Directed by:
David ZellnerScreenplay:
David ZellnerCinematography:
Nathan ZellnerComposer:
The Octopus ProjectPlots(1)
As school's been out for days already and there's no-one to look after her, 10-year-old Annie roams alone through forest and meadow, leaving a trail of destruction in her path. But her confidence is severely shaken when she comes across a hole in the ground from whose depths a woman's voice can be heard calling for help. As if guided by some magic power, she returns again and again to this place of mystery, first with sandwiches and walkie-talkies and later with a request.
Although she's a proper little brat, the film takes an empathetic look at lonely rebel Annie. She may bellow defiantly "I'm not scared of nothing!" into the hole but is frightened nonetheless, full of questions which no adult seems able to answer. "How to become a better person?" is the title of the book her father is reading, a stock-car driver, goat farmer and yet still a big kid himself. "How do they know anyway?" asks Annie astounded.
The land that the Zellner brothers present us here is a run-down realm of the debilitated and the disturbed, their combination of hyperreal independent film motifs and fairy tale tropes generating something genuinely unique: disturbing, funny, brutal, offbeat and melancholy.
(Berlinale)
Videos (1)
Reviews (2)
This film is pure redneck art. It's a slow, chilling portrayal of a peculiar young girl whose life is a monotony of wreaking havoc and causing misery wherever she goes. Her complete lack of empathy leads her to leave an elderly woman trapped in a well to die. It's a psychological study of a teenage psychopath beyond redemption, observed without a hint of hope or chance for reform. There's no journey of transformation here; instead, it lays bare a harsh reality. There are fleeting moments where you think she might show a trace of humanity, but those are quickly crushed. The story builds to an intriguing finale, which might seem like a catharsis but is actually just resignation. I appreciate that this isn’t another film about a young psychopath from a relatively functional family. This girl has nothing but a roof over her head, and it's no surprise she turned out the way she did.
()
Quite a dense study of a morally neglected child that will make your blood boil a little. At times, you don't know whether to laugh or cry because the situations in which a little girl willingly finds herself, who was probably born without a soul, are absurdly funny, yet for her, it's everyday bread and butter and daily reality that she doesn't intend to change, essentially just muddling through life with vandalistic activities. The worst part is that everything happens without a single emotion, and you feel somewhat betrayed while watching. This western piece is quite a cold shower, but in its own way, it's actually charming. KVIFF 2018
()
Ads