OFFSCREENINGS 2022 | Offscreen
The Offscreenings programme presents a fine selection of special, new and unreleased films, giving a platform to movies at the cutting edge of contemporary cinema. These films are noted for their artistic originality, unique vision and inventive approach to the medium and genre. Come and see the cult films of tomorrow.
THE INNOCENTS
Unnoticed by adults, prepubescent children on a suburban housing estate flex their nascent telekinetic and telepathic abilities. But when one kid veers towards the dark side, the others are faced with a dilemma in this ultra-tense Norwegian horror film enriched by superb child performances and subtle special effects.
THE INNOCENTS - SECOND SCREENING
Unnoticed by adults, prepubescent children on a suburban housing estate flex their nascent telekinetic and telepathic abilities. But when one kid veers towards the dark side, the others are faced with a dilemma in this ultra-tense Norwegian horror film enriched by superb child performances and subtle special effects.
EARWIG
In a crepuscular apartment in 1950s Europe, a caretaker is tasked with the daily maintenance of a young girl's ice dentures, until, one day, he receives orders to prepare her for departure. Dark symbolism, mesmerising ritual, non-specific but ever-present menace and a haunting score fuse into an otherworldly dream.
In the presence of director Lucile Hadzihalilovic
FLUX GOURMET
A writer tries to control his agonising flatulence as he observes the power struggle between the head of an institute for alimentary performance art and the sonic catering collective in residence. Britain's most original auteur stirs deadpan comedy, surrealism and social anxiety into a glorious situationist satire.
In the presence of director Peter Strickland
BROADCAST SIGNAL INTRUSION
A video archivist fixates on cases of a mysterious masked hacker disrupting local TV schedules in this unsettling QAnon-style conspiracy thriller set in Chicago, 1999. Desperate to find out what happened to his missing wife, he plunges down a rabbit hole of vintage tech and paranoia to pick through the evidence.
ULTRASOUND
Stranded by a flat tyre, a man seeks refuge in a house where the host invites him to sleep with his wife... But if you think you know where this sci-fi twister is going, think again. What may appear to be continuity errors are not errors at all, and this gripping multi-layered story will keep you guessing to the end.
ZERIA
The last man on blighted Earth narrates his life and loves in a video-letter to a grandson who has yet to be born on Mars, where his mother-to-be has migrated. Using stop-motion animation, silhouettes, masks, puppets and miniatures, actor and filmmaker Cleven conjures up a moving elegaic vision of a dying world.
In the presence of director Harry Cleven as well as the film crew.
SEXUAL DRIVE
A sleazy, ambiguous pervert called Mr Kurita engineers three encounters in which his uninhibited talk about the aphrodisiac qualities of Japanese dishes (natto, tofu, ramen) excites the libidos of his "victims". No explicit sex here, but this funny, clever erotic triptych will leave you stimulated and salivating.
MAD GOD
A would-be assassin descends into a hellish dystopia in this animated feature from an Oscar-winning effects visionary. It's a stop-motion smörgåsbord of squished corpses and gruesome autopsies, where subhuman entities are trapped in an endless cycle of atrocity. Bosch, Bruegel and Svankmajer would surely approve.
+ virtual q&a with director Phil Tippett
MASKING THRESHOLD
A hypochondriac IT nerd seeks a cure for his tinnitus by shutting himself up in a homemade lab to record his increasingly deranged experiments. Uncompromising aesthetic choices (we never see the narrator's face), extraordinary macro camerawork and unnerving sound design lead into a stomach-churning heart of darkness.
In the presence of director Johannes Grenzfurthner
SANS SOLEIL
In the near future, solar flares trigger earaches so excruciating that it drives the afflicted underground, among them Léa (Asia Argento). Ten years later, the adolescent son she left behind encounters a woman who could be his mother in this mysterious and compelling sci-fi thriller containing Belgian DNA.
In the presence of director Banu Akseki
BULL
After a 10-year absence, a gangland enforcer returns to wreak bloody vengeance on ex-colleagues for reasons duly revealed in flashbacks. Neil Maskell (Kill List) anchors the ultra-violence with a performance of implacable menace in this low-budget British shocker that gets darker and more unsettling by the minute.
In the presence of actor Neil Maskell
SILENT NIGHT
Comfy British comedy turns apocalyptic as a middle-class family and friends celebrate Christmas at a country house. Old rivalries and petty squabbles abound, but everyone is aware there is a lethal cloud of gas drifting towards them. Can they settle their differences before it's time to take the suicide pills?
SILENT NIGHT - SECOND SCREENING
Comfy British comedy turns apocalyptic as a middle-class family and friends celebrate Christmas at a country house. Old rivalries and petty squabbles abound, but everyone is aware there is a lethal cloud of gas drifting towards them. Can they settle their differences before it's time to take the suicide pills?
Offscreen photostream
