Rotterdam at its broadest. The festival selects topical, powerful and innovative work from all corners of the world, from veterans to less well-known directors.
Spectrum comprises work by experienced film makers and artists who provide, in the opinion of the IFFR, an essential contribution to international film culture. Spectrum brings together highlights of the film year, new work by prominent auteurs and topical, strong and innovative films by accomplished filmmakers. Closely linked to Bright Future, Spectrum sets a high quality standard in substance and style.
WORLD PREMIERES IN SPECTRUM
Content (Chris Petit, United Kingdom/Germany)
Thirty years ago, Chris Petit directed Radio On, now considered a road movie cult classic. His latest film, Content, is an ambient 21st-century road movie, an associative film essay inspired by driving’s trancelike state rather than any linear unfolding of the road.
Do It Again (Robert Patton-Spruill, United States)
In order to conquer his midlife crisis, the committed pop journalist Geoff Edgers decides to pursue his dream: to bring back together the British band The Kinks, who had major hits in the 1960s with Lola and You Really Got Me. With performances by Sting, Paul Weller and Peter Buck.
In the Woods (Angelos Frantzis, Greece)
Three young people - a woman and two men - roam in the overwhelming nature through forests and over hills. The trio investigates mutual relations and sexual predilections, encouraged by the ubiquitous elements. Artistic film that makes our Dionysian roots tangible.
Red White & Blue (Simon Rumley, United Kingdom/United States)
The gruesome shadow side of the kindness of strangers. An initially natural portrait of the cool and promiscuous Erica from Austin turns into an intense film of revenge. By the British director of The Living and the Dead.
Refrains Happen Like Revolutions in a Song (John Torres, Philippines)
John Torres films fragments and diaries. He set off and looked at his own country, the land outside the city, like an alien. He posed questions to himself about grand themes such as inequality and colonialism, but kept it personal. Read along with his diary.
Reincarnate (Thunska Pansittivorakul, Thailand)
In separate sketches, Thunska Pansittivorakul shows the homosexual love between a teacher and pupil more explicitly than ever. Several cryptic scenes refer to the oppressive Thai political situation. A clear reaction to the new law that subjected his previous film, This Area Is Under Quarantine (2009), to censorship.
Stone is the Earth (Mes de Guzman, Philippines)
Topical issue wrapped in a small family story: on the day when Vergel returns from the mines, the calm life of his little brothers and his sister is disrupted. When gold is then found on their agricultural land, his caring slowly changes to greed.
Todo, en fin, el silencio lo ocupaba
(Nicolás Pereda, Mexico, Canada)
Carefully shot in black and white, All Things Were Now Overtaken by Silence is a meditation on the filming of a strange play, a fascinating monologue by actress, director, performance artist and political activist Jesusa Rodriguez of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz’s poem First I Dream.
Meat (Maartje Seyferth, Victor Nieuwenhuijs, Netherlands)
It only looks like a normal butcher's shop at the beginning, but it soon becomes apparent that the meat has a gruesome aspect. The butcher has his perverse fantasies and the butcher's girl doesn't seem to step aside. Titus Muizelaar plays the butcher, Nellie Benner the unflinching butcher's girl.
The Aviatrix of Kazbek (Ineke Smits, Nederland)
During the Second World War, the arrival of Russian soldiers offers a way out for the dreamer Marie on the Dutch island of Texel. She flees the suffocating island conservatism thanks to music, magic realism and the Soviet musical The Aviatrix of Kazbek (with a leading role for Anamaria Marinca, well-known from 4 maanden, 3 weken en 2 dagen).