Life can bring us to critical situations that force us to reflect on them. We look for ways out, both metaphorically and literally, just like the protagonists of this year's film selection. Monkey Man searches underground for the Boy he once lost, his way out is redemption. Desperate Isaac is trapped in a haunted house and deep-rooted trauma.
The only way out is to face the traumatic memory head-on. Teenager Sarah escapes nightmares, finding herself in the dark world of the subconscious, and paradoxically, by delving deeper and deeper into it, she seeks a way out. The punk band The Ain’t Rights, by a stupid coincidence, finds themselves in a situation where the only way out is a bloody confrontation with racist evil. Paul Chartier, a rookie idealist policeman, gets tangled in the web of his own obsession with the case and can only escape by sacrificing absolutely everything. The temporary residents of a mysterious villa in the Italian countryside came here with the vision of a way out of their messed-up lives. However, not every way out can be the right one. (Rastislav Steranka)
Warning / Caveat (UK, 2020)
Directed by: Damian Mc Carthy
Isaac the bison desperately needs money. A local offers him a job – looking after his niece Olga for the weekend. Easy money. But there's a catch. Olga lives in an isolated house on a small island, accessible only by boat. In the house, Isaac must wear a leather harness and chains that restrict his movement to certain rooms, all to protect Olga's extremely fragile mental state. Olga gradually begins to behave unpredictably. Isaac is trapped in the house. The only way out is to face his deep-seated trauma head-on.
The Complex Forms (Italy, 2023)
Directed by: Fabio D’Orta
Deep in the woods of the Italian countryside stands an ancient villa. Desperate souls, whose daily lives have hit a dead end, come here. The villa offers a way out. In exchange for a good sum of money, its inhabitants rent out their physical shells to mysterious beings for an agreed period. When giant, ancient creatures emerge from the deep woods after a long and seemingly peaceful wait, a series of strange and sinister events forces three unlikely allies to join forces and find a way out.
Come True (Canada, 2020)
Directed by: Anthony Scott Burns
Teenage girl Sarah is having problems at school. She has run away from home and sleeps outdoors in a children's playground. She is plagued by dark dreams. One day she stumbles upon an advertisement seeking volunteers for a university sleep study. The offer sounds appealing: comfortable and safe monitored sleep. Hoping to escape her bad dreams, Sarah unwittingly becomes a conduit for new, terrifying discoveries. Instead of relief, her nightmares worsen, disturbing visions bleeding from dreams into wakefulness. The scientific research transforms into a harrowing journey deep into the dark subconscious. She must find a way out of this surreal and increasingly terrifying dream world.
Maldoror (Belgium/France, 2024)
Directed by: Fabrice du Welz
Paul Chartier is a young, impulsive, idealistic police rookie. After the disappearance of two young girls, he is assigned to the secret Maldoror police unit, which is monitoring a dangerous sexual offender suspected of rape, murder, and membership in an organised child sex ring. The investigation is hampered by bureaucracy, leading to tragedy. Disgusted by the limitations of the legal system, Paul embarks on a solitary hunt. He spares no one and nothing. Step by step, he descends into a personal hell of his own making, driven by obsession. There is only one way out: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Backstage / Green Room (USA, 2015)
Directed by: Jeremy Saulnier
The Ain't Rights, a four-piece punk band at the end of a disastrous concert tour, accepts a last-minute offer to play a gig at a club somewhere deep in the Oregon woods. When the band members accidentally witness a murder, they find themselves trapped backstage in the middle of a living nightmare: hopelessly outnumbered, they face an organized group of neo-Nazis determined to ruthlessly eliminate any witnesses. However, the armed and trained killers soon discover they are facing tougher fighters than they initially appeared. A bloody fight for survival becomes the only way out.
2551.03 – The End (Austria, 2025)
Directed by: Norbert Pfaffenbichler
Two years after the release of the first two parts of the „dystopian grotesque“ trilogy – 2551.01 Kid and 2551.02 Orgie zatratených (Orgies of the Damned) on Cinematik, in the third and final part, 2551.03 Koniec (The End), we return to the nightmare of bizarre masks, a perverted world without daylight, without hope. For years, the Monkey Man has roamed an underground labyrinth of corridors, sewers, bunkers, and dark cellars. He is searching for the Boy he once lost. The first part was purgatory, the second true hell, and now at last, a glimmer of hope for redemption appears. Hope for an end, daylight, and a way out.