DEMON Director Profile: 5 Questions for Marcin Wrona

Marcin Wrona is an extremely strong presence in the European entertainment industry, with experience in film, theatre and television directing, as well as screenwriting and producing. He first gained notoriety in film school for his short film Magnet Man, which was featured in several film festivals and highly decorated in its festival circuit. His latest feature film Demon follows an encounter with a dybbuk, which is a demonic entity that has its roots as a part of Jewish folklore. This film promises to be an unsettling and provocative inclusion to the TIFF alumni, making it a perfect fit for Vanguard.

I got the chance to chat with Wrona about his work with Demon, and get a little glimpse into his beliefs as a filmmaker.

Richelle Charkot: Where did you first learn about the story of the dybbuk? What were your thoughts? 

Marcin Wrona:  Dybbuk is part of our past, culture and history. It belonged to beliefs of Jewish communities, which used to lived Poland. Dybbuk was present in the Polish culture and theatre (famous theatre play called "Dybbuk" written by Szymon An-sky in 1914 - as a kind of scary version of Romeo and Juliet) - as a mystical phenomenon and powerful metaphoric symbol of love between life and death, soul and mind, the past and now. Few years ago I began thinking what the dybbuk could be like in nowadays. I thought this is was a great idea for a film: a ghost from the past comes back to a Polish wedding, as a provocative and uninvited guest who forces all the guest to confront with their own identity. The past that can't be forgotten and erased, because is a part of our DNA.

RC: Tell me about one of your earliest memories with expressing yourself visually. 

MW: In my early school years I had obligatory visit at psychologist who was checking how a child is skilled, what are he's natural preferences and what type of mind he has, etc. I remember I had a task given: draw something what you like. I said I like to draw, especially people faces. I also remember when in my primary school I wrote a short story about plants that talk to each other. Our class teacher suspected I had rewritten it from a novel.

RC: Why do you think humans are attracted to horror and the macabre? 

MW: I think watching a horror is like touching a primal fear. People need that kind of feeling, same like having fun. We look for different emotion so that create our emotional system and scale. I like horrors that offer more than just simple, pure fear. That's way I added more cross-genere elements to Demon.  It starts like pure genre, and than gradually becomes multilevel. I hope audience will get that vibe.

RC: From your perspective as a storyteller, do you enjoy making typically darker films? 

MW: Not really. Obviously dark stories seem to be more tempting, but each story has different temperature and mood, so a genre you use for your film depends on energy of a plot and relationships between characters. Everything begins with a story, and then consequently you decide what genre is the most suitable for that specific plot you will finally put info a cinematic frame. The main idea (core of the story) starts all the narrative elements, which are just tools; the director decides which of them are the best for the story you want to share with audience. In every sad stories I look for funny moments. In light I search darkness. The contradictions build a conflict - and viewer interest.


RC: Describe someone who is the ideal audience for Demon. 

MW: I would love to people will perceive Demon as a film which contains universal elements for international and local audience. I hope the concept itself is interesting enough for genre lovers, critics, and those who simply love cinema. Those who like cross-genre films should be especially satisfied.

DEMON screens:
Fri, Sept 11, 6:15 PM BLOOR HOT DOCS
Sun, Sept 13, 4:15 PM SCOTIABANK
Sat, Sept 19, 9:15 PM SCOTIABANK

EVOLUTION: Interview with Director Lucile Hadžihalilović

Evolution director Lucile Hadžihalilović was kind enough to answer some questions in advance of the Vanguard premiere. She talks about some of the influences on the film, Narciso Ibañez Serrador, Giorgio de Chirico, collaboration, the challenges of filming underwater, and the movement of weeds in the current.

Carol Borden: In interviews discussing your previous feature, Innocence, you've mentioned Frank Wedekind's "Mine-Haha," Peter Weir's Picnic At Hanging Rock, and Magritte as influences and references. Who or what are some of the references and influences on Evolution?

Lucile Hadžihalilović: I didn’t have any particular film in mind, apart from Narciso Ibañez Serrador’s Island of the Damned (aka, Who Can Kill a Child?) for its white village inhabited by children, as well as the idea of a dark but sunlit fairy tale.

When I had already written Evolution, I discovered Serrador’s lost TV drama Los Bulbos in which aliens introduce their ‘alien-worms’ into children’s bellies. I saw only two short extracts but I loved the soft magical-realist mood. I can say that Los Bulbos had a kind of “retrospective” influence on the film!

