual leader in the community (Roshan Seth), his need to protect her becomes overwhelming to him. The director plays with traditional boundaries and plots involving therapists and their patients. Whereas many patients believe themselves to be in love with their therapists (which also happens here), there is also an additional twist. Her therapist, who is married to a woman who is unable to care for herself, finds himself falling in love Kath, who is childishly passionate in everything she pursues. As her polar opposite he finds himself immediately attracted to her. While his role is one of stoicism, the other men in the film could easily be defined as English rednecks. From the factory to the tavern they are shown with very few other interests apart from drinking and shagging. At the same time, the landscape doesn't really leave much room for culture and creativity. It is so desolate, foreboding and depressing that it becomes obvious that Kath has been consumed by her sister's disappearance because there isn't much of anything else to do. What other options are there? Her life consists of slicing up fish in a factory and going out for an occasional drink. The director deliberately tries not to answer every single question. At the same time, her use of the camera is symbolic. On the one hand she creates a world where she controls what we see and what we don't see is left to our imagination, which is ultimately horrifying. On the other hand we too are like Kath, unable to see the full picture and also somewhat confused and naïve. She finds that space where her sister was filmed and we see that the camera that recorded her is like a living being. We don't know how much is being controlled and how much the camera creates on its own. That, after all, is part of the magic of photography. But it takes us, as it takes her, to another dimension that is filled with beauty and also with ugliness. It's like cultures that refuse to be photographed, these people she confronts who evade her at every turn, from her sister's boyfriend to the policeman with whom she discovers her sister was having an affair. McKoen's camera offers a glimpse and leaves the rest to imagination While Frozen may not be the fast-paced thriller that resolves all of the lingering questions in an easy manner, it is a surreal meditation on grief and death.
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