Nino, a gay teen from a deeply religious family, is the continual target of homophobic attacks by the neighborhood boys. His parents decide to temporarily move the family to a pious village in the countryside, where the legend of the Almamula — a monster that haunts the forest waiting to take those who commit impure acts — frightens the community’s youth into hushed submission. Amidst the summer heat, Nino’s desires and impulses are unignorable, and he finds himself seeking out temptation and sin. To escape from a reality rife with repression and hypocrisy, Nino willingly succumbs to the mysteries of the forest.
A rich and seductive fable, Carnal Sins is a darkly stunning first feature from Juan Sebastián Torales that blurs the borders of fantasy and reality, religion and myth.
Austria, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Denmark 110 minutes
Synopsis
Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner (Little Joe) returns to the director’s chair with a provocative thriller out of this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland, Crimson Peak) stars as Ms. Novak, a nutrition teacher at an elite prep school whose dogma of “conscious eating” quickly devolves into cult-like conformity for a group of seven teens. By the time their parents realize how extreme this so-called “Club Zero” has become, it may be too late to break Ms. Novak’s spell over her students.
A mannered, impeccably constructed combination of dry satire and gross-out body horror, Club Zero takes aim at Instagram “wellness” culture and social conformity. A typically controversial statement from an iconoclastic director, it’s bound to be the one of the most talked-about films at this year’s Festival.
Philippe Bober, Mike Goodridge, Johannes Schubert, Bruno Wagner
Jessica Hausner, Géraldine Bajard
Karina Ressler
Martin Gschlacht
Mia Wasikowska, Sidse Babett Knudsen
Markus Binder
Barth Brosseau, Kristin Irving, Alex C. Lo, Eva Yates, Vladimir Zemtsov
Coop99 filmproduktion and Coproduction Office, Coproduction Office Ltd., Essential Films, Parisienne de Production, Paloma Productions, Gold Rush Films, Cinema Inutile, Austrian Film Institute, BBC Film, FISA - Film Industry Support Austria, ORF Film/Fernseh – Abkommen, Eurimages - Council of Europe, Vienna Film Fund, Gold Rush Pictures, ZDF/Arte, Arte France Cinéma, Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg, Doha Film Institute, TRT Sinema, The Danish Film Institute, DR, Film Funding Lower Austria, Obala Art Centar, CNC, Aide au Cinéma du Monde, Institut Français
The heartfelt story follows two 10-year-olds, Malik and Eric, as they revel in the freedoms of boyhood and the joys of friendship. The projects are their playground, and every stairway, roof, and stretch of blacktop is just another place for adventure. But when violence comes to their neighborhood, their safe haven is fractured, and Malik’s mother Dolores (Jurnee Smollett) must decide whether to stay or move away.
We chatted with director Minhal Baig about the origin of the story behind We Grown Now, recreating 1990s Cabrini-Green on screen, and her favorite Chicago movies.