Dublin Sci-Fi Film Festival 2018 Brochure

Dublin Sci-Fi 

film Festival 



26 th –29 th April 2018 

www.dublinscifi.com 

@dublinscifi 

#dsfff17

director’s foreward 

2018 is a very exciting year for us at Dublin 

Sci-Fi. We’ve been very fortunate to receive 

the support of The Arts Council, which has 

really helped us in bringing a rich and diverse 

programme of Sci-Fi and Fantastic Film to 

Dublin Audiences this year. 

During our submission period we were 

overwhelmed with the level of talent from 

overseas and from Ireland. So much so that 



we have been able to open our festival this year with a night of Irish short-form 

genre pieces, topped off with an excellent Irish debut feature, Locus of Control. 

Within the international selection I am thrilled to bring you an exciting line-up 

of diverse cinema including Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s no-holds-barred 

crime caper Let the Corpses Tan and Klim Shipenko’s spectacular Russian 

blockbuster Salyut 7. From debuts to classics we have the eerie and often 

terrifying German/Austrian horror Hagazussa by Lukas Feigelfeld and are 

thrilled to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Japanese Animé classic, Akira as 

part of our retrospective strand. 

Our first family film includes the stunning Chinese animation Big Fish & 

Begonia (keep an eye out for more certified films within the programme), 

with two fantastic documentaries Instant Dreams and Love & Saucers for the 

factually inclined. 

We really hope that the interest in genre film can continue to open new doors 

for Irish filmmakers and cinemagoers as we put one brave step forward into the 

future. – David Desmond, DSFFF Festival Director 

Principle Funder: 

Partners: 

cultural Partners: 

1

DSFFf JUries 

celebrating talent 

Huge thanks to this year's feature film and short film juries, who will 

be watching and evalutating all contempory film within the DSFFF 2018 

programme. 

Feature film Jury 

Emer Reynolds 

Director: 

The Farthest 

David Turpin 

screenwriter, 

musician, Critic 

Colm McAuliffe 

writer, curator and 

academic 



Short Film Jury 

Olivia Fahy 

Chief of Operations, 

Geek Ireland; PR 

Manager, Dublin 

Comic Con 

Liam Ryan 

Producer; Shorts 

Programmer ADIFF 

anthony 

straeger 

director, berlin scifi 

film festival 

2

Showcasing 

irish Talent 

Thursday 26 th April 



Irish Focus: 

Locus of 

Control 

Sean Clancy 

78 min / 2016 / Ireland 

thu 26/04 @ 19:30 

Generator 

Struggling stand-up comedian, Andrew Egan reluctantly accepts a teaching job 

helping the unemployed re-enter the workforce. As Andrew grows accustomed 

to the droll institution and its occupants he suspects that one of the students 

may be his downfall and that the previous teacher may not have left of his own 

accord. His life slowly unravelling, Andrew’s lessons fall on deaf ears and he soon 

becomes part of a larger cosmic joke. 

"Sean Clancy’s outstanding debut feature is a surreal and unnerving mixture 

of dark comedy and disquieting tension. Featuring top class performances 

from its main cast, Locus of Control is a fine example of budget filmmaking 

reaching far beyond its economic strictures.” – David Desmond, Festival 

Director 

3

Irish Sci-Fi Shorts - 95 min, Thu 26/04 @ 17:00 Gen 

Deposits 

Trevor Courtney 

5 min / Ireland 

Jar 

wayne doherty 

13 min / ireland 

leap of Faith 

Mark Smyth 




Neon 

Rioghnach 

Ní Ghrioghair 


One Bite 

Danilo Zambrano 


Psychedelic 

Detective 

Daniel Kennedy 


Sophie 

Philip Ledingham 


Trespassers 

Glenn Gannon 


Echoes 

John Carlin 

20 min / N.I. 

