Late into Bianca Lucas’ feature debut, a character ventures a few verses: “Listen to the moan of a dog for its master / That whining is the connection / There are love dogs no one knows the names of / Give your life to be one of them.” Lucas does not reveal the author; the character, Beck (Becca Begnaud), says she forgot who the words belong to. As a matter of fact, they’re the final lines of 13th-century Persian poet Rumi’s Love Dogs, the poem that lends this sorrowful meditation its title and cumulatively cathartic power. Like Rumi’s text, which unfurls as a plea to find meaning and solace in sadness, Love Dog follows a man trying to process and survive an unimaginable loss. It’s that rare film that manages to be both unbearably vivid in its depiction of grief and resolutely immune to misery porn. There are scenes...
- 5/1/2023
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
Italy-based sales agent Lights On has acquired world rights for “Mammalia” by Romanian director Sebastian Mihăilescu, ahead of its world premiere in the Berlinale Forum strand. It has debuted the film’s trailer (below).
In “Mammalia,” 39-year-old Camil (István Téglás) embarks on a dreamlike trip where the banal and the surreal merge. Struggling to come to terms with losing control – of his work, his social status, his relationship – Camil sets off on a search that leads him to question the basis of his identity as a man. He pursues his girlfriend (Mălina Manovici) into an increasingly bizarre and disturbing world of community and ritual before being confronted by a tragi-comic role-reversal that leads us to question everything.
Mihăilescu comments: “The film satirizes the way that classic binary gender roles are often rigidly defined in society, and it highlights the performative nature of gender identity, emphasizing the ways in which, by assuming our gendered role,...
In “Mammalia,” 39-year-old Camil (István Téglás) embarks on a dreamlike trip where the banal and the surreal merge. Struggling to come to terms with losing control – of his work, his social status, his relationship – Camil sets off on a search that leads him to question the basis of his identity as a man. He pursues his girlfriend (Mălina Manovici) into an increasingly bizarre and disturbing world of community and ritual before being confronted by a tragi-comic role-reversal that leads us to question everything.
Mihăilescu comments: “The film satirizes the way that classic binary gender roles are often rigidly defined in society, and it highlights the performative nature of gender identity, emphasizing the ways in which, by assuming our gendered role,...
- 1/26/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Love Dog Review — Love Dog (2022) Film Review from the 75th Annual Locarno Film Festival, a movie directed by Bianca Lucas, written by Lucas and John Dicks, starring Dicks, Becca Begnaud, Brooke Keel Bullock, Tj Tarver, Corinne Bordelon, and Ernie Schaeffer. The saddest thing about life can be its own resilience. It keeps moving even when we [...]
Continue reading: Film Review: Love Dog: A Familiar but Earnest Portrayal of Loss [Locarno 2022]...
Continue reading: Film Review: Love Dog: A Familiar but Earnest Portrayal of Loss [Locarno 2022]...
- 8/26/2022
- by Jacob Mouradian
- Film-Book
Julia Murat’s film is second from Brazil to win festival’s top honour.
The Golden Leopard at Locarno Film Festival’s 75th anniversary edition (August 3-13) has gone to Julia Murat’s Rule 34 (Regra 34), which had its world premiere in the Swiss festival’s international competition.
The award includes a cash prize of Chf 75,000 to be shared equally between the film’s director and producer.
Rule 34 is the story of a young law student whose sexual desires lead her into a world of violence and eroticism. It was part of the 2019 Berlinale Co-Production Market and last year received...
The Golden Leopard at Locarno Film Festival’s 75th anniversary edition (August 3-13) has gone to Julia Murat’s Rule 34 (Regra 34), which had its world premiere in the Swiss festival’s international competition.
The award includes a cash prize of Chf 75,000 to be shared equally between the film’s director and producer.
Rule 34 is the story of a young law student whose sexual desires lead her into a world of violence and eroticism. It was part of the 2019 Berlinale Co-Production Market and last year received...
- 8/13/2022
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Bianca Lucas’ “Love Dog” has debuted its trailer ahead of its world premiere at Locarno Film Festival in Concorso Cineasti del Presente. Lights On has bought international sales rights.
The film centers on John who – after finishing a job on a Texas oil rig – returns to his home town in Mississippi, where he will confront not only his own repressed trauma, but that of a society grieving dying American myths.
In a statement, Lucas said: “‘Love Dog’ is about the personal and collective process of grief, repression of trauma, and their repercussions in our everyday lives. About the breakdown of a mythicized American identity, and the universal ways in which truth, love and reckoning might break generational cycles of violence and emotional pain. It is about mourning, and learning how to live and love – not just function – in the midst of our ghosts.”
The producers are Lucas and Joaquín del Paso...
The film centers on John who – after finishing a job on a Texas oil rig – returns to his home town in Mississippi, where he will confront not only his own repressed trauma, but that of a society grieving dying American myths.
In a statement, Lucas said: “‘Love Dog’ is about the personal and collective process of grief, repression of trauma, and their repercussions in our everyday lives. About the breakdown of a mythicized American identity, and the universal ways in which truth, love and reckoning might break generational cycles of violence and emotional pain. It is about mourning, and learning how to live and love – not just function – in the midst of our ghosts.”
The producers are Lucas and Joaquín del Paso...
- 7/21/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
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