Less consciously, but with hindsight, I was clearly influenced by classic horror or sci-fi stories I read as a teenager - Lovecraft or Philip K Dick. For instance, Dick’s short story, “The Father-Thing”, in which a boy discovers that his father is not his real father, and is not even human.

Visually, I had the painter Giorgio de Chirico as a reference, for the enigmatic, sunlit southern European settings.

Also, with regard to the composition, certain Japanese films from the ’60s shot in Cinemascope – films by Wakamatsu or Teshigahara, or Nakagawa’s Jigoku.

Chirico. "Gare de Montparnasse (The Melancholy of Departure)." 1914.

CB: Your films have a really strong sense of a human relationship to and separation from nature and, perhaps connected, a strong sense of the relationship between/separation of male and female, adult and child. What do you find interesting or artistically inspiring in these semi-permeable barriers?

LH: I can see that that’s the case but it’s very hard for me to answer why.

I guess building up barriers is an attempt to put a bit of “order” in the world, to control it. It’s also a way to make visible the interactions between different human groups, or territories… When you remove one element from the environment, its absence reveals a lot. 

Since my films are usually “magical tales”, this defines more easily the challenges and trials that the characters have to go through.
 
CB: What was the process of writing the film with Alanté Kavaïté like?

LH: I had written a few versions of the script I wasn’t satisfied with when Alanté and I begun to work together. At first, she read different versions of the script, and made very sharp, deep and constructive comments. Little by little she got more involved in the writing/rewriting. Mostly, she helped me with the internal logic of this enclosed world. Thanks to her, I could build the right story to express the feelings and images I had in mind.

I also collaborated with Geoff Cox who has been a great reader and advisor throughout the years I’ve been developing Evolution.

CB: How did you come to work with cinematographer Manuel Dacosse in Evolution? And what were some of the challenges of filming underwater and underwater cinematography?

LH: I love the cinematography and the look of some of the films Manu Dacosse has shot: Amer and The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears by Cattet & Forzani. The use of colour and darkness and the sense of framing in those films are wonderful.

Before Evolution, I made a short film, Nectar, with Manu, and I could see he wasn’t afraid of challenges such as use of natural light and shooting very quickly!

As for filming underwater it was indeed quite a challenge!

We worked with an excellent underwater camera operator and long-time scuba diver from the Canary Islands, Rafael Herrero. He knew the seabed of the archipelago by heart and found the right underwater locations. He knew exactly at what time the sun would illuminate these spots, and the kind of flora that would be there. Manu and I gave him instructions so he could shoot images without actors. The difficulty – since he was used to filming documentaries – was to make him understand that we wanted a different visual grammar with long, steady shots, and that we weren’t looking for transparency or definition, but for cloudy water… that we wanted to capture a kind of abstraction through organic matter and movement.

As for the shots with the actors, one of the main difficulties was that we didn’t have any monitoring on the camera. So I had to swim underwater to try to check what the actors were doing, but I couldn’t see what was in the frame. After a few takes, we had to take the camera out of the water to unload the images to be able to watch them - and if necessary, to go back into the water for another take. The process took a lot of time!

Of course, the biggest difficulty was for the actors (especially for Max Brebant, the boy who plays Nicolas) because they had to stop breathing. It was also very hard for them to do the action and go from one point to another, because of the current. It was physically very challenging for them.

 

CB: There's a strong sense of movement in your films. Do you work with a choreographer? How do you design the movement of the characters? And did the underwater scenes in Evolution present new opportunities and challenges in choreographing movement?

LH: I wanted to work with a choreographer for the scene with the women on the beach because it was a ritual as well as a scene with a collective, alien mood. But because of budget and time restraints, I could only have someone to rehearse the extras the day we shot it. So I asked Gisele Vienne, an artist used to working with dancers and in whom I had total confidence, to help me. She understood perfectly what I was looking for and managed to train the women in a few hours to do the movements we imagined. We worked with women who practised yoga rather than with dancers because I didn’t want them to be too “expressive”.