4

Black 

Hollow Cage 

aka dark portal 

Sadrac González 

105 min / Spain 

Fri 27/04 @ 17:30 

Generator 

Official Selection: 

Raindance Film Festival 



Alice is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her father in a futuristic house 

deep in the woods. Their seclusion is not the only unusual thing about them: Alice 

is missing an arm and has to wear a prosthetic, the result, we learn, of a horrible 

car accident which claimed her mother’s life. On top of this, the father-daughter 

relationship seems strained and distant. The pair are joined by a beautiful 

white dog whom Alice refers to as ‘Mom’, and who can talk through a high-tech 

synthesizer in its collar. One day, whilst out in the woods, Alice comes across 

a strange device with the amazing ability to send messages through time – but 

the machine comes with a warning, and two strangers are about to upset Alice’s 

home life once again. – Orestes Kouzof, Raindance Film Festival 

Salyut-7 

Klim Shipenko 

111 min / 2017 / Russia 

Fri 27/04 @ 18:00 

Light House 

With the support of 

the Embassy of the 

Russian Federation in 

Ireland 

SALYUT-7 is based on the true story of the epic Soyuz T-13 mission, when Russia 

sent an expedition to the dead orbital station in order to repair it, marking the 

first occasion where a spacecraft docked with a moving space station. Almost 

a Russian response to Apollo-13, the mission has, over the years, taken on a 

legendary status. SALYUT-7 takes what is already a heroic and amazing historical 

chapter and makes it one of the grandest missions possible by embellishing the 

ground crew and the cosmonauts travelling. Cypher character quirks are used 

to great effect in connecting the audience with these moody, determined and 

talented men and their impossible mission. The advantage of the story being new 

to most audiences also allows the tension to remain very high throughout. 

– Evrim Ersoy, Fantastic Fest 

“Russian space epic is edge-of-the-seat retelling of a mission impossible” – 

James Marsh, SCMP 

5

the man with 

the magic box 

Bodo Kox 

103 min / 2017 / Poland 

Fri 27/04 @ 19:20 

Generator 


Trieste Science+ 

Fiction Festival 

In a not so distant dystopian future Adam escapes from poor part of Warsaw to 

the New City. With a help of a secret society Adam gets a flat in an old building 

and finds a job a cleaner. He falls in love with Goria, a beautiful employee in the 

HR department, but she doesn’t treat him seriously. In his flat Adam finds a radio 

from the 1950’s that broadcasts the beautiful music from the past. The radio also 

emits the Theta waves that facilitate time travel. Adam starts to experiment with 

the Theta waves and he gets stuck in the past. When he doesn’t show up for work 

Goria – realizing that she has lost true love – starts to look for him in the past. 

“Polish sci-fi thriller The Man With Magic Box reverberates with myriad 

influences from Terry Gilliam and Steven Spielberg to Andrei Tarkovsky.” 

– Laurence Boyce, Screen Daily 

Let the 

Corpses Tan 

Hélène Cattet, Bruno 

Forzani 

93 min /2017 / Belgium, 

France 

Fri 27/04 @ 22:45 Light 

House 


London Film Festival 



Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani weaponize their aesthetic proclivities into an allout 

bombardment of sensational style as they methodically adapt every devilish 

detail from the cult novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette and Jean-Pierre Bastid. A 

gang of thieves absconding with 250kg of stolen gold arrives at the abode of a 

listless artist caught in a bohemian love triangle. The scenario quickly escalates 

into a desperate day-long firefight between cops and robbers throughout the 

remote ruins of a Mediterranean hamlet — and genre and art-house tropes 

collide in a relentless reverie of action spectacle, exquisitely photographed on 

Super 16mm film. – Peter Kuplowsky, TIFF 

“With these orgasmic shootouts putting the f*ck into clusterf*ck, perverse 

desires transmute low genre into pure gold.” – Anton Bitel, Sight & Sound 

6

The Capture 

James Agnew 

81 min / US 

Sat 28/04 @ 12:30 

Generator 


Berlin Sci-Fi Film 

Festival 



In an attempt to prove there is life after death a group of scientists perform 

an experiment in which they euthanize a group of terminally ill subjects. In 

the process of the experiment they capture a psychopomp – a guide of souls. 

