Disruptors
Maverick filmmakers of cinema’s past and present. Disruption comes in many forms, but one thing is sure: demands to conform are not welcome here.
Explore our complementary ‘Disruptors’ Cork Film Trail at five locations in Cork City, based on the themes of rebels and mavericks in this strand along with a special tribute to Cork’s own musical hero, Rory Gallagher. Sponsored by Murphy’s and supported by Cork City Council.
2024 Programme
FOTOGENICO
Subtitled, Fiction
Raoul arrives in Marseille where he is not welcome with open arms: none of the names and addresses that his daughter Agnès had given him are a match. The only thing that feels real is the album she recorded, but her band split up. By diving into the ruckus of Agnès’s life, what is he rushing to exactly?
Disruptors to the core, filmmaking duo Marcia Romano and Benoît Sabatier take us on a roller-coaster ride of amazement, laughter, madness almost but, most reliably, care and respect for their wonderful lead and his sense of humour in the face of adversity.
Director Benoît Sabatier and Actor Christophe Paou will attend the screening and participate in a post-screening Q&A hosted by Aurélie Godet, Director of Programming.
Celebrate the closing week-end of CIFF in music with Fotogenico director Benoît Sabatier and actor Christophe Paou after the film at the Festival Club.
Benoît Sabatier will also introduce the screening of Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains.
SAT 16 | TRISKEL | 20:00
LADIES & GENTLEMEN: THE FABULOUS STAINS
Fiction
Disaffected teen Corrine Burns becomes a minor celebrity after an outburst on a local television network. After plugging her band The Stains, consisting of her sister and cousin, she lands them a support slot on a tour with a has-been metal band and a young British punk group. But when Corrine’s confrontational behaviour gains more exposure on the TV network, the band unwittingly becomes role models for a generation of young girls.
The second directorial effort from producer Lou Adler (he also co-directed Cheech and Chong’s Up In Smoke) features early performances from Diane Lane and Laura Dern, and a punk band headed by a young Ray Winstone together with half the Sex Pistols and the bass player from The Clash. Largely unnoticed upon release, the film gradually found a fanbase on nighttime cable TV in the US, and went on to influence the instigators of the feminist Riot Grrrl music scene.
SUN 17 | ARC CINEMA | 18:30
MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO
Fiction
Mike Waters and Scott Favor are friends and street hustlers. Mike is sensitive, a child of a broken home, and suffers from narcolepsy, whereas Scott is the son of a wealthy politician, and turns tricks as an act of rebellion. The third film from director Gus Van Sant, My Own Private Idaho presents a 90s road trip laced with a Shakespearean iambic pentameter, and in casting the two biggest heartthrobs of their generation, River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves, he solidified the classic Generation X antihero image on celluloid, surrounding its two stars with icons of cult cinema such as Udo Kier, Grace Zabriskie and William Richert.
The stars of Van Sant and Reeves have continued to ascend, whereas Phoenix died tragically a couple of years after the film was released, leaving us with the promise of what could have been, and this heartbreaking performance.
SAT 16 | ARC CINEMA | 14:15
SERIAL MOM
Fiction
Picture-perfect mom Beverly Sutphin (played with glorious gusto by Kathleen Turner) will stop at nothing to prevent any disruptions to her daily suburban life, even if it means leaving a trail of bodies in her well-recycled wake. Supposedly based on true events, ‘King of Trash’ John Waters dishes up a hilarious and prescient satirical look at serial killer fandom, with a dream supporting cast including Ricki Lake, Sam Waterston and Matthew Lillard, plus appearances from kidnap victim turned revolutionary Patty Hearst, TV star Suzanne Somers, and Waters regular, the great Mink Stole
FRI 15 | TRISKEL | 20:30
THE SEVERED SUN
Fiction
Margaret ‘Magpie’ Edwards is part of an isolated religious community, the daughter of The Pastor – a strict man with ideals as unwavering as his commitment to punishment. When Magpie shocks everyone by murdering her abusive husband, she awakens a dark, malevolent and ancient force in the forest which sends fear and paranoia throughout the devout flock as it craves the blood of wrongdoers.
A folk horror steeped in the tradition of the genre but as fresh as the bloody wounds inflicted during its runtime, The Severed Sun is the debut feature from writer-director Dean Puckett, and boasts suitably unnerving performances from Emma Appleton (Lola), Toby Stephens (Die Another Day) and Jodhi May (The Last of the Mohicans, The Witcher).
SUN 10 | TRISKEL | 20:30
TOXIC
Subtitled | Fiction
Marija and Kristina, two 13-year-old young teens, want to escape their industrial Lithuanian hometown. Marija is tall, quiet, and walks with a limp, whereas Kristina is small and fierce. A glimmer of hope comes in the form of a local modelling academy with big promises and grim premises, and the two form an unlikely alliance amidst the bitchy comments of their fellow academy hopefuls. As their friendship grows, so does their social standing, but can their unorthodox attempts to meet the academy’s gruelling physical standards end well?
The debut feature from writer-director Saulė Bliuvaitė, the film is unflinching in its look at the lengths young people will go to in searching for a bright future. Gritty, snappy, and firmly in disruptor territory, Toxic was the deserving winner of both the Golden Leopard and the First Feature Award at this years’ Locarno Film Festival.
SAT 9 | ARC CINEMA | 20:45
FRI 15 | ARC CINEMA | 15:30
THE VISITOR
Fiction
A refugee emerges naked from a mysterious suitcase washed up on the banks of the River Thames, one of several identical men appearing across London. Disguised as a homeless man, he befriends the maid at a palatial house, and is soon employed as a servant by the property’s owners, a white upper-class family. Gradually, the man proceeds to seduce each member of the household one by one, giving them a sexual and spiritual awakening that will change their lives forever. The latest film from queer cinema’s master disruptor, Bruce LaBruce (The Raspberry Reich), this reimagining of Pasolini’s Teorema is a politically charged explosion of personal and sexual freedom, which contains strobing images, intensely explicit scenes of real sex, and lots of sheer joy throughout.
Warning: sexually explicit
FRI 8 | TRISKEL | 21:30
WITHNAIL & I
Fiction
At the tail-end of the sixties, two out-of-work actors, Withnail and his flatmate ‘I’, (career defining performances from Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann respectively) decide over several alcoholic beverages to escape the city and spend a delightful weekend in the country at a small cottage owned by Withnail’s uncle, Montague (Richard Griffiths). Desperately unprepared, the hapless duo embark on what has since become one of the most quotable depictions of a vacation on film, thanks to the exquisite wordplay of writer/director Bruce Robinson. Partly based on Robinson’s own experiences as a young actor, and brought to the screen with zero compromise, never has unemployment, squalor and human tragedy been so gut-achingly hilarious.
Bruce Robinson will attend and will receive before the screening the first ever Honorary Disruptor Award, which will be presented to him by a very special guest.
TUE 12 | TRISKEL | 20:30
