dir. Robert Eggers | USA, UK 2022 | 140’ | + lecture before the screening

A Viking prince seeking revenge for his father's murder must face his own destiny. A spectacular parable about a world where good and evil are not a matter of choice but of necessity, full of magical visions and pulsating with the primal rhythm of wild – and human – nature. Although Eggers departs from the poetics of horror cinema here, he retains the themes, symbolism and aesthetic discipline that are key to his work.

ROBERT EGGERS. RETRO[per]SPECTIVE

An American visionary of stylish horror, unapologetically paying homage to European cinema classics. An aesthete enamored with the past, unafraid to balance on the edge of cinematic exaggeration and good taste. Yet he never loses his form or creative discipline; with an extraordinary sense of image and sound, he builds the atmosphere of his cinematic stories.

He explores the boundaries of madness and loneliness. He searches for lost connections with nature in their most primitive manifestations. He looks into the eyes of hares and seagulls, follows a black goat deep into a dark forest. He turns people into wild dogs, drowns healthy senses in the raging waves of the ocean.

Spinning ghoulish fairy tales and evoking myths, he tells stories that are thoroughly contemporary: family dramas set indoors, Shakespearean tragedies, parables about initiation and growing up. His cinematic dreams awaken fears of what is hidden within us. He mixes good with evil. He digs up blood-soaked earth and brings to the surface what we would like to cover up, bury, and forget. He searches for truth in the past and universal meaning in history. Light blinds him, but he finds solace in darkness.

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The set of Robert Eggers' first three feature films will be complemented by a special screening of “Wilczyca” (“The She-Wolf”), a Polish horror film that connects the American director with... Upper Silesia.