11/07/2023 - The Canadian genre festival, unspooling from 20 July-9 August, will welcome the likes of Tiger Stripes, Restore Point and We Are Zombies

Montreal’s Fantasia, taking place from 20 July-9 August, has finally revealed its three waves of titles, unveiling some European highlights as well. From the UK, Sam H Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s Femme [+see also:
film review
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interview: Sam H Freeman, Ng Choon Ping
film profile], Graeme Arnfield’s Home Invasion and Paris Zarcilla’s Raging Grace will all be shown, alongside Mami Wata by CJ “Fiery” Obasi, co-produced with Nigeria and France. George Kane’s Apocalypse Clown, about a troupe of clowns and a reporter embarking on a road trip after a mysterious solar event (see the news), is bound to delight, described as possibly “the funniest (and only) clowns-and-catastrophe movie ever made”, as per the organisers.

Interestingly enough, the fest will show Ukraine’s “screenlife thriller” Stay Online [+see also:
film review
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interview: Yeva Strelnikova
film profile] as well as the Russian-US spectacle Empire V. In the former, which is Eva Strelnikova’s debut, shot against the backdrop of the invasion, a volunteer from Kyiv uses a laptop donated to the resistance and comes into contact with the son of its original owner, desperately in search of his missing parents. Meanwhile, the latter movie, banned by Russia’s Ministry of Culture, has been dubbed Victor Ginzburg’s “Matrix of vampire cinema” and was shot by Come and See cinematographer Aleksei Rodionov.

Austin Jennings’ Eight Eyes, about a couple taking a trip through Serbia with some disastrous results, is set to celebrate its world premiere, while Spain’s The Fantastic Golem Affairs [+see also:
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interview: Burnin’ Percebes
film profile] by Burnin’ Percebes, and Germany’s Piaffe [+see also:
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interview: Ann Oren
film profile] by Ann Oren and Skin Deep [+see also:
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interview: Alex Schaad
film profile] by Alex Schaad will be introduced to local audiences, too. Other highlights include France’s Pandemonium [+see also:
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film profile] by Quarxx, Rascals [+see also:
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film profile] by Jimmy Laporal-Trésor (set during the rise of the skinhead movement that swept through Paris in the 1980s) and The Visitor from the Future [+see also:
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film profile] by François Descraques, plus the Cannes revelations Vincent Must Die [+see also:
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interview: Stéphan Castang
film profile] by Stéphan Castang and Tiger Stripes [+see also:
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interview: Amanda Nell Eu
film profile].

“I love, love, love genre, and I am so happy that people are more receptive to it now. It’s something I will keep doing because genre doesn’t take itself too seriously, and yet you can use it to talk about many issues that are close to you. I just think it’s always more fun to talk about them with some blood and gore,” Tiger Stripes director Amanda Nell Eu told Cineuropa.

While the closing film from collective RKSS We Are Zombies (co-produced with France – see the news) will take a look at the kind of future where zombies – now known as the “living-impaired” – are just a part of society, in Restore Point [+see also:
film review
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interview: Robert Hloz
film profile] (Czech Republic/Slovakia/Poland/Serbia), in just 20 years’ time, you won’t have to die, as long as you remember to back up your personality every two days.

“We are bringing sci-fi to our region, which is not very common. At the beginning, there were very few people who believed it would be possible. The problem was that there had been several similar attempts in Czech cinema already, and they failed miserably. The key was to convince everyone this was a realistic project taking place 20 years from now, so not much has changed. There are no lasers or flying cars,” said director Robert Hloz, excited for the upcoming screening. “The audience is so welcoming at genre festivals. And cheerful!”

Finally, while turning to some older propositions like Joe D’Amato’s Emanuelle in America and Luc Besson’s Taxi, the event will also celebrate Slovak director Juraj Herz, showing his Beauty and the Beast, Morgiana, The Ninth Heart and Ferat Vampire. Herz, who sadly passed away in 2018, is best known for the celebrated The Cremator.

You can find the full list of titles here.