13/07/2022 - European flicks The Elderly, Megalomaniac and Orchestrator of Storms will celebrate their world premieres at the Canadian genre festival

Having now unveiled its third – and final – wave of titles, Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival, set to unspool from 14 July-3 August, will also welcome a slew of European titles.

Among the world premieres, Spain’s The Elderly [+see also:
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interview: Raúl Cerezo, Fernando Gonzá…
film profile] is already shaping up to be the title to watch, directed by Raúl Cerezo and Fernando González Gómez. The film, described by the organisers as a “next-level Spanish horror nightmare”, will focus on an octogenarian (Zorion Eguileor) who falls into a state of dementia after his wife’s suicide. It’s not the first collaboration between Cerezo and Gómez, who also previously delivered The Passenger [+see also:
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interview: Raúl Cerezo and Fernando Go…
film profile].

Megalomaniac [+see also:
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interview: Karim Ouelhaj
film profile] (Belgium), helmed by Karim Ouelhaj, will present “a radical take on the evils of the patriarchy and its undying legacy” while also taking on the true story of the country’s infamous serial killer The Butcher of Mons. In the UK’s Orchestrator of Storm: The Fantastique World of Jean Rollin, Dima Ballin and Kat Ellinger will explore the life of one of “Eurocult” cinema’s most singular voices. Rollin, who received Fantasia’s Lifetime Achievement Award back in 2007, was “deeply misunderstood and widely misrepresented”, it was stated. With the help of his collaborators, family and various experts, they will come back to his work that was as divisive as it was interesting. A bit like Álex de la Iglesia’s 1993 debut, Mutant Action, then, which will be shown as well.

Furthermore, the audience will be treated to the international premiere of Nico Van den Brink’s Moloch (Netherlands), as well as the first North American showings of already familiar titles, from Michel Hazanavicius’ Cannes opener Final Cut [+see also:
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interview: Michel Hazanavicius
film profile] to Quentin Dupieux’s delightful oddity Incredible but True [+see also:
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interview: Quentin Dupieux
film profile].

Nuno Beato will bring along My Grandfather’s Demons [+see also:
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interview: Kristina Buožytė and Bruno …
film profile]: an ecological sci-fi thriller that has already prompted heated discussions among the audience at the recently wrapped Karlovy Vary. The film – which reunites the duo after Vanishing Waves [+see also:
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interview: Kristina Buozyte
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Patrice Leconte’s Maigret [+see also:
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film profile] and Employee of the Month [+see also:
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interview: Véronique Jadin
film profile] by Veronique Jadin (Belgium). In another Portuguese offering, Fragile [+see also:
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film profile], Pedro Henrique shows Lisbon’s underground scene, promising a “uniquely adolescent and ecstatic experience”. Freaks Out [+see also:
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interview: Gabriele Mainetti
film profile] by Gabriele Mainetti, Alan Bidard’s Opal, and Princesse Dragon by Jean-Jacques Denix and Anthony Roux have also found their way into the varied selection, as has Christian Tafdrup’s Danish nightmare of manners, Speak No Evil [+see also:
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interview: Christian Tafdrup
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Apart from A Life on the Farm [+see also:
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film profile], Whether the Weather Is Fine [+see also:
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film profile] by Carlo Francisco Manatad (Philippines/France), Yaya e Lennie – The Walking Liberty [+see also:
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film profile] by Alessandro Rak and Carlota Martínez Pereda’s brilliant Piggy [+see also:
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interview: Carlota Pereda
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Finally, in We Might as Well Be Dead [+see also:
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interview: Natalia Sinelnikova
film profile], Natalia Sinelnikova plays with the weighty topics of modern-day xenophobia and antisemitism, showing a security officer in an exclusive apartment block in the German countryside, whose daughter grows increasingly convinced that she is harbouring an ancient evil. And that’s just the beginning.

You can find the full line-up here.