If there's one thing that the ongoing pandemic has reinforced for many people, it's the importance of human connection - and, beyond that, as we Zoom with our friends and relatives, the importance of physical touch. All of which makes Marteinn Thorsson's warm-spirited and humanistic drama - which includes its own hat-tip to Covid - a timely watch.
The Backyard Village of the title is a collection of Icelandic holiday lets - a place which, apparently, actually exists in the real world - where Brynja (Laufey Elíasdóttir) has decided to spend a couple of days after leaving a health spa and rehabilitation centre, reluctant to face what awaits her at home. Her time with her own thoughts is broken when British tourist Mark (Tim Plester) pops round in the hunt for paprika, an exchange which leads to the two of them sharing dinner.
While Brynja is the more obviously troubled by family events from.
The Backyard Village of the title is a collection of Icelandic holiday lets - a place which, apparently, actually exists in the real world - where Brynja (Laufey Elíasdóttir) has decided to spend a couple of days after leaving a health spa and rehabilitation centre, reluctant to face what awaits her at home. Her time with her own thoughts is broken when British tourist Mark (Tim Plester) pops round in the hunt for paprika, an exchange which leads to the two of them sharing dinner.
While Brynja is the more obviously troubled by family events from.
- 3/31/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Icelandic director’s fourth feature follows a woman reluctant to return to the city she lives in and taking lodgings in a small guesthouse. Marteinn Thorsson’s fourth feature, a drama entitled Backyard Village, is now ready for release. The Icelandic director’s previous credits include his debut feature One Point O, Stormland (2011) and Karlovy Vary award winner Xl (2013). The story of Backyard Village, penned by Guðmundur Óskarsson (here also serving as producer), revolves around a 40-year-old woman called Brynja (played by Laufey Elíasdóttir) who, after spending some time in a health spa in a small town, cannot bring herself to cross the heath separating her from the city she lives in, unwilling to meet her mother who has just returned to Iceland after leaving the family 35 years earlier. Brynja takes lodgings in a small guesthouse called Backyard Village, where she meets...
Haugesund’s New Nordic Films will run as a hybrid event Aug 18-21.
Isabella Eklof, the Danish director of Sundance 2018 selection Holiday and co-writer of Cannes 2018 award-winner Border, is presenting her new feature project Kalak as part of Haugesund’s New Nordic Films Co-Production Market (August 18-21).
This year’s hybrid event will see with some participants physically attend the event in Norway and others watching online films and presentations.
Scroll down for the full list
Kalak is Eklof’s second feature and is set in Greenland. It is about a man who tries to escape the demons of childhood...
Isabella Eklof, the Danish director of Sundance 2018 selection Holiday and co-writer of Cannes 2018 award-winner Border, is presenting her new feature project Kalak as part of Haugesund’s New Nordic Films Co-Production Market (August 18-21).
This year’s hybrid event will see with some participants physically attend the event in Norway and others watching online films and presentations.
Scroll down for the full list
Kalak is Eklof’s second feature and is set in Greenland. It is about a man who tries to escape the demons of childhood...
- 8/11/2020
- by 1100142¦Wendy Mitchell¦39¦
- ScreenDaily
Dr’s “When the Dust Settles,” Nrk’s “22. Juli” and Svt’s “Caliphate” will compete for 2020’s 4th Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize, as terrorism strikes to the heart of three of the five Nordic dramas nominated for the award for outstanding screenwriting announced at Sweden’s Göteborg.Film Festival on Jan. 29.
Two other titles – Yle/Mediapro’s “The Paradise” and Ruv’s ”Happily Never After” – chart halting spiritual recovery – after caring for years for a loved one and separation in marriage respectively.
Winners of the Nordic TV Drama Screenplay Award will receive a €20,000 cash prize, announced during the Göteborg Film & TV Festival’s TV Drama Vision, a highlight of the festival, and part of the Nordisk Film & TV Fond’s 30th anniversary celebrations
First episodes of all the series will screen at the Göteborg Festival.
”With the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize, the Fund wants to celebrate the art of script writing,...
Two other titles – Yle/Mediapro’s “The Paradise” and Ruv’s ”Happily Never After” – chart halting spiritual recovery – after caring for years for a loved one and separation in marriage respectively.
