Not to be confused with Haider Rashid’s 2021 thriller of the same name, drama Europa (2023) from Iranian-Austrian writer-director Sudabeh Mortezai was nominated for Best Film in Official Competition at Lff 2023. A slow-burn thriller of corporate defiance and corruption set in rural Albania, it stars German actor Lilith Stangenberg in the lead role of Beate Winter, an ambitious executive of a mysterious corporation called ‘Europa’ that must persuade locals to part with land and livelihoods for unclear, nefarious reasons – all for the euro and not the environment.
The term ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ aptly fits here, as a compelling, stoic and quite ambiguous Stangenberg as Beate ‘hunts’ around stunning countryside, targeting her prey, befriending them and then spinning stories of woe or enlightenment to make the kill and get the contracts signed. With her male assistant Lasse (Tobias Winter) in tow, there is a sense that both are ‘stuck’ in...
The term ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ aptly fits here, as a compelling, stoic and quite ambiguous Stangenberg as Beate ‘hunts’ around stunning countryside, targeting her prey, befriending them and then spinning stories of woe or enlightenment to make the kill and get the contracts signed. With her male assistant Lasse (Tobias Winter) in tow, there is a sense that both are ‘stuck’ in...
- 10/20/2023
- by Lisa Giles-Keddie
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Europa
After a pair of docu features, Austrian–Iranian filmmaker Sudabeh Mortezai finds herself on a firm path with fiction films with Berlin competition selected Macondo being followed by 2018’s Joy (Giornate degli Autori – Venice Film Festival). Mortezai would be working on her next project titled Europa – which is set in Albania and could have possibly started shooting in August. She once again reteams with her cinematographer Klemens Hufnagl on a project that will likely deal with a weighty subject matter and non-actors could be part of the strategy as well.
Gist: Unknown.
Release Date/Prediction: If readied in time, we could see the filmmaker wanting to test (and complete a triple treat) the waters at Cannes, but we are predicting an Orizzonti section slot at the Venice Film Festival.…...
After a pair of docu features, Austrian–Iranian filmmaker Sudabeh Mortezai finds herself on a firm path with fiction films with Berlin competition selected Macondo being followed by 2018’s Joy (Giornate degli Autori – Venice Film Festival). Mortezai would be working on her next project titled Europa – which is set in Albania and could have possibly started shooting in August. She once again reteams with her cinematographer Klemens Hufnagl on a project that will likely deal with a weighty subject matter and non-actors could be part of the strategy as well.
Gist: Unknown.
Release Date/Prediction: If readied in time, we could see the filmmaker wanting to test (and complete a triple treat) the waters at Cannes, but we are predicting an Orizzonti section slot at the Venice Film Festival.…...
- 1/8/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Following a family that begins to unravel after a home invasion, Ronny Trocker’s Human Factors has an ambitiously unconventional structure that leads to a convoluted puzzle box of a film. The well-directed sophomore narrative feature ultimately loses itself, placing more importance on its central theme of interpersonal interactions while firmly rejecting a more fleshed-out, compelling story.
Taking a break from their stressful line of work, advertising agency owners Nina (Sabine Timoteo) and Jan (Mark Waschke) whisk their children (Wanja Valentin Kube and Jule Hermann) to their isolated vacation home, hoping for much needed rest and relaxation. Days after arriving, they hear a piercing scream as they witness a supposed home invasion from their own wildly different individual perspectives. In the aftermath of the event, mistrust begins to brew with tensions between the family rising as they attempt to figure out the motives and the culprits behind the scare. Instead...
Taking a break from their stressful line of work, advertising agency owners Nina (Sabine Timoteo) and Jan (Mark Waschke) whisk their children (Wanja Valentin Kube and Jule Hermann) to their isolated vacation home, hoping for much needed rest and relaxation. Days after arriving, they hear a piercing scream as they witness a supposed home invasion from their own wildly different individual perspectives. In the aftermath of the event, mistrust begins to brew with tensions between the family rising as they attempt to figure out the motives and the culprits behind the scare. Instead...
