ENTER THE VOID

ENTER THE VOID (France)

The Story:
Oscar (Nathaniel Brown), and his sister Linda (Paz de la Huerta) are recent arrivals in Tokyo. Oscar’s a small time drug dealer, and Linda works as a nightclub stripper. Oscar gets a phone call from his English friend Victor (Olly Alexander) asking him to bring his drugs to a local bar called The Void. He is joined by his Alex (Cyril Roy), a drug buddy of Oscar’s whom Linda disapproves of.

But when Oscar walks into the bar, he realises that it is a setup and the police chase him into the toilet, eventually shooting him dead.

Instead of dying, his spirit or something floats above his body, which is now curled around a urinal like a fetus. And it keeps floating higher and higher, hovering above rooms and seemingly passing through walls, only then to fly above the jewel-colored cityscape. And it keeps floating, as Oscar’s memories of his recent past start to collide against memories of his more distant past, particularly his childhood with Linda. His memory fragments make this disembodied character palpable: as they do in life, they help define his horizons and explain who he is and how he came to die.

From then on, Oscar’s spirit can only observe as Alex goes on the run from the police, Linda falls apart after his death and finds that she is pregnant by her clubowner boyfriend Bruno (Cary Hayes) and Victor is racked by guilt at his role in the incident.

Oscar's spirit, faithful to the promise he made to his sister ­ that he would never abandon her - refuses to abandon the world of the living. It wanders through the city, his visions growing evermore distorted, evermore nightmarish. Past, present and future merge in a hallucinatory maelstrom.

Starring:
Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta, Cyril Roy, Emily Alyn Lind, Jesse Kuhn

Directed By:
Gaspar Noe

Release Year:
2009

Watch the Trailer:

CYRUS MIND OF A SERIAL KILLER

CYRUS Mind of a Serial Killer

The Story:
Inspired by a true story, a small independent news crew, made up of reporter Maria (Danielle Harrisand) her camera man Tom (Tony Yalda), investigates a series of unexplained disappearances in a small Midwestern county.

The story leads them to the isolated town of Arkham Heights, where they find themselves interviewing Emmett (Lance Henriksen), who possesses an all too intimate knowledge of the details of "The County Line Cannibal" - Cyrus (Brian Krause).

As Emmett inter-weaves the macabre life tale of Cyrus with the story of his last three victims, Maria comes closer and closer to the greatest story of her life - or what's left of it.

Filled with reenacted documentary footage of actual forensic experts, serial killers and police authorities, "Cyrus" presents a simultaneously beautiful and horrific examination of the destructive nature of cause and effect leading to the creation of the most prolific serial killer in the history of the United States.

Starring:
Lance Henriksen, Brian Krauss, Danielle Harris, Doug Jones, Rae Dawn Chong, Tiffany Shepis, Tony Yalda, Anne Leighton, Shawna Waldron, Aris Mendoza, Kim Rhodes, Patricia Belcher,Tiffany Shepis

Directed By:
Mark Vadik

Release:
2009

Watch the Trailer:

MAP OF THE SOUND OF TOKYO

map of the sounds of tokyo (Japanese)

The Story:
Set in Tokyo, Ryu (Rinko Kikuchi) is a solitary girl whose fragile appearance is in stark contrast with the double life she leads, working nights at a Tokyo fishmarket and sporadically taking on jobs as a hit-woman.

Mr Nagara (Takeo Nakahara) is a powerful impresario mourning the loss of his daughter Midori (, who has committed suicide. He blames David (Sergi López), a Spaniard who runs a wine business in Tokyo.

Mr Nagara's employee, Ishida (Hideo Sakaki), was silently in love with Midori and hires Ryu to murder David.

A sound engineer (Min Tanaka), obsessed with the sounds of the Japanese city and fascinated with Ryu, witnesses this love story which searches the shadows of the human soul, reaching deep into places where only silence has the power of eloquence

Starring:
Rinko Kikuchi, Sergi López, Min Tanaka, Manabu Oshio, Takeo Nakahara, Hideo Sakaki

Directed By:
Isabel Coixet

Release:
2009

Watch the Trailer:

THE COLLECTOR

T H E C O L L E C T O R (Midnight Man)

The Story:
Arkin (Josh Stewart) handyman and ex-con who has been casing the house of a rich jeweler for several weeks gets put in a bind and he is forced to go in early. He has until midnight to snag the jewels and turn them over to a local fence before something very bad happens to his wife. Unfortunately for him, he’s not the only one who has been casing the family.

Unfortunately for Arkin, as it turns out, a masked killer has trapped the family in their home and is killing them one by one…and he doesn’t know the jewel thief is there. The film rapidly becomes a cat and mouse game of one highly skilled man trapped inside a booby trapped home trying desperately to evade detection from a deranged madman.

Starring:
Josh Stewart, Daniella Alonso, Michael Reilly Burke, Andrea Roth, Madeline Zima, Karley Scott-Collins, Robert Wisdom, Juan Fernandez.

Directed By:
Marcus Dunstan

Release:
2009

Watch the Trailer: