FERMAT'S ROOM (LA HABITACION DE FERMAT)

(Spain, 2008, Luis Piedrahita and Rodrigo Sopena)

Mathematics has been making something of a comeback on the screens. There has been the popular series, Numbers, on television. Alex Iglesias made the thriller, The Oxford Murders, with philosophical and mathematical theory being discussion. Fermat's Room is another mathematical thriller.

After some discussion about prime numbers and various conjectures, we are introduced to four characters who eventually win a competition in solving an enigma and are invited to a special meeting of mathematical minds. Then it turns into an Agatha Christie-like situation, And Then There Were None. They find that they are trapped in a slowly diminishing room, pushed inwards by four pressure engines. They are given puzzles to solve – and, if they fail, the walls push in. Can they solve this puzzle? Who will survive? But... who is masterminding this situation and what are the motives?

AS the walls press in, so do the pressures on conscience. We find that the four have secrets that explain why they are trapped in this puzzle.

The young screenwriters also introduce some twists, especially concerning the identity of Fermat – which means that the audience makes assumptions that lead them away from the solution.

A canny thriller.