AIDOL
In a futuristic gaming world, superstar pursues comeback. Geomancer sequel plays with ideas on AI, fame and the power of megacorporations.
83'
United Kingdom
IFFR 2020
Do people who try to kill themselves not want to live anymore? No, not at all, says the hotel employee in Shell and Joint, a woman who has made multiple attempts herself, including by jumping into a shark-infested sea. Deadly serious, she tells her colleague she blames it all on a bacteria that controls her mind.
Short-film maker Hirabayashi Isamu's feature film debut is full of these offbeat conversations. He portrays various characters at a Japanese capsule hotel in a series of absurdist sketches. One moment puppetry insects philosophise about death, the next a bunch of men discuss erections in the sauna. Hirabayashi uses tight, static framing, making everything extra surreal, and masterfully forges it into a fascinating whole that examines the distinction between man and insect and the thin line between existence and non-existence.
IFFR 2020
Programme IFFR 2020
Representing the cutting edge of contemporary feature-length filmmaking, a selection of emerging talent working with original subject matter and an individual style.
Read more about this programmeIn a futuristic gaming world, superstar pursues comeback. Geomancer sequel plays with ideas on AI, fame and the power of megacorporations.
83'
United Kingdom
IFFR 2020
Air conditioners mysteriously fall from buildings in the Angolan capital. Pleasantly free film with a great soundtrack.
72'
Angola
IFFR 2020
Entrancing underwater footage of cenotes, or holy springs, in Yucatan, Mexico. Long-lost memories echo in a hallucinatory game of light and dark.
75'
Japan
IFFR 2020