Rastislav Steranka, a member of the programme team, presents his five tips for the festival

Rastislav Steranka and his festival selection:

Enys Men

In 1973, on an uninhabited island off the Cornish coast, the daily sighting of a rare flower takes place. A volunteer’s sojourn in the wild turns into a metaphysical journey that forces her and the viewer to question what is real and what is a nightmare.

Movie night: 2551.01 “The Kid” + 2551.02 “The Orgy of the Damned”

A punk rock tribute to silent film. The first part of an intended trilogy of “dystopian grotesque” set in an underground world of corridors, sewers, bunkers and dark cellars. A world without windows, without daylight, without hope. Literally everyone here wears a mask. A monkey man – a man in a monkey mask – rescues an abandoned child and together they set out to find a safe place in this twisted post-apocalyptic nightmare.

The second installment of an intended “dystopian grotesque” trilogy set in the same world as “Kid,” it directly follows the story of an abandoned boy who is rescued by the Monkey Man – a man in a monkey mask – searching for a safe place. While the first film – “Kid” – could have been purgatory, the sequel is hell with no heaven in sight. Here, no restraints are placed on perversion. Behold a world you never dreamed of, a world beyond your worst nightmares. Behold the orgy of the damned!

Cerdita

Sara is the daughter of the local butcher who is constantly bullied by her peers. Her family neglects her. Being a teenager in a small village means you can’t hide. Lonely, insecure Sara spends her summers on the phone helping her father in the family butcher shop. She finds solace in a natural springs swimming pool, where she encounters the worst: the cool girls who vacation in her village. No one stands up for her when she’s bullied, until the Unknown Man shows up and people start disappearing.

The Trouble With Being Born

Elli is an android and lives with a man she calls Dad. Together they get carried away by flight. During the day they swim in the pool and at night he takes her to bed. Elli shares his memories with him and anything else he programs her to remember. Memories that mean everything to him, but mean nothing to her. One night, however, Elli ventures into the woods on the trail of a fading echo. A story of the machine and the ghosts we all carry within us.

Knit’s Island

Somewhere on the internet is a 250-square-kilometer space where individuals gather to create a community that mimics survival fiction. In the form of avatars, a film crew enters the place and makes contact with the players. Who are these inhabitants? Is this really just a game?