Winners of the Nordic TV Drama Screenplay Award will receive a €20,000 cash prize, announced during the Göteborg Film & TV Festival’s TV Drama Vision, a highlight of the festival, and part of the Nordisk Film & TV Fond’s 30th anniversary celebrations
First episodes of all the series will screen at the Göteborg Festival.
”With the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize, the Fund wants to celebrate the art of script writing,...
- 12/17/2019
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Junebug producer Mike Ryan and Phyllis Laing of Buffalo Gal Pictures among expert advisors.
Training and networking programme Trans Atlantic Partners (Tap) has unveiled the 2017 schedule of training modules connecting international producers with a special emphasis on co-productions.
Tap is holding training modules in Berlin from June 21-24 and Halifax, Canada, from September 12-17, when participants will also attend as delegates the Atlantic Film Festival’s Strategic Partners co-production market.
The programme provides networking and expert insight for film and TV producers from the Us, Canada and international markets.
This year’s experts include Mike Ryan of Greyshack Films (Junebug), Phyllis Laing of Buffalo Gal Pictures (Aloft), Canada Media Fund director of programme management Nathalie Clermont, German attorney Kai May, and Jeff Boone, manager of global scripted development at eOne Television USA.
Participating Us producers:
Allison Carter, Savage Rose; Reena Dutt, Painted Tree Productions & Off-Chance Productions; Kiara C Jones, Cultivated Films; Carolyn Mao; and Trevite Willis, [link...
Training and networking programme Trans Atlantic Partners (Tap) has unveiled the 2017 schedule of training modules connecting international producers with a special emphasis on co-productions.
Tap is holding training modules in Berlin from June 21-24 and Halifax, Canada, from September 12-17, when participants will also attend as delegates the Atlantic Film Festival’s Strategic Partners co-production market.
The programme provides networking and expert insight for film and TV producers from the Us, Canada and international markets.
This year’s experts include Mike Ryan of Greyshack Films (Junebug), Phyllis Laing of Buffalo Gal Pictures (Aloft), Canada Media Fund director of programme management Nathalie Clermont, German attorney Kai May, and Jeff Boone, manager of global scripted development at eOne Television USA.
Participating Us producers:
Allison Carter, Savage Rose; Reena Dutt, Painted Tree Productions & Off-Chance Productions; Kiara C Jones, Cultivated Films; Carolyn Mao; and Trevite Willis, [link...
- 6/19/2017
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Junebug producer Mike Ryan and Phyllis Laing of Buffalo Gal Pictures among expert advisors.
Training and networking programme Trans Atlantic Partners (Tap) has unveiled the 2017 schedule of training modules connecting international producers with a special emphasis on co-productions.
Tap is holding training modules in Berlin from June 21-24 and Halifax, Canada, from September 12-17, when participants will also attend as delegates the Atlantic Film Festival’s Strategic Partners co-production market.
The programme provides networking and expert insight for film and TV producers from the Us, Canada and international markets.
This year’s experts include Mike Ryan of Greyshack Films (Junebug), Phyllis Laing of Buffalo Gal Pictures (Aloft), Canada Media Fund director of programme management Nathalie Clermont, German attorney Kai May, and Jeff Boone, manager of global scripted development at eOne Television USA.
Participating Us producers:
Allison Carter, Savage Rose; Reena Dutt, Painted Tree Productions & Off-Chance Productions; Kiara C Jones, Cultivated Films; Carolyn Mao; and Trevite Willis, [link...
Training and networking programme Trans Atlantic Partners (Tap) has unveiled the 2017 schedule of training modules connecting international producers with a special emphasis on co-productions.
Tap is holding training modules in Berlin from June 21-24 and Halifax, Canada, from September 12-17, when participants will also attend as delegates the Atlantic Film Festival’s Strategic Partners co-production market.
The programme provides networking and expert insight for film and TV producers from the Us, Canada and international markets.
This year’s experts include Mike Ryan of Greyshack Films (Junebug), Phyllis Laing of Buffalo Gal Pictures (Aloft), Canada Media Fund director of programme management Nathalie Clermont, German attorney Kai May, and Jeff Boone, manager of global scripted development at eOne Television USA.
Participating Us producers:
Allison Carter, Savage Rose; Reena Dutt, Painted Tree Productions & Off-Chance Productions; Kiara C Jones, Cultivated Films; Carolyn Mao; and Trevite Willis, [link...
