Metal Noir introduces sci-fi movies and hard-boiled thrillers that seize dazzling imagination and styles. Metal Noir will freeze your brain and leave a deep scar in the heart of the audience with cold and fearful blades.
Presenting his most active artistic endeavors to date, Singaporean director Anthony Chen's film Drift thoroughly observes the daily life of an African refugee woman returning to Europe with a traumatic past. The film highlights the director's ability to convey the weight of emotions through poised direction and compelling performances. Girl Unknown probes the complex power dynamics between a middle-aged man and a young woman who meet through an online chat platform notorious for prevalent sexual exploitation, followed by unexpected twists and turns. The film offers a fresh perspective on sensitive issues such as gender dynamics and sexual psychology. Inside explores the story of a high-tech art thief who accidentally gets trapped in a Manhattan penthouse due to a system malfunction, offering a poignant reflection on the issue of isolation that extends beyond the unique interpretation of the pandemic. David Jonana, who has been active as a producer alongside Michel Franco, presents his second feature film, Heroic, which keenly examines the violent system experienced by young men who enroll in a military academy, dreaming of a better future.
A noir revenge tale, Kennedy, by renowned filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, comes to BIFAN. Kashyap has been invited to BIFAN three times, including the MIFF Award for Best Asian Film, and Kennedy was screened for the Midnight Screenings at Cannes Film Festival this year. Highly acclaimed with his previous short, New York-based Indian director Sudeep Kanwal's feature debut, Privacy, will make its world premiere. Depicting the aspirations for social climbing and the struggles of youth entangled in a gaming realm, The Up Rank is directed by Kulp Kaljareuk in collaboration with newcomer Vathanyu Ingkavivat. Kaljareuk visited BIFAN for his film Hong Hun in 2014. Zaman Dark is a gloomy political allegory set in his native Lebanon by Christophe Karabache, who gained recognition in Paris with his fantasy and experimental works.
This year's English-language selections include two directorial feature debuts: Divinity, a mind-melting dystopian sci-fi about a mad scientist and his desire for eternal life, which parallels today's consumerism-conscious world, and Monolith, a low-budget yet highly effective psycho-thriller from Australia on an investigative podcast, where conspiracy and misinformation can result in one's complete mental breakdown. Also included is Joe Lynch's provocative Suitable Flesh, based on an H.P. Lovecraft tale of body swap and lust and starring Heather Graham.