- 2/11/2021
- by Diego Andaluz
- The Film Stage
Suffocatingly indebted to the films of Michael Haneke in its chilly dissection of (upper) middle-class malaise, Ronny Trocker’s “Human Factors” is the kind of puzzle-box thriller that you’d want to re-watch immediately — if only it left you with any desire to ever watch it again. , Trocker’s second feature (following 2016’s “The Eremites”) never quite manages to make good on its gamesmanship and only allows itself to have any fun once it’s sure that nobody else is.
The film’s X-ray insight into brittle bourgeoise fear is still lucid enough to get under your skin, especially when Trocker seizes on the feeling that we’ve seen this before and begins to weaponize it against us. Klemens Hufnagl’s floating camera wends its way through an empty Belgian vacation home somewhere near the German border; the place is eerie and expectant, acclimating us to a film preoccupied with blind spots in domestic bliss.
The film’s X-ray insight into brittle bourgeoise fear is still lucid enough to get under your skin, especially when Trocker seizes on the feeling that we’ve seen this before and begins to weaponize it against us. Klemens Hufnagl’s floating camera wends its way through an empty Belgian vacation home somewhere near the German border; the place is eerie and expectant, acclimating us to a film preoccupied with blind spots in domestic bliss.
- 2/4/2021
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Ronny Trocker’s Human Factors follows a family whisked away to their seaside vacation home in an attempt to escape work. During their stay, burglars break into the house, which drives a wedge between parents Nina and Jan. Dp Klemens Hufnagl explores differentiating the worlds of Hamburg and the Belgian coast. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Hufnagl: As Ronny Trocker’s first feature The Eremites was a co-production with Austria, he was looking for an Austrian Dp. It was […]
The post "The Film Takes Place in Two Different Worlds": Dp Klemens Hufnagl on Human Factors first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post "The Film Takes Place in Two Different Worlds": Dp Klemens Hufnagl on Human Factors first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/2/2021
- by Austin Jones
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Ronny Trocker’s Human Factors follows a family whisked away to their seaside vacation home in an attempt to escape work. During their stay, burglars break into the house, which drives a wedge between parents Nina and Jan. Dp Klemens Hufnagl explores differentiating the worlds of Hamburg and the Belgian coast. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Hufnagl: As Ronny Trocker’s first feature The Eremites was a co-production with Austria, he was looking for an Austrian Dp. It was […]
The post "The Film Takes Place in Two Different Worlds": Dp Klemens Hufnagl on Human Factors first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post "The Film Takes Place in Two Different Worlds": Dp Klemens Hufnagl on Human Factors first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/2/2021
- by Austin Jones
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Director Ronny Trocker, whose second feature “Human Factors” world-premiered at Sundance on Jan. 29 in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, was born in Bolzano, Italy, capital city of the autonomous province of South Tyrol where German is the first language of most of the population. Early in his career, Trocker moved to Berlin where he worked as a sound engineer before studying film in Argentina, followed by more film studies in France. He now lives and works mainly in Brussels. Just like the family in which Trocker grew up, different languages are spoken throughout this pic, which follows a French-German married couple — both work in advertising — whose both lives are disrupted by a mysterious break-in at their country getaway. Trocker spoke to Variety about the multiple languages in “Human Factors” and also the social media-skewed perspectives in his film that depicts “a contemporary malaise in a family context.”
“Human Factors” is...
“Human Factors” is...
- 2/1/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
San Sebastian — Smart genre, zombies and throwbacks to the ’70s and ‘80s are some of the current trends in genre cinema, according to some specialists in the field. It’s a cyclical dynamic now offering meaningful box office hits such as Corin Hardy’s “The Nun” or Ari Aster’s “Hereditary.” Genre cinema always attracts the attention of industry players. These are some of them.
An auteur-driven trend commands greatest consensus among experts. Matteo Lovadina, CEO of Paris-based sales and co-production company Reel Suspects, observed that some great examples recently of genre film have, “thanks to their clever storytelling,” been able to attract both auteur and genre audiences.
“Films like Joachim Trier’s ‘Thelma,’ Jordan Peele’s ‘Get Out’, David Robert Mitchell’s ‘It Follows’ or ‘Hereditary,’ have brought genre cinema again into focus and restored a certain credit to this hidden part of the cinematic world,” Lovadina observed.
A “pure genre player,...