Psychopomps are believed to have been guiding souls from one plane to the next 

since the beginning of time and appear in Greek, Egyptian and Hindu mythology. 

But by capturing one, this group of scientists may have inadvertently changed 

everything we know about time and space, as well as life and death, forever. 

“The Capture announces a brave new voice in genre filmmaking for writerproducer 

Jim Agnew in his feature directorial debut. Here he gives new life 

to ancient myths with a futuristic approach that is both subtle and stylish.” 

– David Desmond, Festival Director 

documentary: 

love and 

Saucers 

Brad Abrahams 

67 min / 2017 / us 

Sat 28/04 @ 14:30 

Generator 


Fantastic Fest 

David Huggins, a 72-year-old man who claims to have lost his virginity as a 

young man to an extraterrestrial being, turned to art to express his interspecies 

romance and lifelong relationship with the otherworldly. Huggins, now 72 years 

old, claims to have been in contact with these otherworldly beings over the 

course of his entire life, turning to art to express and immortalize his (sexual) 

encounters, encouraged by the extraterrestrial to do so. His art is surreal, simple 

and almost childish. But the moments Huggins has chosen to put on canvas are 

fascinating and intriguing and correspond to very specific events in his life. 

“The results are both mesmerizing and provocative.” – Noel Murray, 

LA Times 

7

Sci-Fi Shorts 1 - 91min, sat 28/04 @ 16:00 Gen 

The Drop Off 

Aden Barwick 

12 min / UK 

Synchronous 

Ricardo Fernández 

Jiménez 

14 min / Colombia 

icon 

Konstantina 

Papadopoulou 

18 min / greece 



ZACKman 

Jack Tong 

5 min / hong Kong 

Close-up 

Maria Wieczorek 

12 min / Poland 

The iris echo 

Edward Wilkes, 

Tristram GIFF 

24 min /UK 

The Strapless 

Brain 

Anthony Sylvester 

6 min / US 

8

hagazussa 

Lukas Feigelfeld 

102 min/ 2017 / 

Germany, Austria 

Sat 28/04 @ 16:00 

Light House 


London Film Festival 

Sitges Film Festival 

Fantastic Fest 



A haunting meditation on witchcraft and insanity, set in 15th century Austria, 

which offers a visceral and truly unique horror experience. Young Albrun lives 

with her mother in an isolated mountain hut. Life is hard enough, but when 

her mother falls gravely ill, Albrun is left traumatised and alone. 15 years later, 

Albrun has a child of her own, but with no husband in sight she is ostracised from 

her small community. As she forms a tentative friendship with a local woman, 

dark memories and psychotic delusions infiltrate Albrun’s thoughts and the line 

between fantasy and reality begins to blur. Although reminiscent of acclaimed 

period chiller The Witch in its heady fusion of mounting paranoia against a 

pagan backdrop, this hypnotic debut is quite a different beast. More abstract 

in its storytelling and lyrical in its approach, it owes as much to the cinema of 

Tarkovsky as it does the horror genre. – Michael Blyth, LFF 

60 th anniversary: 

The Fly 

Kurt Neumann 

94 min / 1958 / US 

Sat 28/04 @ 18:00 

Generator 

Cert: 12 

Wealthy Helene Delambre (Patricia Owens) is discovered late at night in the 

factory owned by her husband Andre (David Hedison). Helene stands beside a 

huge metal press, which has crushed the head and arm of her husband. Held 

for murder, the near-catatonic Helene refuses to tell anyone--not even Andre's 

brother Francois (Vincent Price)--why she did it. Francois cannot help but notice 

that Helene reacts in mortal terror when a tiny flies zips through the room. Nor 

can he disregard the statement made by Helene's son Philippe (Charles Herbert) 

that the fly has a curious white head and leg. When Francois pretends that he's 

captured the fly, Helene relaxes enough to tell her story. It seems that Andre, a 

scientist, had been working on a matter transmitter. 

