"I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians"
Idealistic theatre-maker discovers that not everyone wants to be reminded of Romania’s kick-off of the Holocaust.
140'
Romania
IFFR 2019
The atmosphere in The Mountain is so stunningly austere, thanks in part to the atonal, beseeching soundtrack, you start to think there’s a dark, evil universe lurking behind the orderly surface of the screen, poised to enter this world at any moment.
We experience this simmering threat through the eyes of young Andy, who is travelling with his disappeared mother’s former doctor, Dr Fiennes – a surprisingly restrained role by Jeff Goldblum. This neurologist asks the boy to accompany him as a photographer during operations. What follows is a journey through American psychiatric institutions of the 1950s, where Fiennes subjects women to lobotomies – a treatment already outmoded at that time. The Mountain, filmed in stark 4:3 framing, shows an ice-cold male world from which all forms of humanity are surgically removed. Including the small signs of life Andy occasionally dares to show. Grimly sober, tragically loveless.
IFFR 2019
Programme IFFR 2019
A harvest of outstanding features – the future classics of arthouse cinema.
Read more about this programmeIdealistic theatre-maker discovers that not everyone wants to be reminded of Romania’s kick-off of the Holocaust.
140'
Romania
IFFR 2019
Eight-part series based on the first of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels, a history of post-war Italy told through the fates of two young women who are best friends.
469'
Italy
IFFR 2019
At the age of 43, painter Javier Belmonte can no longer camouflage his fear of life and insecurity with bohemian bravura.
75'
Uruguay
IFFR 2019