- 6/19/2017
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Screen reports on the 19 project pitches, including animations, family fare and a Daniel Dencik drama.
The Nordic Co-Production And Finance Market at Haugesund’s New Nordic Films event hosted its project pitches today (August 24).
They included Daniel Dencik’s drama about a disintegrating relationship 1000 R.I.P.; a children’s animation from Norway’s Aleksander Nordaas, the director of festival hit Thale; Icelandic director Marteinn Thorsson’s new psychological thriller; Martin Skovbjerg’s debut feature produced by hot new Danish outfit Snowglobe (who won Locarno’s Golden Leopard with Godless); and a new family film, hand drawn 2D animated Amundsen & Nobile.
Projects from Georgia, Italy and Canada were also included in the 19-strong line-up.
Overview of pitches:
1000 R.I.P., dir Daniel Dencik, prod Michael Haslund-Christensen, Company Haslund/Dencik Entertainment (Den)
The team behind 2015’s Gold Coast reunites for this fable inspired by The Passenger about a couple who meet a half Japanese model in the desert...
The Nordic Co-Production And Finance Market at Haugesund’s New Nordic Films event hosted its project pitches today (August 24).
They included Daniel Dencik’s drama about a disintegrating relationship 1000 R.I.P.; a children’s animation from Norway’s Aleksander Nordaas, the director of festival hit Thale; Icelandic director Marteinn Thorsson’s new psychological thriller; Martin Skovbjerg’s debut feature produced by hot new Danish outfit Snowglobe (who won Locarno’s Golden Leopard with Godless); and a new family film, hand drawn 2D animated Amundsen & Nobile.
Projects from Georgia, Italy and Canada were also included in the 19-strong line-up.
Overview of pitches:
1000 R.I.P., dir Daniel Dencik, prod Michael Haslund-Christensen, Company Haslund/Dencik Entertainment (Den)
The team behind 2015’s Gold Coast reunites for this fable inspired by The Passenger about a couple who meet a half Japanese model in the desert...
- 8/24/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Now in its 13th edition, Baltic Event will present 13 projects in its 10th Co-Production Market, among others.
Baltic Event has unveiled its project slate for its 2014 edition, taking place during the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival on Nov 26-28.
Now in its 13th year, the event will present 13 projects in its 10th Co-Production Market, eight projects in its script and pitch workshop Powr Baltic Stories Exchange, eight projects in Baltic Bridge East by West (B’Est)producers’ workshop and 17 Baltic and Finnish projects in its Works in Progress and Screenings sections.
Projects for the Co-Production Market come from 11 countires, including Ignas Jonynas’ Blind Spot from Lithuania and Piotr Trzaskalski’s The Wounded Beats from Poland. The full list of projects is as follows:
The 30th Love, producer Julia Mishkinene, Vita Aktiva, Russia, director Angelina NikonovaBlind Spot, producer Kristina Ramanauskaite, Revoliucijos idėja, Lithuania, director Ignas JonynasEternal Road, producer Ilkka Matila Mrp, Matila Röhr Productions...
Baltic Event has unveiled its project slate for its 2014 edition, taking place during the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival on Nov 26-28.
Now in its 13th year, the event will present 13 projects in its 10th Co-Production Market, eight projects in its script and pitch workshop Powr Baltic Stories Exchange, eight projects in Baltic Bridge East by West (B’Est)producers’ workshop and 17 Baltic and Finnish projects in its Works in Progress and Screenings sections.
Projects for the Co-Production Market come from 11 countires, including Ignas Jonynas’ Blind Spot from Lithuania and Piotr Trzaskalski’s The Wounded Beats from Poland. The full list of projects is as follows:
The 30th Love, producer Julia Mishkinene, Vita Aktiva, Russia, director Angelina NikonovaBlind Spot, producer Kristina Ramanauskaite, Revoliucijos idėja, Lithuania, director Ignas JonynasEternal Road, producer Ilkka Matila Mrp, Matila Röhr Productions...
- 11/6/2014
- by ian.sandwell@screendaily.com (Ian Sandwell)
- ScreenDaily
Toronto-based sales agent heads to the Efm with slate led by four StudioVault titles.
The Toronto-based sales agent heads into Berlin with a robust slate led by the StudioVault roster of Side By Side, The Red Robin, The Moment and Heartland.
