Alipato: The Very Brief Life of an Ember
88'
Germany
IFFR 2017
Some forty years ago, the punk movement emerged in England among disaffected youth suffering an economic crisis, unemployment and disillusionment. What if that also now affects millennials? Generation B imagines a dystopia where Belgium has lost Standard and Poor’s cherished A rating, downgraded to a shameful B. But baby-boomers desperately want to cling onto their remaining privileges, leaving the young literally begging for jobs and sleeping on the street.
In Brussels, Jonas struggles to get his life together and his girlfriend back. He then meets strange characters who quietly prepare a revolution against their elders. Stand-up comedian Joost Vandecasteele mocks the generation gap, consumerism and apathetic millennials. His ragtag and proto-punk world is painfully plausible. Channelling his anger means not joining a rock band but a call-centre where others want to humiliate you — old-fashioned rebellion has morphed into a mix of neurotic resignation and comic action.
IFFR 2017