How Heavy This Hammer

A married father of two nearing middle age, Erwin (Erwin Van Cotthem) is not quite an outcast, but as his life slowly begins to unravel we begin to understand just how far outside the social order he truly is. Erwin spends all of his free time playing fantasy games online. When not on the computer, Erwin is a barely conscious entity: virtually everything else in his life is a distraction and an annoyance (including his wife and children), and his only physical exercise is rugby, where he uses his bulk to his advantage and releases his usually sublimated aggression. A touching yet infuriating example of our society's mysterious ability to freeze men in adolescence, Irwin is both conscious of and frustrated by his stunted existence, but is either unwilling or incapable of getting out of his rut. (Toronto International Film Festival)