THE FEMALE BODY (HORROR)
The Dreamland presents a selection of films by women filmmakers exploring body horror through a female lens.
RAW 2016
Stringent vegetarian Justine (Garance Marillier) encounters a decadent, merciless and dangerously seductive world during her first week at veterinary school. Desperate to fit in, she strays from her principles and eats raw meat for the first time. The young woman soon experiences terrible and unexpected consequences as her true self begins to emerge.
Saturday, March 4
Director: Julia Ducournau
Starring: Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, Laurent Lucas
Runtime: 99 min., France.
AMER 2009
Ana is confronted with body and desire at three key moments of her life. As a young girl, she brings her dead grandpa back to life. In her puberty, she discovers the power of decay and sexuality. Finally, she wrestles with loss and loneliness when she returns to her parental home, now derelict.
Sunday, March 12
Director: Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani
Starring: Bianca Maria D'Amato, Marie Bos, Charlotte Eugéne Guibeaud
Runtime: 90 min., Belgium/France.
BLUE MY MIND 2017
Growing up is scary, and Lisa Brühlmann’s Blue My Mind takes that to heart. Fifteen-year-old Mia (Luna Wedler) moves to a new town where she tries to fit in and make new friends, all while attempting to understand what’s happening to her own body. Brühlmann’s story of Mia’s unfamiliar and overwhelming physical transformation gives a thrilling, surreal spin on your basic coming-of-age film to show the unfiltered realness and ugly confusion that comes with growing up and finding one’s own identity. Through the chilling performance by Wedler and the exaggerated, woven-in analogies of puberty, Blue My Mind successfully gives an unflinching and unapologetically honest depiction of the ups and downs of adolescence. (TIFF)
Sunday,March 19
Director: Lisa Brühlmann
Starring: Luna Wedler, Zoë Pastelle Holthuizen, Regula Grauwiller
Runtime: 97 min., Switzerland
IN MY SKIN 2002
A Parisian marketing professional, Esther (Marina de Van) has a gruesome secret. She's been obsessed with the damage she can inflict upon her own body ever since sustaining a deep cut in an accident. Esther cuts her flesh with knives, scissors and other sharp household objects. Her behavior, of course, deeply worries her boyfriend Vincent (Laurent Lucas), but Esther can't stop harming herself. Soon her self-mutilation places her in mortal danger.