“Funny, horrible and inventive – in its own deranged way this is a classic of 

1950s horror.” – Film 4 

9

Thread 

Alexander Voulgaris 

93 min / 2016 / Greece 

Sat 28/04 @ 19:45 

Generator 


LA Film Festival 

Thessaloniki IFF 

Göteborg Film 


Political revolutionary Niki and her son Lefteris live in a world bound by memory, 

sexual nightmares, and the political chaos of Greece in the 1970s. Their existence 

is a claustrophobic fever dream in which one face merges into the next, meshing 

fantasy and horror. The result is a head trip that manages to defy the conventions 

of genre by crafting a savage meditation, oscillating among political aggression, 

motherhood and violence as protest. 

Writer/director Alexandros Voulgaris and lead Sofia Kokkali create an experience 

unlike any other, challenging the values of contemporary society with a unique 

cinematic articulation. Both vibrant and horrifying, Thread is Greek cinema at 

its most brutal and experimental; a burning hallucination that brands your brain 

and won’t let you wake up. – Adam Piron, LA Film Festival 


Planet of 

the apes 

Franklin J Schaffner 

112 min / 1968 / US 

sat 28/04 @ 21:45 

Light house 

Cert: pg 



Charlton Heston and Roddy McDowall star in this legendary science fiction 

masterpiece. A group of astronauts, led by George Taylor (Charlton Heston), 

crash land on a strange planet where mute humans are treated as slaves by 

intelligent apes. Taylor is hunted down and captured by horse-riding gorillas, 

and then taken for experimentation by sympathetic chimpanzee Dr Zira (Kim 

Hunter). When Zira discovers Taylor’s intelligence, she and her fiancé Cornelius 

(Roddy McDowall) appeal to the governing council on his behalf, but the appeal 

fails, leaving the astronaut no choice but to go on the run. 

““Planet of the Apes is an amazing film. A political-sociological allegory, cast 

in the mold of futuristic science-fiction, it is an intriguing blend of chilling 

satire, a sometimes ludicrous juxtaposition of human and ape mores, 

optimism and pessimism.” – Variety, 1968 

10


akira 

Katsuhiro Otomo 

124 min / 1988 / Japan 

Sat 28/04 @ 22:45 

Light House 

Cert: 15a 



There are certain science-fiction films, such as Blade Runner and Kubrick’s 2001, 

that are so well realised that they can influence the genre for decades to come. 

Now Akira has been around for some 30 years (and is due for a Hollywood 

remake), we have seen how long a shadow it has cast not only over science 

fiction but also animation, it sits comfortably alongside those other lauded titles. 

Another thing it shares with them is how it always offers up something new or 

missed with every viewing. The plot, straightforward to some, impenetrable to 

others, concerns a futuristic neo-Tokyo biker gang whose lives are impacted on 

after an accidental collision with a secret government-run project dealing with 

telekinetic powers in children. Style and substance run neck and neck in this 

thrilling, bold landmark film that just refuses to become dated. – Phelim O’Neill, 

The Guardian 

“Simply put, no Akira, no Matrix. It’s that important.” – Kim Newman, Empire 

65th Anniversary: 

The Beast 

from 20,000 

Fathoms 

Eugene Lourie 

81 min / 1953 / US 

Sun 29/04 @ 12:00 

Generator 

Cert: pg 

One of the key titles in the 1950s science fiction boom, this was conceived as an 

atom age equivalent of King Kong and became the breakout film for rising effects 

man Ray Harryhausen. Beast sets the pattern for many subsequent creature 

features, opening with an A-bomb test that releases a dinosaur from its millionyear-sleep 

in the arctic ice, then has the monster destroy a few ships at sea and 

an isolated lighthouse while the nuclear scientist hero who glimpses the thing in 

the blizzard tries to convince the authorities that he isn’t crazy. 