As for the underwater scenes, it’s wonderful to see a human body moving in this world without gravity. Unfortunately we didn’t have much time to explore the possibilities of “aquatic ballet”, and it was very difficult for the actors to carry out any “action” as planned. Nevertheless we tried to choreograph the movements of Stella and the boy in the final underwater scene, where they had to be both synchronised and gracious…

I was also fascinated by the movement of the weeds in the current - they made visible in a perfect sensual and strange way the feelings and emotions I wanted to express.

Thanks again to Lucile Hadžihalilović for taking the time to answer my questions. 

EVOLUTION Screening Times:
Mon., Sept. 14, 9:30pm at RYERSON
Wed., Sept. 16, 4:30pm at BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA
Sun., Sept. 20,  8:30pm at TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX

THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY: 5 Question Interview with Director Peter Strickland

After astounding audiences with his tribute to giallo and foleying two years ago in Berberian Sound Studio, Peter Strickland returns to Vanguard this year with The Duke Of Burgundy, a film about the relationship between two women with conflicting desires and a shared interest in lepidoptery and entomology. Strickland was kind enough to answer a few questions. In this short interview, he talks about sound, the pressure to put on a persona, pheromonal perfume and mole crickets. ~ Carol Borden

Sound design played an integral role in Berberian Sound Studio and plays one again in The Duke Of Burgundy. What interests you about sound design and soundtracks in film, and how did you come to use insect sounds for The Duke Of Burgundy? 

There was a conscious effort to do something rigorous and defined for the sound design in Berberian Sound Studio. That approach would've felt frivolous had we done it for The Duke of Burgundy. Martin Pavey stripped a lot back for the sound mix. We probably put more time and thought into taking sounds away than in constructing anything. We tried to offer something sparse with air to breathe and most importantly, we didn't wish to draw attention to ourselves since sound was not the subject as it was with the previous film. But taking that into account, Martin is a highly inventive one-man show of a sound designer. He does the job of five people on any other film. We don't want to wow people with sound but we want to evoke a strong sense of place and feeling. Carefully looking for original field recordings to mix in with Rob Entwistle's work certainly helped. Certain animals were not available or on cue during the shoot, so we had to hunt down recordings of roe deer and scops owls during post production. I was very happy to include the wing sounds of Bombyx mori by Michael Prime (a member of Organum, one of my favourite bands).

I can't really explain my interest in sound and soundtracks. It's just something I naturally key into, though I greatly admire directors who resist soundtracks. It's all ultimately down to what most suitably serves the mood and subject of a film, whether that means no music or something incredibly lush. I came to use mole cricket sounds for The Duke of Burgundy because I put out a record of these in 2003 and couldn't sell any. I got tired of those boxes taking up so much space under my bed, thinking that if this film does well, I can finally sell those records. I'm kind of desperate to be honest and I'll be bringing a box with me to Toronto.

The Duke of Burgundy feels quite a bit like a lot of Lesbian literature, pulp melodrama and historical material from the 1930s and 1940s, while portraying a very emotionally believable relationship between two people. I was wondering what, if any, research you did and how it informed the film and your portrayal of Cynthia, Evelyn and their relationship. 

I didn't do much research. It's a completely artificial world which I wanted to exist on its own terms. In terms of the emotional resonance, that comes from somewhere or other. Just being a human, that side takes care of itself when writing. I didn't want to make a judgement either for or against BDSM nor did I want to send it up, but the practicalities of enacting any fantasy can be as ridiculous as the practicalities of doing foley work for a horror film. What I wanted to do was push the audience to a far point in terms of being able to relate to a sexual desire and almost lose them. But once the surprise at the lengths Evelyn will go to for her sexual kicks has gone, one can hopefully see what is at the crux of the film: how can compromise be reached between two lovers who have different intimate needs?

But research aside, I'm very fond of a lot of those euro sleaze films from the '70s, especially anything with Joe Dallesandro. My first meeting with Andy Starke was to do with remaking Jess Franco's Lorna the Exorcist. We ditched that idea but wanted to wade into that fantastical realm that Franco was notorious for. In some way, taking some core cues from Franco's films was a starting point for the script, but then with the process of writing it changed naturally into something else, though staying true to the sadomasochistic pulse of the majority of his work. The first proper job I ever had in the film industry was as an assistant on Bruce LaBruce's Skin Flick in 1998, so maybe something stuck.

Berberian Sound Studio explored the artifice of film, while showing the blurry line between reality and fantasy in people's lives. The Duke of Burgundy reveals the artifice necessary to make fantasy reality in the context of BDSM and, possibly, love. Is the relationship between people's inner and outer lives something you find particularly interesting? 

That's something I can only consider in hindsight. I wasn't really conscious of that when writing either script. What I found interesting from the films I had seen which explored different desires was that they rarely exposed the reality behind the fantasy. The dominant male or female is inherently so in these films. It seemed both more fun and truthful to peel off the ice queen mask and reveal an altogether different person - a reluctant dominatrix, which Sidse portrayed so vividly.  The ritualistic/repetitive aspect of the sexual role play is fascinating and you can manipulate that in a film as a means of altering one's perception of power, meaning and even time. The same words are repeated but with the accrued knowledge the audience have of the characters and their dynamic, the meaning is totally different. But ultimately, the most universal connection the film has is the pressure of putting on a persona. That's something that's always a demand on us in almost all aspects of our lives. 

Mole cricket via Listen To This Noise

The film is incredibly sensuous, not just visually and aurally, but appealing to senses less easily accessed by film. There are strong tactile elements, but I also noticed a perfume credited in the opening titles. Was it a scent worn by one of the actors? What role does it play in the film? 

That's a new perfume--je suis Gizella. She's an erstwhile javelin champion who had to take early retirement due to an in-growing toenail. The perfume is allegedly made from some clandestine serum but she won't divulge too much. It's quite pheromonal and was making a couple of the crew members too horny, which meant I had to confiscate the bottles.

Do you have a favorite insect or insect sound? 

It has to be the mole cricket. They're hated by golfers which gives them an instant thumbs up from me. I find them staggeringly beautiful even though they're probably the most elusive of insects. Also, the sound they make can be harsher than a Whitehouse record.

Thanks to Peter Strickland for taking time to answer my questions. And make sure you get a copy of his collection of mole cricket sounds! 

THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY screening times:

Saturday, Sept 6th 10:00 PM TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX 1
Monday, Sept 8th 3:15 PM SCOTIABANK 12

LUNA: 5 Question Interview with Director Dave McKean

Dave McKean works in many mediums--comics (most famously his covers for The Sandman); illustration; painting; collage, music, photography and film. Aside from his previous feature film, MirrorMask (2005), McKean has directed two shorts, N[eon] (2002) and The Week Before (1998). He directed the film adaptation of the National Theatre Wales' The Gospel Of Us (2012). He's done design for Harry Potter And The Wizard Of Azkaban (2004) and the titles for Neverwhere (1996). Now he brings Luna to TIFF.  McKean was kind enough to answer a few questions. ~ Carol Borden

Where some of your other films are quite stylized and, in the case of The Week Before, almost expressionist, Luna combines fantastic, expressionist and animated elements with more naturalistic ones. What are some of the challenges in blending the fantastic with the naturalistic?

I think it's easier to sustain a very stylized form of storytelling for a short film. I like stories that exist both in the naturalistic world and in our imaginative lives, films are so immersive in that sense, we can explore how our characters think and dream, as well as how they exist in the real world. I think it's very easy to just go down the rabbit hole, or through the door to Narnia or Oz. I'm interested in the parallel narrative of our fantasy lives, or as Dean puts in it Luna, our imaginative lives. How the moment of 'now' that is palpably real, is surrounded by our memories, our dreams and hopes, the stories and connections that our brains make as we navigate the world--a universe of fantasy, or unreality, or surreality. I'm keen to explore this very human experience, how our minds create our own realities--a blend of fact and interpretation of fact.

What do you think fantasy, surrealism and magical realism's strengths are in reflecting and understanding people's lives?

They function like a lens I think. They allow us to see our everyday joys, fears, dramas, tragedies, triumphs in terms or story, or even poetry. Our brains tend to join the dots, make connections. We create dramatic arcs by seeing the relationship between things, but this is our brains creating stories. So these associative images magnify and intensify our experience of the world. They create meaning.

As someone who's worked with illustration, painting, collage and photography, what are some of the differences for you in working with a moving medium rather than a static one?

In some ways they are very similar. I'm always thinking about story, and the development of ideas or images, so with all of these media, I'm simply trying to communicate the feelings and ideas in the story or characters in the most appropriate and effective way. Film gives me live actors, editing, music, sound, a huge and powerful toolbox to play with. If there is a problem for me, it is that film gives me too much. There is less room for the audience to add their side of the conversation. The reason I love comics is that they DON'T move, and there is NO sound. As a creator I have to evoke those elements in the drawings and writing, and the reader has to create those elements in their own minds. Reading a good comic is a creative act. Watching a film is often a more passive experience, and since I'm interested in engaging that conversational aspect of creativity, I'm trying to find ways of achieving that in my films.

McKean working on the set of Luna

Does your illustration, collage and painting inform your filmmaking, and, if so, could you share how it does?

They all talk to each other. Sometimes the things I learn making paintings or drawings--composition, colour, expressionism, texture--can directly influence the making of a film. Sometimes it's great that they are different, and simply taking a break from one medium to spend time with another, recharges the batteries and I feel refreshed.

Who are some of your favorite filmmakers and how have they influenced you?

So many--there are so many extraordinarily creative and brilliant technicians and actors working in the field. The filmmakers I really love are the ones that let me look through their eyes for a while. they have an aesthetic and social point of view. And there have been so many of these. I love the silent era because you can see the rules being written, the grammar of film being created. Murnau, Dreyer and Sjöström I love, as well as many of the Ufa films created in the 20's. Most of my films (all of them?) are in some way love letters to the silent era. I love directors and animators who take complete control of their film world; Svankmajer, Trnka, the Quays, Maddin, Lynch, Fellini. I love the great masters of time and landscape--Tarkovsky, Angelopoulos, Sokurov, Lopushansky. I remain a huge Woody Allen fan, despite the rough years. I love the group of truly modern filmmakers who have really got to grips with the digital realm; Jonze, Gondry, Glazer, Taymor. And I love Lars von Trier--he is, and I never use this word, a genius. I could go on for hours. Oh, and Bob Fosse--my favourite film is All That Jazz. Oh, and Michael Powell.

Okay, that will do.

LUNA screening times:

Sat., Sept. 6, The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema 6:30 PM
Mon., Sept. 8, AGO Jackman Hall 9:00 AM
Sun., Sept. 14, Scotiabank 9 8:45 PM

Indiewire Interviews Bruce LaBruce: GERONTOPHILIA

 One of my favorite movie websites, Indiewire, has just posted a great interview with Bruce LaBruce on his new film Gerontophilia. If our Twitter round up and LaBruce profile didn't make you want to see the movie, you must read this interview.

Here's an excerpt from the interview:

As it starts screening, what’s your dream reaction? What do you want people to take from this that would make you the happiest?

Part of the point of making it for me was to work in a more mainstream form and still try to be a little subversive, for lack of a better word. Because the film is so gentle and kind of straightforward the message is less obvious than my other films. So I hope that it works out both ways. That it works as more mainstream entertainment but also has a slightly radical message.

Read the rest of the interview on Indiewire. Gerontophilia has one more showing at the Festival.

GERONTOPHILIA Final Screening!

Friday, Sept 13th, 12:15 PM SCOTIABANK 3

WE GOTTA GET OUT OF THIS PLACE: Interview with Directors, The Hawkins Brothers

Last night Simon and Zeke Hawkins premiered their debut feature at the Toronto International Film Festival. With nods to the legendary pulp crime novelist Jim Thompson, We Gotta Get Out of This Place is a tense nouveau noir that follows three Texan teens who fall into debt with the wrong people.

We Gotta Get Out of This Place stars veteran character actor Mark Pellegrino (Supernatural, Lost, Being Human) and Mackenzie Davis, who is also in town this week with stars Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan for the premiere of the The F Word. Before the premiere of We Gotta Get Out of This Place on Saturday night, we were able to speak to the Hawkins brothers about Texas gangsters and The Godfather.

SJ: What is it like directing a film with your brother, especially given that this is both your feature film debut? 

Simon Hawkins, Zeke Hawkins: Making We Gotta Get Out of This Place together was very special. This is our first feature and we didn't write the original script. So, the hardest thing on this movie -- above all the intense practical struggles -- was just getting the team to consistently believe in us and, as an extension of that, to consistently believe in ourselves. Making this movie together -- with your brother, who would support you through anything -- was incredibly important and very special. 

SJ: How was it working with the elusive "Man in Black", Mark Pellegrino, who plays Giff? 

