Amphetamine
Is true love possible for those who are incapable but so desiring of it?
97'
Hong Kong
IFFR 2024
Once again drawing from a very personal place, Scud’s eighth film Apostles does away with a certain kind of nostalgia. As in Voyage (2012), Utopians (2016) and Thirty Years of Adonis (2017), Apostles reaches into the deep and dark crevices of the human mind to reflect on the meaning and value of life by exploring death and what comes after. Claiming to be an apostle of Socrates and Plato, a scholar forms a cult-like circuit of twelve beautiful young men in a secluded estate to pursue this quandary.
With a narrative organised more like a stream of fragmentary visual statements and thoughts, shuffling past, present and future, Apostles gnaws on religions, the concept of karma, ghosts and the afterlife – all of which also enter the game. Naked young men wander the estate, climb mountains, lose themselves in the woods, talk and participate in various rituals and mythic re-enactments that constitute a physical, emotional and sexual journey. In the end, the group must decide which apostle will get to experience death in the form of sacrifice. Herein the film steers true to its alternative title: ‘Platonic Death’, and to Scud's appetite for subversive, disturbing and still serenely beautiful films.
– kijA
IFFR 2024
Programme IFFR 2024
When reflecting on Scud’s body of work Louboutin’s “Heels are pleasure with pain,” comes to mind – the two permeate all his films. Audacious, passionate, cruel, loving and consistently stubborn, Scud strips his soul by stripping beautiful men, leaving them naked and vulnerable, wandering between the realms of absolute pleasure, sensual daydreams and nightmares. As well as pondering the meaning and value of life, death and thereafter. With Naked Nations – Tribe Hong Kong, the Hong Kong artist provocateur says his goodbye to filmmaking, leaving behind ten stand-alone films that form one relentless and singular work of art.
Did you know that Scud is also joining us for a Talk this year? Find out more via the button below.
Read more about this programmeIs true love possible for those who are incapable but so desiring of it?
97'
Hong Kong
IFFR 2024
Apostles reflect on the meaning and value of life by exploring myth, karma and death.
82'
Hong Kong
IFFR 2024
A camp and subversive mosaic of love, sex, death and defiance from Hongkongese provocateur Scud.
89'
Hong Kong
IFFR 2024