Aloys (film)

Plot

Aloys is a private investigator who is working with his father. He is a loner who has the professional approach never to interact with the subjects of his investigations, preferring to film them from a distance with his video camera. It is implied that Aloys hates personal contact with other people, e.g. ignoring a woman who lives in a neighboring apartment and who asks for a small favor. It is also shown that Aloys films persons who are not subjects of his job and that he likes to watch the material he filmed in private.

When the film begins, his father has just died. On the bus ride home from the funeral, he drinks himself to unconsciousness. When he wakes up the next morning in the bus, he notices that his camera and several video tapes with filmed material have been stolen.

A short time later a female voice calls him on the telephone, telling him that she stole his tapes, watched them, and plans to send them to the filmed subjects. Aloys threatens to call the police but does not go through with it. But he tries to find out the identity of the caller using some clues that he obtained during the phone conversation. But the caller is always one step ahead of him, mocking him for his tries.

During one of the calls, the female voice tries to get Aloys to commit to something she calls a "telephone hike", where both callers try to concentrate on a location and imagine being at that location together while talking to each other. After initial hesitation, Aloys begins engaging in it, going on an imagined walk through the woods together with the woman.

When he tries to initiate further telephone hikes, the woman abruptly ends the conversation, saying that this was the last time they talked. When he comes home to his apartment building, he notices that an unconscious neighbor is loaded into an ambulance. Using some of the clues that he obtained while trying to unmask the caller, he immediately realizes that his neigbor, Vera, the same one he ignored earlier, is the mysterious woman.

He obtains information that Vera is a zookeeper and has just tried to commit suicide. Not knowing whether she survived, he volunteers to water her flowers and feed her pet iguana.

Some days later a text message arrives from Vera, who is now in a hospital following her suicide attempt, thanking him for looking after her stuff. Aloys, elated that she is alive, now tries to initiate phone conversations himself. Vera hesitatingly gives in and both have repeated telephone hikes, with Aloys inviting her to a tour of his apartment, complete with a virtual party with all the people Aloys was watching, both having a date at a restaurant, and Vera giving Aloys a tour of the zoo. All hikes are performed by Aloys being at the actual location and talking to Vera, who is in her hospital room, on the phone.

But Aloys gives his imagined version of Vera more space than the actual Vera. One day, when the real Vera, who is on a short leave from the hospital, wants to visit Aloys at his apartment, he does not let her in, instead being wooed inside his apartment by his imagined version of her. A dejected Vera leaves and returns back to the hospital. The shock of seeing the real Vera leave finally gives Aloys the strength to let go of his imagination and he follows Vera to the hospital, sneaking into her room in the night. The film ends the next morning with Vera sleeping in her hospital bed and Aloys sleeping on the floor beside her.

Cast