CONTEMPORARY
ALIPATO: THE VERY BRIEF LIFE OF AN EMBER
Khavn, Philippines/Germany, 2016, DCP, 87′
Philippine underground filmmaker and punk poet Khavn returns to the megacity of Manila to show us the lurid bleak face of his hometown in this singular, hallucinatory and ultraviolent saga – the only possible answer to the chaos of violence and perversion of lawlessness in the land of Duterte. A movie not only about, but from the slums of Manila. An uncompromising vision of a radically engaged cinema.
UNDER THE SHADOW
Babak Anvari, Jordan/Qatar/UK/Iran, 2016, DCP, 84′
A remarkable directorial debut by Iranian-born Babak Anvari, rightfully celebrated on the festival circuit and nominated for best foreign language Academy Award, masterfully morphs from the realism of turbulent daily life into a tense and eerie supernatural tale about all the ghosts of post-revolutionary Iran.
EEGA
THE FLY
S. S. Rajamouli, India, 2012, DCP, 135′
Eagerly awaiting the final instalment of last year’s audience favourite, the Tollywood epic Bahubali 2: The Conclusion, we return to S.S. Rajamouli’s earlier magnum opus, the 2012 Eega. Combining action extravaganza, song and dance, delirious humour and the indispensable love story of a young man reincarnated as a housefly, Eega is yet another sublime incarnation of film entertainment and a wild testament to S.S. Rajamouli’s unique vision and boundless imagination.
HOMAGE: CHRISTINA LINDBERG
THRILLER – A CRUEL PICTURE
Boarne Vibenius, Sweden, 1973, DCP, 108′
Boarne Vibenius’ notorious, uber-cultish exploitation shocker, a prime example of the rape-and-revenge subgenre, the bleak, brutal and beautifully bizarre Thriller – A Cruel Picture aka They Call Her One Eye, starring Christina Lindberg as the ultimate eyepatch-wearing avenger, may have inspired Tarantino’s two-part saga Kill Bill and its one-eyed assassin Elle Driver. But Thriller is truly one of a kind, this is the real thing.
MAID IN SWEDEN
Dan Wolman, Sweden/USA, 1971, 35mm, 80′
Christina Lindberg’s sensational screen debut, an early Cannon Films production shot in Sweden in 1969, is an erotic coming of age tale about an innocent girl caught in the temptations of the big city. Pulsing with groovy pop tunes, Maid in Sweden is a genuine time capsule of Swedish sexploitation, sexual liberation and urban youth culture of the swinging sixties.
CHRISTINA LINDBERG: THE ORIGINAL EYEPATCH WEARING BUTT KICKING MOVIE BABE
Ika Johannesson, 2016, DCP, colour, 58′
A long overdue documentary lesson on Swedish (s)exploitation star Christina Lindberg, the original eyepatch wearing butt kicking movie babe, accompanied by a Master Class from the lady herself!
RETROSPECTIVE: REPRESSION AND REVOLT
I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE
Jacques Tourneur, USA, 1943, 35mm, 69′
A seminal piece of classical voodoo zombie cinema, the eerily atmospheric I Walked With a Zombie, conceals a critique of race relations, colonialism and slavery under the cloak of traditional folklore. A living (dead) proof that the pre-Romero zombie was already a potent political metaphor, when handled by low-budget genre giants Lewton, Tourneur and Siodmak.
LA NAVE DELLE DONNE MALEDETTE
THE SHIP OF CONDEMNED WOMEN
Raffaello Matarazzo, Italy, 1954, DCP, 101′
Raffaello Matarazzo’s long forgotten cinematic wonder, a romantic-crime-adventure-melodrama full of tragic innocence and infernal intrigues, La nave delle donne maledette mounts from wedding ball to courtroom drama to a prisoners’ galley. To finally climax in an orgiastic revolt of lush female convicts and lusty sailors.
IF….
Lindsay Anderson, UK, 1968, 35mm, 112′
The great Lindsay Anderson’s razor-sharp satire of the British establishment and Palme d’Or winner at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival, with Malcolm McDowell in his feature film debut, is a subversive, anti-authoritarian masterpiece and a counterculture classic of the British New Wave.
PUNISHMENT PARK
Peter Watkins, USA, 1971, 35mm, 88′
A relentless depiction of suppression and brutality, Peter Watkins’ provocative, pseudo-documentary Punishment Park, originally envisioned as an account of the Chicago Seven trial, is one of the key radical films of the late 1960s, early 1970s. A criminally marginalized, rarely seen and long suppressed masterpiece by the visionary director of Culloden and The War Game.
ADDIO ZIO TOM
FAREWELL UNCLE TOM
Gualtiero Jacopetti, Franco Prosperi, Italy, 1971, 35mm, 105′
The mind-blowing crossbreed of exploitation, period drama and documentary re-enactment could only be made by the infamous agitators, iconoclasts and icons of political incorrectness, the godfathers of mondo, Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi (Mondo Cane, Africa Addio). An epic, graphic and brutally realistic depiction of slavery, accompanied by the gentle melodies of Riz Ortolani, breaker of the fourth wall par excellence.
ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13
John Carpenter, USA, 1976, 35mm, 91′
John Carpenter’s claustrophobic, tense, and marvellously austere early independent masterpiece bows to Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo by reimagining the classic western as a gritty urban thriller. Pulsating with the horror master’s most iconic soundtrack, Assault on Precinct 13 is arguably Carpenter’s best film. And it’s certainly our favourite.
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK
John Carpenter, USA, 1981, 35mm, 99′
The iconic one-eyed antihero and ultimate urban commando, Snake Plissken on his first outing in John Carpenter’s post-apocalyptic action cult classic, boasting a legendary cast: Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Isaac Hayes, Harry Dean Stanton … What more could you possibly want?
WHITE DOG
Samuel Fuller, USA, 1982, 35mm, 90′
Sam Fuller’s notoriously controversial White Dog, so profoundly misunderstood in the early eighties that the studio withheld the film from release, is today rightly lauded for its daring metaphor and its throat-grabbing assault on America’s deeply rooted racism.