Jane Weinstock’s thriller The Moment [pictured] from producer Allan Jones stars Jennifer Jason Leigh and Meat Loaf and screens today (Feb 6), as does Fred Holmes comedy Heartland starring Frank Ahearn and Prem Chopra and produced by Sunny Virmani.
Michael Z Wechsler’s psychological thriller The Red Robin starring Judd Hirsch and produced by Shawn Singh screens in the market tomorrow (Feb 7).
Buyers can watch family adventure Side By Side from first-timer Arthur Landon and starring Bel Powley and Alfie Field on Feb 9. Sarah Giles produced.
Director of acquisitions Michael Da Silva and managing director John Dunstan negotiated the deals with the producers of each film.
Cinemavault’s World division has acquired the culinary comedy Brasserie Romantique...
The Toronto-based sales agent heads into Berlin with a robust slate led by the StudioVault roster of Side By Side, The Red Robin, The Moment and Heartland.
Jane Weinstock’s thriller The Moment [pictured] from producer Allan Jones stars Jennifer Jason Leigh and Meat Loaf and screens today (Feb 6), as does Fred Holmes comedy Heartland starring Frank Ahearn and Prem Chopra and produced by Sunny Virmani.
Michael Z Wechsler’s psychological thriller The Red Robin starring Judd Hirsch and produced by Shawn Singh screens in the market tomorrow (Feb 7).
Buyers can watch family adventure Side By Side from first-timer Arthur Landon and starring Bel Powley and Alfie Field on Feb 9. Sarah Giles produced.
Director of acquisitions Michael Da Silva and managing director John Dunstan negotiated the deals with the producers of each film.
Cinemavault’s World division has acquired the culinary comedy Brasserie Romantique...
- 2/6/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Janos Szasz’s Le Grand Cahier walked away with the Crystal Globe at the 48th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.Scroll down for full list of winners
The Hungarian film impressed jury and industry alike with its depiction of 13-year-old twins sent to their grandmother during the Second World War (it is based on Agota Kristof’s award-winning novel The Notebook).
The producer of the film, Sandor Soth [pictured], picked up the award in front of a delighted audience. Le Grand Cahier was co-produced with Austria (Amour Fou), France (Dolce Vita) and Germany (Intuit), and it is the first completed feature to be backed by the new Hungarian Film Fund (the Hungarian production company was Hunnia Film Studio.
The Kviff top prize comes with $25,000 to be split by director and producer. The film also won the Europa Cinemas Label.
Ben Wheatley won the special jury prize (worth $15,000) for A Field In England and appeared in a special video thank...
The Hungarian film impressed jury and industry alike with its depiction of 13-year-old twins sent to their grandmother during the Second World War (it is based on Agota Kristof’s award-winning novel The Notebook).
The producer of the film, Sandor Soth [pictured], picked up the award in front of a delighted audience. Le Grand Cahier was co-produced with Austria (Amour Fou), France (Dolce Vita) and Germany (Intuit), and it is the first completed feature to be backed by the new Hungarian Film Fund (the Hungarian production company was Hunnia Film Studio.
The Kviff top prize comes with $25,000 to be split by director and producer. The film also won the Europa Cinemas Label.
Ben Wheatley won the special jury prize (worth $15,000) for A Field In England and appeared in a special video thank...
- 7/7/2013
- ScreenDaily
Now in its 48th year, the Karlovy Vary International in Czech Republic awarded Olafur Darri Olafsson with the Best Actor prize for his performance as a dissolute politician in Marteinn Thorsson's Icelandic drama "Xl." Also from Iceland, Olafsson is credited as producer on the film, which made its international premiere at the film festival on July 2. In "Xl," Leifur (Olafsson) is forced into rehab by Iceland's prime minister but before he commits himself, Olafsson's character throws a lavish party in which his identity unravels. Olafsson is a prolific actor of Icelandic film and television, having recently appeared in the country's 2012 foreign language submission to the Oscars, "The Deep," and last year's American reboot of "Contraband" alongside Mark Wahlberg. Polish director and Karlovy Vary jury president Agnieszka Holland was among those who awarded Olafsson the honor. (The full list of festival winners is here.) ...
