Alipato: The Very Brief Life of an Ember
88'
Germany
IFFR 2017
In Paris, a motley group of young people engineer a deadly plan to spread shock and awe in the city. Each plays their own role. Then they all hide in a department store, a symbol of the consumerist society they are attacking.
Nocturama is one of the best French films of 2016, an impressive action film where the characters play a fascinating, wordless choreography of gestures, whether planting a bomb or traveling in the metro; a feverish dream straight from a Bret Easton Ellis novel (looking at times like an unofficial adaptation of Ellis’s Glamorama). Nocturama is not about religious or political extremism, however – leaving a void that will surely provoke the audience. After House of Tolerance (2011) and Saint Laurent (2014), Bonello delivers another beautiful experiment on melancholy, moods, texture and non-linear time. The 'non-political' hole in the film is the abyss the characters gaze into with a sense of wonder and terror.
With a special screening on Wednesday 1 February at 15:30, followed by an interview with director Bertrand Bonello.
IFFR 2017