When Keira Knightley dies on Christmas, Nicolas Cage loves a pig from the bottom of his heart, and a human baby with a sheep’s head is born on an Icelandic farm, then that can only mean one thing: That Fantasy film festival is back in town. For the 35th time, thrillers, horror and sci-fi shockers come out big. Genre films that break boundaries in terms of content and form. They have as much in common with the mainstream films that hit theaters week after week as Keira Knightley’s “Silent Night” with a nice mess.
In the film of the same name from Great Britain, friends gather in a snow-covered cottage to celebrate Christmas together – and to die together. The premise: Toxic gases envelop the earth and will shortly extinguish all life. The government has therefore distributed “exit pills”. Better a gentle death than a certain painful ending, so the motto. Apart from the question of whether one is ready for a cinematic end-of-time scenario like this in times of pandemic, the feature film debut by Camille Griffin is a consistent and thoroughly exciting experiment. The prominent ensemble comedy (alongside Knightley starring Matthew Goode, Lily-Rose Depp and Roman Griffin Davis) relies on the interpersonal before the worst-case scenario, on long dialogues in the family about the impending end and on black humor. A penetrating intimate play with one or the other surprise.
Arthouse horror from Scandinavia, splatter comedy from Kazakhstan
For one week, from October 31, the Fantasy Filmfest, anchored in seven cities, will stop in Munich. Single tickets are available now. Almost 40 films can then be seen exclusively on the big screen, for the first time in the new Rio Filmpalast venue in Haidhausen (according to the organizer, the cinema was not available this year). There is no hybrid solution with streaming offers like at other festivals, as was the case in the previous year, when the festival took place only to a limited extent due to the pandemic, but was also purely physical. Each film is only shown once, always in the original version (sometimes with subtitles). The 35th edition is thus one of the first major film festivals in Munich that takes place exclusively where movies belong.
It will open with an action spectacle about a group of women who have been tried and tested in combat and shooting: “Gunpowder Milkshake” (director: Navot Papushado) is an international co-production with Karen Gillan and Lena Headey about a professional killer and her companions who get caught up in a gang war and other conflicts. The shooting took place mainly in Berlin.
Everything under control: Florence (Michelle Yeoh) in the opening film “Gunpowder Milkshake”.
(Photo: Fantasy Filmfest)
Stars in unusual roles can be discovered again and again at the Fantasy Film Festival. In addition to Keira Knightley, Nicolas Cage stands out in particular. And, so much can be revealed, he is stunning in “Pig”, a film that appears only ostensibly as a revenge thriller, but also gives the Oscar winner a psychological tour de force and in-depth character study.
With long hair and a mustache, Cage plays a mixture of Captain Jack Sparrow from “Pirates of the Caribbean” and Chuck Noland from “Cast Away”, Rob who dropped out. He lives secluded in a forest in Oregon and spends most of his time with his truffle pig Apple. When he is kidnapped, Rob and his friend Amir (Alex Wolff) go to Portland to look for the pig. The fact that the search for clues is not only physically extremely painful for him, but also leads deep into his earlier life as a top chef, makes the feature film debut of the American Michael Sarnoski an event.
Big love: The dropout Rob (Nicolas Cage) and his truffle pig Apple in the festival film “Pig”.
(Photo: Fantasy Filmfest)
“Lamb” from Iceland gets under your skin too. The art house film by Valdimar Jóhannsson runs like “Pig” in the festival section “Fresh Blood”, where ten largely unknown talents compete for the audience award. The scenery of the persistently slow narrated mystery horror drama is a lonely Icelandic farm. In the first shots you can see startled horses and sheep, and you can hear a monstrous snort. Something eerie is on the way here, you can’t see it. But later you see how the childless couple who run the farm hold the newborn baby of their herd in their hands and raise them. It has a human body, only the head doesn’t fit. It’s a sheep’s head. The disturbing, taboo-breaking film premiered in Cannes in the summer.
More discoveries from the renowned A-Festival can be seen in Munich. The Scandinavian film “The Innocents” (director: Eskil Vogt) is arthouse horror at its best, about children with psychic abilities and their dark sides. The French action comedy “Oss 117: From Africa With Love”, the third part of the series of agents, was initially shown in Cannes. Nicolas Bedos’ film will be shown in a special screening in Munich. There is also a modern version of “Barbarella” (“After Blue”), splatter comedy from Kazakhstan (“Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It”), vampire, werewolf, zombie and time travel comedies as well as a short film competition.
Some films may irritate, too much fake blood flows, the moments of shock and horror are too great. The temptation, however, to finally see courageous films on the big screen again and sometimes actually physically, is likely to be even greater for many.
35th Fantasy Filmfest, October 31 to November 7, Rio Filmpalast, Munich, single tickets from October 18, fantasyfilmfest.com