Phoenix – Evgeny Gusyatinskiy

“That wine is bad but takes away the bitter spaghetti taste”. This is the director’s statement of Bram Droulers. Not only is it the most unconventional director’s statement I’ve read in many years but it also does give a key to Phoenix, amplifying its playfulness and melancholy.

When asked about the Bright Future section, programmers of IFFR tend to say that it is about young talents, bold voices, edgy narratives and new stylistic approaches. All true, however it does not happen regularly when a BF film embodies those qualities in a very literal and almost tangible way.

Phoenix freely and curiously explores everything it is made of – from different film styles and references to DIY and post-internet aesthetics to post-gender identity and sexuality. It’s also immediately clear that Bram Droulers, who is equally a filmmaker, a musician, an actor and a writer, renders film as a fluid interdisciplinary medium on the crossover of cinema, contemporary (digital) art and social media.

His first mid-length documentary EXIT was about artist Laure Prouvost, whose radical mash-up images, along with bewildering texts have a visceral impact, talking to a viewer directly. Rooted in now, Phoenix – a story of love and rebellion – unabashedly talks to us face to face as well, in a personal, ironic and serious manner that perhaps only a true inexhaustible youth can allow.

Written by Evgeny Gusyatinskiy