SH, ZH: Mark is an excellent actor. Zeke had worked with him on Capote. Even though Dick Hickock was a smaller part, it was clear on set that he was a special talent. So, when we started casting for Giff, Mark was always on our minds. And down in South Texas while filming, Mark blew us away -- even beyond our wildest expectations. We were so lucky to have him. He stayed in character pretty much all the time. He was terrifying and hilarious, but still able to bring this perverse humanity to Giff. Just the sheer amount of text he was memorizing on a daily basis was impressive. It was really our job just to get out of his way.  

SJ: I'm assuming you and your scriptwriter have read more than your fair share of Jim Thompson novels. Was he a major influence for your script? Any nods we should look out for? 

SH, ZH: Our writer, Dutch Southern, is a huge Jim Thompson fan. He has probably read all of Thompson's novels multiple times, and he's infused the script with many references. But we felt it was our job to separate the film from this a little bit. It was important to make sure we told a story that works on its own, and make a movie that works emotionally on its own, regardless of literary references. In the post-production process though, Simon has been reading a lot of Jim Thompson. "South of Heaven" is his favorite so far.  

SJ: What are your favourite film noirs? 

SH, ZH: We're not so good at thinking about genre. We mostly just love the movies we love. Fargo and Out of Sight are two of our favorites. We're not sure they'd classically be considered noirs, but we could make a case for it. 

SJ: Can you elaborate on how you met and worked with artist Sean Phillips for your poster campaign? 

SH, ZH: Sean Phillips lives in the UK, so, we've only talked with him over the phone and via email. We originally met him through Ed Brubaker, Sean's collaborator on the comic "Fatale." Ed is a close friend of our producer, Brian Udovich. We love our poster. We were lucky to work with Sean. 

SJ: I have to ask about The Godfather musical. Please share all for those who are not acquainted with this majesty. 

SH, ZH: Thank you for asking. "The Godfather Musical" is a series of comedic musical shorts that we've made over the years with our close friend Tom DiMenna. In each, we explore the final moments of a character's life from The Godfather through song. So far we've made three: "Ode to Fredo", "I'm Moe Greene!” and "Luca Brasi Sleeps with the Fishes”. In each one, our dad, Gator Hawkins, plays the assassin. You can find them on our Hawkins Brothers Funny or Die page. And if you watch We Gotta Get Out of This Place closely, you'll see that Tom DiMenna makes a brief cameo. 

SJ: What films are you looking forward to watching at the Festival this year? 

SH, ZH: Palo Alto; Shot by Autumn Durald. Movie looks amazing, and Autumn is a close friend of ours. She's also married to our cinematographer, Jeff Bierman. Joe; Co-produced by Alex Uhlmann. We're huge fans of David Gordon Green's movie All the Real Girls. We love Nicolas Cage, and Alex is a close friend of ours. He used to be Simon's roommate. The Green Inferno. We've seen their production still. Reasons for viewing are obvious.

Simon and Zeke Hawkins' We Gotta Get Out of This Place stars Mark Pellegrino and Mackenzie Davis, and premieres at this year's Toronto International Film Festival within the Vanguard programme. Further information about the film can be found on the TIFF website.
  

WE GOTTA GET OUT OF THIS PLACE Screening Times:

Sunday, Sept 8th, 4:00 PM SCOTIABANK 4

Sunday, Sept 15th, 9:00 PM SCOTIABANK 10

The Guardian Interviews BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO Director Peter Strickland

The Guardian profiles Berberian Sound Studio director Peter Strickland. Strickland talks about 1970s England (Dorking, in particular), Toby Jones, giallo cinema and the power of sound in film.

But while 70s Britain was glued to Dad's Army, in Italy directors such as Dario Argento were turning out the floridly stylised gialli whose zealous attention to music and costume Strickland would later relish. His own film is a riot of sly references to the underground cinema and music he admits being obsessed by (the title alludes to avant-garde singer Cathy Berberian). Yet despite what Strickland himself calls the "trainspotting", his story pushes in unexpected directions. With nods to the trials of freelance employment and workplace bullying, this oddball horror-art movie has a firmer grasp of working life than many sober slices of social realism.

Click through for more.

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO screening times:
Mon., Sept. 10, 6:00PM:  The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema
Tues., Sept. 11, 2:45:  Cineplex Yonge & Dundas 3