- 7/6/2013
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
Michel Gondry’s Mood Indigo (L’écume des jours) was a surprise no-show in Cannes this year (his film debuted theatrically in France the previous month) but the stage is set for an opening gala opening ceremony for the 48th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Among the slew of titles that were announced today, at the top of must see list we find Ben Wheatley’s A Field in England making its world premiere in the Main Competition category, a pic we thought would end up showing on the Croisette. Another item we had short-listed for a Cannes showing but will be shown in the Spa village backdrop, we have János Szasz’s The Notebook, and making it’s international debut after a stellar Tribeca debut, Lance Edmands’ Bluebird will compete against a pack that also includes hometown favorite Jan Hřebejk and his his psychological thriller Honeymoon. In the Docu...
- 6/4/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Ben Wheatley’s A Field In England is to receive its first screening at the 48th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival as one of the 14 titles in Competition.
The psychedelic horror film, set during the English Civil War in the mid-17th century, will screen at the festival in the Czech Republic on July 4.
As previously reported, it will be the first UK film to be released simultaneously in cinemas, on DVD, free TV and VoD. This will take place on July 5.
Scroll down for full line-up
The main section of Karlovy Vary will include a further six world and seven international premieres, with new films from six returning directors – two of whom have already won Crystal Globes for Best Film at the festival in recent years.
Krzysztof Krauze and Joanna Kos-Krauze, who won at Kviff in 2005 with My Nikifor, will compete for the third time with the story of Papusza, the first Roma...
The psychedelic horror film, set during the English Civil War in the mid-17th century, will screen at the festival in the Czech Republic on July 4.
As previously reported, it will be the first UK film to be released simultaneously in cinemas, on DVD, free TV and VoD. This will take place on July 5.
Scroll down for full line-up
The main section of Karlovy Vary will include a further six world and seven international premieres, with new films from six returning directors – two of whom have already won Crystal Globes for Best Film at the festival in recent years.
Krzysztof Krauze and Joanna Kos-Krauze, who won at Kviff in 2005 with My Nikifor, will compete for the third time with the story of Papusza, the first Roma...
- 6/4/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Here we are, four years after the financial crash and artists are still commenting on the events that led to it. Fueled by stories of greed, political corruption and over abundance, it's easy to find material to tell and hopefully warn other generations that this behavior isn't right, unless you are a sociopathic dick hole. Director Marteinn Thorsson and actor Olafur Darri Olafsson have found one such dick hole in the form of politician Leifur, who suffers from a severe case of alcoholism and drug addiction. It seems that his behavior will get him ousted from his political party, as he is seen as an embarrassment. When his close friend the Prime Minister asks Leifur to go to rehab after a public brawl at...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 2/12/2013
- Screen Anarchy
Director Marteinn Thorsson was a much needed injection of adrenaline in to the Icelandic film scene, where most directors are static, lack personal vision and style, with his second feature and first solo director project Stormland. A film that played around with styles and techniques and was something not many directors, outside maybe commercial directors, had attempted in a feature film over here.Now Marteinn has teamed up again with Stormland's leading actor Olafur Darri Olafsson to deliver Xl, a raw and gritty black comedy about a member of parliament with a substance abuse problem throwing a last hurrah party before heading in to rehab.Xl is about the adventures of Leif Sigurdarson, party hound, boozer, womanizer, ex-familyman and young Senator, who is ordered into rehab by his...
- 9/4/2012
- Screen Anarchy
One of the directors of the awesome scifi flick One Point O, Marteinn Thorsson, has a new drama in the works, and while it may look like an actual trailer it's just a promo to raise funding. It looks kind of drab at first but with the interspersed animation it could be one serious mindf***.
The story revolves around a young man who lives in a small village in northern Iceland and hates just about everyone. He’s a blogger by day and manages to gather around him vast amounts of enemies with his writing until he’s basically made an outcast from his home town and losing everything and everyone that is important to him. Distraught and angry he takes his horse and rides south to the capital with a gun in his pocket with the goal to assassinate the prime minister and start a revolution.
Nsfw Teaser after the break.
The story revolves around a young man who lives in a small village in northern Iceland and hates just about everyone. He’s a blogger by day and manages to gather around him vast amounts of enemies with his writing until he’s basically made an outcast from his home town and losing everything and everyone that is important to him. Distraught and angry he takes his horse and rides south to the capital with a gun in his pocket with the goal to assassinate the prime minister and start a revolution.
