Opening and Closing show - VisitBrussels

TEMPTATION OF ST TONY (THE) (Veikko Ounpuu/Estonia-Finland-Sweden)A Veikko Ounpuu filmScreenplay: Veikko OunpuuCast: Taavi Eelmaa, Ravshana Kurkova, Tiina Tauraite, Sten Ljunggren, Denis Lavant, Hendrik Toompere jr, Katarina Lauk, HarriKorvits, Taavi Teplenkov, Marika Barabanstsikova, Rain Tolk, Liis Lepik, Valeri Fjodorov, Evald Aavik, Tarmo Mitt, Raivo E. TammRunning time: 110 min.Tony is completely stuck in a mid-life existential crisis since his father died. Hewatches the world around him and notices a slight smell of the apocalypse. Hisfellow men seem to be bored stiff and pass the time by organizing nihilistic orgiesor by metaphysically giving the same importance to questions like “Give me somesalt” and “Who am I?” So Tony takes stock of the values that govern his life andtries to find a satisfying answer in seven chapters, which just happens to be thesame number as the Deadly Sins or the circles in Dante’s Inferno. From religiousdecay over the illusion of love to the erosion of social intercourse, Tony will slowlybut surely reach the conclusion that life is useless.Tony will have to face some veryunpleasant answers in order to survive. Who am I ? A loser. Where am I ? In deepshit. Where am I going ? Straight against the wall, Tony. Straight against the wall…This poetic requiem – the Estonian candidate at this year’s Oscars – confirmsVeikko Ounpuu’s talent, director of the award winning Autumn Ball. Inspired byDante’s Divine Comedy and Hieronymus Bosch’s The Temptation of St Anthony, “St Tony” also salutes themovies of Roy Andersson, with its dry sense of humour, sweats Kafkaesque absurdity from each frame, andtakes its metaphysical surrealism straight from Tarkovsky and Bunuel. The Temptation of St. Tony is heavybut very enjoyable stuff without a shred of indigestible pretentiousness.TETSUO : THE BULLET MAN (Shinya Tsukamoto/Japan)A Shinya Tsukamoto filmScreenplay: Shinya Tsukamoto & Hisakatsu KurokiCast: Eric Bossick, Akiko Monou, Yuko Nakamura, Stephen Sarrazin, Tiger Charlie Gerhardt, Prakhar Jain, Shinya Tsukamoto, MichaelDuncan, Alan Koji, Sou Fujita, Markus Wambsganss, Hajime Izuki, Dwayne Lawler, Aldo La Riviere, Yutaka Mishima, GettoRunning time: 71 min.Office worker Anthony, son of an American father and a Japanese mother,lives in Tokyo with his wife Yuriko and their little son Tom. Since Anthony’smother died of cancer, his scientist father has been overly fearful for theirhealth and rigidly subjects Anthony and Tom to monthly physicals. Walkinghome, Tom is killed in a hit and run before Anthony’s eyes. Losing their boypushes Yuriko over the edge and triggers violent emotions in Anthony, whosebody begins to transform. Little by little, his cells turn to iron. When the driverwho killed Tom reappears and Anthony learns the truth about his father’s pastexperiments on human guinea pigs and about his mother’s death, Anthonymutates into a mass of metal – a human weapon fuelled by an uncontrollablerage.The BIFFF was the first festival in the world to screen Tetsuo (1989); whichhas since become the cult gem we all know. So it would have been awkwardto end this twenty-year adventure without showing the last episode of Tsukamoto’s trilogy. And our chaphasn’t lost an ounce of his talent: edgy editing, mystical inserts, sexualisation of the mechanical –reminiscent in some ways of Cronenberg’s Crash (or is it the opposite?) –, industrial themes for the score(thanks to Chu Ishikawa) and Trent “Nine Inch Nails” Reznor for the soundtrack.38