Réalisation:
Jessica Hope WoodworthScénario:
Jessica Hope WoodworthPhotographie:
Virginie SurdejMusique:
Teho TeardoActeurs·trices:
Jonas Smulders, Geraldine Chaplin, Jan Bijvoet, Sam Louwyck, Hal Yamanouchi, Valentin Ganev, Goua Robert Grovogui, Samvel Tadevosyan (plus)Résumés(1)
Determined to do his utmost to protect his homeland from ever-imminent invasion, young Luka – a talented sniper – makes the lengthy trek from region 27 north to Fort Kairos, an outpost on the Steppe where the General and her council maintain guard against the pending onslaught from the North. In this desolate industrial complex, fear of an attack that never seems to come by an enemy that perhaps does not exist has morphed into a sort of serene paranoia. Military training has congealed, becoming a series of bizarre, animalistic rituals; punishment for minor infractions ranges from shovelling excrement to death by thirst. When at last there is dim evidence that the North is mobilising its troops, it becomes apparent that dogma now trumps truth, compassion and common sense. Geraldine Chaplin's twisted General is just one stand-out among uniformly excellent performances, which are underscored by threatening black-and-white cinematography and precisely unnerving sound design. Obliquely tinged with the conjured terrors of George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" and the rapturous brotherly love of Jean Genet's Un chant d'amour (1950), Jessica Woodworth's take on Dino Buzzati's much-lauded "The Tartar Steppe" crafts a fantasy of post-truth lunacy that perhaps reflects today more closely than is comfortable. (International Film Festival Rotterdam)
(plus)Acteurs·trices
Geraldine Chaplin
États-Unis
Meilleurs films :
Les Feux de la rampe (1952)
Le Docteur Jivago (1965)
The Hollow Crown (2012) (série)
Jan Bijvoet
Belgique
Meilleurs films :
L'étreinte du serpent (2015)
Dirty Mind (2008)
Alabama Monroe (2012)
Sam Louwyck
Belgique
Meilleurs films :
Les Garçons sauvages (2017)
La Cinquième Saison (2012)
Cargo (2017)
Hal Yamanouchi
Japon
Meilleurs films :
Dem Mörder verfallen - Eine Frau in Gefahr (1999) (téléfilm)
Les Chemins de la liberté (2010)
La Vie aquatique (2004)
Valentin Ganev
Bulgarie
Meilleurs films :
Est-Ouest (1999)
Un seul deviendra invincible 3 (2010)
Les Chemins de la liberté (2010)
Goua Robert Grovogui
Meilleurs films :
Rafaël (2018)
Samvel Tadevosyan
Arménie
Meilleurs films :
Chernobyl : Under Fire (2020)
Django Schrevens
Meilleurs films :
La Cinquième Saison (2012)
Lola vers la mer (2019)