Set during the war in Yugoslavia, The Seasoning House follows Angel, a young deaf-mute girl who has been forced into work as an assistant to a man running a makeshift military brothel, where kidnapped women are used as slaves for sex-starved soldiers. Befriending newcomer Vanya, she bears witness to the violence that the detained women undergo at the men's hands, and slowly the pair begin to plot vengeance on their abusers. The uncompromising bleakness is tempered by a fairytale-like edge teetering on the borderline of appropriateness, but ultimately the film is let down by its technical shortcomings. (JB)