Nsfw Teaser after the break.
- 5/29/2009
- QuietEarth.us
Armada Pictures International
PARK CITY -- "One Point 0" is a bit of Kafka, a touch of Orwell and Terry Gilliam and a whole lot of been-there-done-that. This dramatic competition film from Canadian-American Jeff Renfroe and Icelander Marteinn Thorsson takes yet another foray into a bleak future where computers and surveillance cameras rule everyday life. While the design of the film is highly imaginative, Renfroe and Thorsson's screenplay is an enervating rehash of science fiction themes too old to qualify as futuristic any longer.
The handful of streets and buildings that comprise the world of this movie are eerily deserted and dreary. The tenants of one particularly dingy high-rise act so weird that the place should be named Paranoid Manor. Simon J. (a game Jeremy Sisto) is a recluse who ventures from his apartment only to buy gallons of milk, which he swills all day while he labors as a computer programr.
One day, he finds a plain brown package in his apartment. He opens it, but nothing is inside. As time goes by, more packages mysteriously materialize inside this apartment, causing him to suspect his neighbors -- for good reason, though, because everyone is nuts. An older man (Udo Kier) spends his days perfecting an android face to whom he has given Simon's voice. The landlord (Emil Hostina) holes up in his security center where he watches his tenants via surveillance cameras. The maintenance man (Lance Henriksen) babbles mostly nonsense.
A muscular neighbor (Bruce Payne) keeps a ferocious dog and plays a computer game in which reality and fantasy mingle. The game eventually brings about his bloody death. The only remotely sane tenant is a weary nurse (Deborah Unger) who turns out to have a secret life as well.
Cryptic messages warn of viruses that can infect both humans and computers. Simon is starting to feel feverish. What is going on here? The filmmakers say their film is about nanotechnology and corporate control, but little in this oblique movie makes this clear.
The design of this future world is deliberately retro with a rotary dial telephone and a huge computer that looks like what someone in the 1950s might imagine a contemporary computer to be. The colors in Christopher Soos' cinematography are harsh greens and reds, suggesting that the whole thing might be a hallucination or a nightmare. So a mood of feverish paranoia is solidly established, but the unoriginal narrative betrays its empty purpose.
PARK CITY -- "One Point 0" is a bit of Kafka, a touch of Orwell and Terry Gilliam and a whole lot of been-there-done-that. This dramatic competition film from Canadian-American Jeff Renfroe and Icelander Marteinn Thorsson takes yet another foray into a bleak future where computers and surveillance cameras rule everyday life. While the design of the film is highly imaginative, Renfroe and Thorsson's screenplay is an enervating rehash of science fiction themes too old to qualify as futuristic any longer.
The handful of streets and buildings that comprise the world of this movie are eerily deserted and dreary. The tenants of one particularly dingy high-rise act so weird that the place should be named Paranoid Manor. Simon J. (a game Jeremy Sisto) is a recluse who ventures from his apartment only to buy gallons of milk, which he swills all day while he labors as a computer programr.
One day, he finds a plain brown package in his apartment. He opens it, but nothing is inside. As time goes by, more packages mysteriously materialize inside this apartment, causing him to suspect his neighbors -- for good reason, though, because everyone is nuts. An older man (Udo Kier) spends his days perfecting an android face to whom he has given Simon's voice. The landlord (Emil Hostina) holes up in his security center where he watches his tenants via surveillance cameras. The maintenance man (Lance Henriksen) babbles mostly nonsense.
A muscular neighbor (Bruce Payne) keeps a ferocious dog and plays a computer game in which reality and fantasy mingle. The game eventually brings about his bloody death. The only remotely sane tenant is a weary nurse (Deborah Unger) who turns out to have a secret life as well.
Cryptic messages warn of viruses that can infect both humans and computers. Simon is starting to feel feverish. What is going on here? The filmmakers say their film is about nanotechnology and corporate control, but little in this oblique movie makes this clear.
The design of this future world is deliberately retro with a rotary dial telephone and a huge computer that looks like what someone in the 1950s might imagine a contemporary computer to be. The colors in Christopher Soos' cinematography are harsh greens and reds, suggesting that the whole thing might be a hallucination or a nightmare. So a mood of feverish paranoia is solidly established, but the unoriginal narrative betrays its empty purpose.
