'Lolo & Sosaku' The Western Archive
Sound artists Lolo & Sosaku become modern cowboys rummaging for sounds in the desert’s vastness.
66'
Spain
IFFR 2024
The opening images set a brooding tone: a man on foot, gazing at dark, scarcely inhabited mountains. He’s about to investigate a string of child disappearances and will soon cross paths with a woman looking into murders in the same, intensely secretive village. These intertwined cases keep turning up references to a horrific local legend, the supernatural “soul eater”. But wasn’t this just a myth parents used to scare the young?
Co-directors Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo (Inside, 2007) have a knack for mixing diverse sub-genres within the horror, thriller and fantastique realms. Here, adapting a popular novel by Alexis Laipsker, they skilfully manipulate a classic hesitation between differing interpretations of the unfolding, gruesome events: the result of psychosis or demonic possession?
Shot in the Vosges in Northeastern France – allowing an abandoned building, once a sanatorium, to play a major part – The Soul Eater plunges us into an oppressive atmosphere and explores all its implications. The casting is especially diverting: Paul Hamy, well known for his work with F.J. Ossang and João Pedro Rodrigues, shares the screen with Virginie Ledoyen and Sandrine Bonnaire.
– Adrian Martin
Julien Maury, Alexandre Bustillo
IFFR 2024
Programme IFFR 2024
Echoing Rotterdam’s port city identity, Harbour offers a safe haven to the full range of contemporary cinema that the festival champions.
Read more about this programmeSound artists Lolo & Sosaku become modern cowboys rummaging for sounds in the desert’s vastness.
66'
Spain
IFFR 2024
A candid grassroots record of the non-violent protests against India’s controversial farm laws.
151'
India
IFFR 2024
Kung Fu masters, slingshot gangs and French mercenaries battle it out in a vigorous actioner.
108'
China
IFFR 2024