An auteur-driven trend commands greatest consensus among experts. Matteo Lovadina, CEO of Paris-based sales and co-production company Reel Suspects, observed that some great examples recently of genre film have, “thanks to their clever storytelling,” been able to attract both auteur and genre audiences.
“Films like Joachim Trier’s ‘Thelma,’ Jordan Peele’s ‘Get Out’, David Robert Mitchell’s ‘It Follows’ or ‘Hereditary,’ have brought genre cinema again into focus and restored a certain credit to this hidden part of the cinematic world,” Lovadina observed.
A “pure genre player,...
- 9/27/2018
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
You’ll get no credit for guessing the precise degree of bitter irony in the title of “Joy,” given the quiveringly well-drawn milieu in Sudabeh Mortezai’s effective flick-knife of a sophomore feature. Immersing audiences with how-it-is frankness into the imperilled world of migrant Nigerian prostitutes on Vienna’s unwelcoming backstreets, it offers a raw, fresh view on the currently ubiquitous topic of European immigration control, sewn through with sharp feminist perspective: The black women at the center of “Joy” are exploited equally by foreign oppressors and within their own communities, making for a cycle of abuse that’s almost impossible to escape. Watching it in motion is inevitably downbeat, but lifted by the vibrant, sometimes acidly funny specifics of the film’s cultural portraiture.
A standout in this year’s Venice Days program, “Joy” is bound for a high-impact festival run: A prominent berth in the upcoming London fest...
A standout in this year’s Venice Days program, “Joy” is bound for a high-impact festival run: A prominent berth in the upcoming London fest...
- 9/10/2018
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
The Dark is based on your Columbia University thesis short film. Was it a difficult process expanding it into a full-length feature?
I never really saw this as a traditional short-to-feature type of deal, to be honest. My thesis film was my first real foray into genre filmmaking, so it was very much a trial-and-error process for me, almost like a sketch, in which I wanted to see what my version of a horror film would look like. Luckily, the short had some success on the festival circuit, which gave me the confidence I needed to launch into writing the feature. Some of the ideas from the short definitely carried over, but ultimately it feels like a totally different film to me.
You shot the film in North Ontario, Canada, but what’s the Austrian connection?
The film’s connection: the Austrian production company Dor Film were the primary producers,...
I never really saw this as a traditional short-to-feature type of deal, to be honest. My thesis film was my first real foray into genre filmmaking, so it was very much a trial-and-error process for me, almost like a sketch, in which I wanted to see what my version of a horror film would look like. Luckily, the short had some success on the festival circuit, which gave me the confidence I needed to launch into writing the feature. Some of the ideas from the short definitely carried over, but ultimately it feels like a totally different film to me.
You shot the film in North Ontario, Canada, but what’s the Austrian connection?
The film’s connection: the Austrian production company Dor Film were the primary producers,...
- 8/20/2018
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
Titles screening at the 18th edition include David Robert Mitchell’s Under The Silver Lake.
Swiss genre festival Neuchâtel Fantastic Film Festival (Nifff) has announced the programme for its 18th edition, held from July 6-14 this year.
The festival will open with the world premiere of web series Le 5e Cavalier, which won the Fantastic Web Contest at last year’s event. The closing film will be the Swiss premiere of animation Hotel Transylvania 3.
Scroll down for the full line-up
Across nine days the festival will screen over 150 films across 14 sections, consisting of 109 features and 60 shorts.
16 films will compete in the international competition,...
Swiss genre festival Neuchâtel Fantastic Film Festival (Nifff) has announced the programme for its 18th edition, held from July 6-14 this year.
The festival will open with the world premiere of web series Le 5e Cavalier, which won the Fantastic Web Contest at last year’s event. The closing film will be the Swiss premiere of animation Hotel Transylvania 3.
Scroll down for the full line-up
Across nine days the festival will screen over 150 films across 14 sections, consisting of 109 features and 60 shorts.
16 films will compete in the international competition,...
- 6/21/2018
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Until 15 years ago or so, zombie cinema was still a fairly narrow subgenre. These days, however, it seems to be one size that fits all — or at least is stretched to fit every other genre, from comedy to romance to globe-trotting action, with the occasional traditional gorefest thrown in for old time’s sake.