Armada Pictures International
PARK CITY -- "One Point 0" is a bit of Kafka, a touch of Orwell and Terry Gilliam and a whole lot of been-there-done-that. This dramatic competition film from Canadian-American Jeff Renfroe and Icelander Marteinn Thorsson takes yet another foray into a bleak future where computers and surveillance cameras rule everyday life. While the design of the film is highly imaginative, Renfroe and Thorsson's screenplay is an enervating rehash of science fiction themes too old to qualify as futuristic any longer.
The handful of streets and buildings that comprise the world of this movie are eerily deserted and dreary. The tenants of one particularly dingy high-rise act so weird that the place should be named Paranoid Manor. Simon J. (a game Jeremy Sisto) is a recluse who ventures from his apartment only to buy gallons of milk, which he swills all day while he labors as a computer programr.
One day, he finds a plain brown package in his apartment. He opens it, but nothing is inside. As time goes by, more packages mysteriously materialize inside this apartment, causing him to suspect his neighbors -- for good reason, though, because everyone is nuts. An older man (Udo Kier) spends his days perfecting an android face to whom he has given Simon's voice. The landlord (Emil Hostina) holes up in his security center where he watches his tenants via surveillance cameras. The maintenance man (Lance Henriksen) babbles mostly nonsense.
A muscular neighbor (Bruce Payne) keeps a ferocious dog and plays a computer game in which reality and fantasy mingle. The game eventually brings about his bloody death. The only remotely sane tenant is a weary nurse (Deborah Unger) who turns out to have a secret life as well.
Cryptic messages warn of viruses that can infect both humans and computers. Simon is starting to feel feverish. What is going on here? The filmmakers say their film is about nanotechnology and corporate control, but little in this oblique movie makes this clear.
The design of this future world is deliberately retro with a rotary dial telephone and a huge computer that looks like what someone in the 1950s might imagine a contemporary computer to be. The colors in Christopher Soos' cinematography are harsh greens and reds, suggesting that the whole thing might be a hallucination or a nightmare. So a mood of feverish paranoia is solidly established, but the unoriginal narrative betrays its empty purpose.
PARK CITY -- "One Point 0" is a bit of Kafka, a touch of Orwell and Terry Gilliam and a whole lot of been-there-done-that. This dramatic competition film from Canadian-American Jeff Renfroe and Icelander Marteinn Thorsson takes yet another foray into a bleak future where computers and surveillance cameras rule everyday life. While the design of the film is highly imaginative, Renfroe and Thorsson's screenplay is an enervating rehash of science fiction themes too old to qualify as futuristic any longer.
The handful of streets and buildings that comprise the world of this movie are eerily deserted and dreary. The tenants of one particularly dingy high-rise act so weird that the place should be named Paranoid Manor. Simon J. (a game Jeremy Sisto) is a recluse who ventures from his apartment only to buy gallons of milk, which he swills all day while he labors as a computer programr.
One day, he finds a plain brown package in his apartment. He opens it, but nothing is inside. As time goes by, more packages mysteriously materialize inside this apartment, causing him to suspect his neighbors -- for good reason, though, because everyone is nuts. An older man (Udo Kier) spends his days perfecting an android face to whom he has given Simon's voice. The landlord (Emil Hostina) holes up in his security center where he watches his tenants via surveillance cameras. The maintenance man (Lance Henriksen) babbles mostly nonsense.
A muscular neighbor (Bruce Payne) keeps a ferocious dog and plays a computer game in which reality and fantasy mingle. The game eventually brings about his bloody death. The only remotely sane tenant is a weary nurse (Deborah Unger) who turns out to have a secret life as well.
Cryptic messages warn of viruses that can infect both humans and computers. Simon is starting to feel feverish. What is going on here? The filmmakers say their film is about nanotechnology and corporate control, but little in this oblique movie makes this clear.
The design of this future world is deliberately retro with a rotary dial telephone and a huge computer that looks like what someone in the 1950s might imagine a contemporary computer to be. The colors in Christopher Soos' cinematography are harsh greens and reds, suggesting that the whole thing might be a hallucination or a nightmare. So a mood of feverish paranoia is solidly established, but the unoriginal narrative betrays its empty purpose.
- 1/21/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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