The rousing climax brings the monster ashore in New York to chomp down on 

big city cops, trample through familiar streets and send crowds fleeing in panic 

before it takes a last stand amid burning rollercoasters on Coney Island. – Kim 

Newman, Empire Magazine 

11

Family: 

Big Fish & 

Begonia 

Xuan Liang, Chun 

Zhang 

105min / 2016 / China 

sun 29/04 @ 12:00 

Light House 

CERT: PG 

Beneath the human world is a mystical domain whose inhabitants, once they turn 

16 years old must travel through a vortex to observe mankind for a week. Young 

Chun takes the form of a dolphin, but on her journey unwittingly finds herself 

in a life and death situation involving a human boy that results in her making 

a huge decision. Chun’s world is an incredible magical realm whose residents 

include a one-eyed man carried in a carriage by cats, a giant two-headed snake 

and a rat matron who commands her obliging vermin gang. Big Fish & Begonia 

is an exceptional, visually breathtaking Chinese animated fantasy, as near to the 

best of Studio Ghibli as you’re likely to find anywhere. Think Spirited Away meets 

The Little Mermaid and you’re on the right track. - Justin Johnson, BFI 

“This marvelous and mind-blowing animated feature surpasses anything 

cartoon China has produced before in terms of sheer beauty, even as it 

defies interpretation.” – Peter Debruge, Variety 

Marjorie 

Prime 

Michael Almereyda 

98 min / 2017 / US 

Sun 29/04 @ 14:00 

Light House 


Sundance Film 




Adapted from Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated play, it’s a quiet 

and thoughtful affair, characterised by very soulful performances from 

everyone concerned, even those playing holograms. The film stands as a lowtech 

counterpart to Spike Jonze’s Her. Lois Smith plays Marjorie, a woman in 

her eighties whose faculties are beginning to fail along with her appetite. Her 

daughter, Tess (Geena Davis), and son-in-law, Jon (Tim Robbins), live with her in 

a remote, seafront home. So does a computerised, much younger version of her 

deceased husband, Walter (Jon Hamm). This robot has extraordinary powers of 

empathy. The more information it/he is fed, the more he learns. To Tess’s chagrin, 

Marjorie gets on far better with the computer programme than she does with her 

own flesh-and-blood relatives. – Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent 

"The film, with its coastal haze and its fickle gusts of rain, is likely to lodge 

in your memory. Or, as it will soon be called, your hard drive." – New Yorker 

12

Sci-Fi Shorts 2 - 76 min, Sun 29/04 @ 14:00 Gen 

What If 

Michael Ridley 

14 min / Australia 

Ghostcode 

audint 

9 min / germany 

Eldritch Code 

Ivan Radovic 

10 min / Sweden 



Through Fire She 

Calls 

Jason Georgiades 

9 min / US 

The Super 

Recogniser 

Jennifer Sheridan 

11 min / UK 

Underwater 

Virginie CALOONE 

19 min / France 

The Unreason 

Chris Reading 

5 min / UK 

13

documentary: 

instant 

Dreams 

Willem Baptist 

93 min / 2017 / 

Netherlands 

Sun 29/04 @ 16:00 

Generator 

In this overwhelming cinematic journey, Baptist introduces us to a number of 

quirky individuals who are connected to Polaroid in a special way: the German 

artist Stefanie Schneider, who does a photo shoot in the California desert with 

her last existing original Polaroid stock; New York Magazine editor Christopher 

Bonanos, who wrote a book about Polaroid’s history and tries to capture the 

relationship with his son with his instant camera; and a Japanese girl who first 

discovered the magic of Polaroid in Tokyo. Everyone tries to keep the instant 

dream alive in his or her way. Slowly we also begin to feel the magic of Polaroids. 

Like the instant photos, we are chemical creatures full of unpredictable reactions. 

