Ciné1-2
17/04 -6.30 pm - Halfway Home by Isti Madarász
Heysel, Palais 10, Cine 2
Halfway between Tim Burton and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, an absurd comedy with two lovebirds that fight an epic battle against evil… while death do them part!
Director : Isti Madarász
Screenplay : Attila Veres
Cast : Péter Bárnai, Vivien Rujder, Erzsébet Kútvölgyi, János Kulka & Miklós Gálla
DOP : Gábor Garai
Producer : Gábor Ferenczy & András Muhi
Production : FocusFox
Distribution : National Film Institute Hungary
World Sales : NFI World Sales
Year : 2022
Country :
Audio : Hungarian
Subtitles : EN / FR / NL
Running time : 104'
Krisztián, a young slacker raised by his aunt who’d rather teach him how to make magic potions than how to do his own laundry, is a lucky man. He was just accepted at his first job as a night watchman in a morgue. The description of the position, sitting on your ass and doing absolutely nothing, is right up his alley! But he’s quickly going to climb off his cloud when he finds out that the morgue’s residents are not resting in peace at all. You see, they have a to do-list of unfinished business on Earth, and they have exactly 29 days to wrap it all up and leave to the afterlife with a light, albeit not-beating heart. If they fail, the Mortician, some sort of super-powerful Hellboy that eternally wakes up on the wrong side of the bed, comes to collect their souls. And guess who is going to work double shifts as a middle-man? That’s right, Kriszty Boy! Luckily he can count on Ági, a fantastic girl he just met, to take his mind off things. Except that apart from being extremely cute, she’s also extremely dead, and smack in the middle of her 29-day probation period…
Sick and tired of the romcom clichés where they live happily ever after, “until death do them part”? Well, have we got the perfect antidote for you with this macabre fairytale by Isti Madaràz (who already presented LOOP at the BIFFF 2017). HALFWAY HOME is halfway between the gothic world of Tim Burton and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s warped sense of romance. An absurd comedy with two lovebirds that fight an epic battle… while death already did them part!
21/04 – 7pm - Infinity Pool
Heysel, Palais 10, Cine 1
You thought that the last Palme d’Or, TRIANGLE OF SADNESS, was the most ferocious indictment against the ultra-rich? Then come dip your toes in this pool…
Director : Brandon Cronenberg
Screenplay : Brandon Cronenberg
Cast : Alexander Skarsgärd, Mia Goth, Cleopatra Coleman & Jalil Lespert
DOP : Karim Hussain, Csc
Producer : Rob Cotterill, Karen Harnisch, Andrew Cividino, Christina Piovesan, Noah Segal, Anita Juka, Daniel Kresmery &Jonathan Halperyn
Production : Film Forge / Elevation Pictures Production / 4Film / Hero Squared Production
Distribution : Sony Belgium
World Sales : Universal Pictures
Year : 2023
Country : Canada, France, Hungary
Audio : English
Subtitles : FR / NL
Running time : 117'
Genre(s) : horror, science-fiction
Audience : ENA
Premiere : Belgian
Competition(s) : Critics, International
Section(s) :
Welcome to the luxurious all-in resort on Tolqa Island! A safe haven with pearl-white beaches for the world’s wealthiest tourists who just want to take their minds off things. That’s what James and Em Foster were planning to do, chilling at the pool. Then they meet a couple that proposes a different method of relaxing: leave their gated community for a couple of hours for a fun little road trip on the dangerous totalitarian island where murderous savages roam. But on the way back from their boozed up human safari, James runs over a native. Dead on impact. According to local laws, the sentence is irrevocable: the death penalty! Fortunately for James and all the other ultra-rich of the world who just want to relax, the local forensics department can, in exchange for a hefty sum, create a perfect clone of the culprit who gets the chair instead. Ideal for a risk-free execution and for indulging one’s worst impulses while leaving your responsibility at the hotel suite. To relax. Without a worry. And then to start all over again…
Brandon Cronenberg already whetted our appetite in 2021, when we presented POSSESSOR at the online BIFFF, talking to us about his next project, INFINITY POOL. And now the pool is all filled up, ready for you to dip your toe in it. Sure, certain similarities with TRIANGLE OF SADNESS or WHITE LOTUS bubble up, but Cronenberg Jr.’s third strike is above all a nightmarish dive into the moral immunity of the filthy rich who can wash off even the vilest crimes. Because everything is a commodity that can be bought, even your conscience. And no, nothing will go the way you think it will…
22/04 – 2pm - The Grandson by Kristóf Deák
Heysel, Palais 10, Cine 1
A large-scale telephone hoax, dozens of ruined seniors, a trauma that lingers on… But, above all, a grandson with an unquenchable thirst for sweet, sweet vengeance!
Director : Kristóf Deák
Screenplay : Kristóf Deák
Cast : Gergely Blahó, Tamás Jordán, Gábor Jászberényi, Judit Pogány, Laura Döbrösi, Judit Bárdos & János Papp
DOP : Róbert Maly
Producer : Tamás S. Zákonyi
Production : Flashback Production LLC.
Distribution : National Film Institute Hungary
World Sales : NFI World Sales
Year : 2022
Country : Hungary
Audio : Hungarian
Subtitles : EN / FR / NL
Running time : 120'
Genre(s) : thriller
Audience : ENA
Premiere : Belgian
Competition(s) : Black Raven
Section(s) :
Rudi is the perfect example of a goody-goody. Always polite, on the straight path, never a disagreeable word, discrete and efficient at work. A man with manners and the pride of his grandpa, with whom he has a very strong bond. But one evening Grandpa receives a phone call from the police telling him Rudi has been involved in a pretty heavy car accident. Grandpa already fears for the worst. The police tell him that Rudi’s the one who caused the accident and that the insurance company is probably going to soak up whatever savings he’s got left. Luckily the other driver is not against an amicable settlement, but to do so Grandpa first has a gather all the cash he’s got lying around to house and hand over the sum in an envelope to the police officer that is waiting in front of his door… Of course one phone call to his grandson is enough to realize he’s just been scammed. And Rudi has a very hard time digesting that. Such a hard time even that he decides he’s no longer going to play mister nice guy. Cause nobody lays a hand on his Grandpa… Capiche?!
Inspired by a real-life telephone swindle that spread like wildfire all over Eastern Europa, and which even reached our country (that’s right), Kristof Deak – who won an Oscar for his short SING – sheds light on this still little known phenomenon. His film falls in between a thriller and a black comedy, with even a hint of emotional tears thrown into the mix: his own grandfather was one of the numerous victims of the hoax. Well, now he’s got his silver-screen revenge!