Whether it’s really well suited to a drama about child abuse is something viewers of “The Dark” will have to decide for themselves, though perhaps the better questions are: Did we even need to find out? Aren’t there (many) better ways of approaching such a difficult theme than via a shotgun marriage with horror conventions? On its own terms, writer-director Justin P. Lange’s debut feature (with Dp Klemens Hufnagl credited as co-director) is well-crafted and well-acted. But in trying to succeed as something both metaphorical and very literal-minded, the movie ends up being...
Whether it’s really well suited to a drama about child abuse is something viewers of “The Dark” will have to decide for themselves, though perhaps the better questions are: Did we even need to find out? Aren’t there (many) better ways of approaching such a difficult theme than via a shotgun marriage with horror conventions? On its own terms, writer-director Justin P. Lange’s debut feature (with Dp Klemens Hufnagl credited as co-director) is well-crafted and well-acted. But in trying to succeed as something both metaphorical and very literal-minded, the movie ends up being...
- 4/28/2018
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
Handling domestic sales for The Dark, Xyz Films has revealed a new set of stills from the horror film about an undead girl with a haunted past.
Press Release: Los Angeles-based Xyz Films has announced that they will handle domestic sales rights to The Dark, the debut arthouse horror film from writer/director Justin P. Lange. The film was lensed and co-directed by cinematographer Klemens Hufnagl, and was inspired by Lange’s Columbia University thesis short film of the same name. The Xyz Films announcement comes right after this year’s ‘Frontières Goes to Cannes’ buyers’ showcase, a part of the Marché du Film where the producers screened 15 minutes of the work-in-progress.
The Dark is produced by Danny Krausz and Kurt Stocker at Vienna-based Dor Film, joined by Laura Perlmutter and Andrew Nicholas McCann Smith at Toronto-based First Love Films. Florian Krügel takes an executive producer credit.
The film stars...
Press Release: Los Angeles-based Xyz Films has announced that they will handle domestic sales rights to The Dark, the debut arthouse horror film from writer/director Justin P. Lange. The film was lensed and co-directed by cinematographer Klemens Hufnagl, and was inspired by Lange’s Columbia University thesis short film of the same name. The Xyz Films announcement comes right after this year’s ‘Frontières Goes to Cannes’ buyers’ showcase, a part of the Marché du Film where the producers screened 15 minutes of the work-in-progress.
The Dark is produced by Danny Krausz and Kurt Stocker at Vienna-based Dor Film, joined by Laura Perlmutter and Andrew Nicholas McCann Smith at Toronto-based First Love Films. Florian Krügel takes an executive producer credit.
The film stars...
- 6/20/2017
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Exclusive: Footage screened in Cannes buyers showcase.
Los Angeles-based Xyz Films has swooped on Us sales rights to Justin P. Lange’s horror project The Dark after 15 minutes of footage screened at the Cannes Marché last month.
Lange’s feature directorial debut took part in the Frontières Goes To Cannes buyers showcase and tells of a flesh-eating undead girl who haunts a stretch of woods where she was murdered. Years later she befriends a kidnapped blind boy who changes her life.
The Dark (see first-look photo) is based on Lange’s Columbia University thesis short film of the same name and shot in Northern Ontario, Canada, with the support of the Austrian Film Institute, the Orf Film/Television-Agreement and the Nohfc.
Nadia Alexander and Toby Nichols star alongside Austria’s Karl Markovics, the lead in Austria’s 2008 foreign-language Oscar winner The Counterfeiters who also starred in The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Danny Krausz and [link...
Los Angeles-based Xyz Films has swooped on Us sales rights to Justin P. Lange’s horror project The Dark after 15 minutes of footage screened at the Cannes Marché last month.
Lange’s feature directorial debut took part in the Frontières Goes To Cannes buyers showcase and tells of a flesh-eating undead girl who haunts a stretch of woods where she was murdered. Years later she befriends a kidnapped blind boy who changes her life.
The Dark (see first-look photo) is based on Lange’s Columbia University thesis short film of the same name and shot in Northern Ontario, Canada, with the support of the Austrian Film Institute, the Orf Film/Television-Agreement and the Nohfc.
Nadia Alexander and Toby Nichols star alongside Austria’s Karl Markovics, the lead in Austria’s 2008 foreign-language Oscar winner The Counterfeiters who also starred in The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Danny Krausz and [link...
- 6/19/2017
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
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