"Instant Dreams is a journal of the rebirth of the instant photograph, of 

what it conveys and preserves. And most of all, it captures and highlights 

the human stories behind each spellbinding image." – Kathy Rong Zhou 



With Thanks to: 

proud funders of: 



14

Dark futures - 76min, Sun 29/04 @ 18:00 Gen 

A Father's Day 

Mat Johns 

10 min / UK 

Besoin Dead 

Aurélien Digard 


CARTAS CIEGAS 

ANGEL JAQUEM 

15 min / Spain 



The Forsaken 

Aladdin Alisic 

15 min / norway 

Rabbid Jacob 

donovan Alonsogarcia 


Crane 

Jeanette Nørgaard 

8 min / Denmark 

15

Closing Night: 

They Live 

30 th ANniversary 



John Carpenter / 98 min / 1988 / Us 

29/04 @ 19:30 / Generator 

In a world where the media is flooded with subliminal messages constantly 

making demands of humanity to conform, obey, consume, and reproduce, it 

would seem the only thing left to do is throw on some shades, and see the true 

horror that is our ruling class. John Carpenter’s 1988 commentary on the state of 

American democracy, society, and consumerism. 

“The joke is in the material; the idea itself is funny and daring. And some 

time soon, They Live suggests, with grim, knowing wink, the joke may be on 

us.” – Michael Wilmington, LA Times 

They Live will be followed by the DSFFF 2018 Closing Night Party. 

16

Festival Team 

David Desmond 

Festival Director 

Sarah Ahern 

Creative Producer 

Si Edwards 

Technical Manager 

Box Office: 

Linda Conroy 

Paul Derham 

Andrew Hanley 

Naoimh Ní Mhaolagain 

Joe Palmer 

Laura Whelan 



Thank 

you! 

To all our audiences, multi-pass holders, supporters, 

funders, filmmakers, fillm distributors, press, 

suppliers, volunteers, friends, and fans... The Dublin 

Sci-Fi Film Festival simply wouldn't be possible 

without your support. So a huge thank you from the 

bottom of our Sci-Fi loving hearts. 

Nanu, nanu, 

David, Sarah & the DSFFF Team 

♥ 

17

Blast off! 

welcome to the 2 nd DSFFF 

Tickets: 

Prices between €7-€10 

Generator Tickets: dublinscifi.com 

Light House Tickets: lighthousecinema.ie 

Generator Multi-passes available at €40! 



Share: 

#DSFFF18 

#DublinSciffi 

@DublinSciFi 

fl 

18

thu 26 th sat 28 th sun 29 th 



Irish Shorts 

17:00 Gen 

96 min 

Locus of control 

19:30 Gen 

78 min 

Fri 27 th 

Black Hollow Cage 

17:30 Gen 

105 min 

Salyut 7 

18:00 LH 

111 min 

the man with the 

magic box 

19:20 GEn 

103 min 

Let the corpses Tan 

22:45 LH 

93 min 

The Capture 

12:30 Gen 

83 min 

Love and Saucers 

14:30 gen 

67 min 

Sci-Fi Shorts 1 

16:00 Gen 

91 min 

Hagazussa 

16:00 lh 

102 min 

The Fly (1958) 

18:00 Gen 

94 min 

Thread 

19:45 Gen 

93 min 

Planet of the apes 

21:45 LH 

112 min 

Akira 

22:45 LH 

124 min 

The beast from 

20,000 Fathoms 

12:00 Gen 

81 min 

Big Fish and 

Begonia 

12:00 LH 

105 min 

Sci-fi Shorts 2 

14:00 Gen 

76 min 

Marjorie Prime 

14:00 LH 

99 min 

Instant Dreams 

16:00 Gen 

93 min 

Dark Futures 

Shorts 

18:00 Gen 

85 min 

They Live 

19:30 Gen 

94 min

Dublin Sci-Fi Film Festival 2018 Brochure

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