Trieste Science+Fiction Festival, the science-fiction festival taking place from October 30th to November 4th in the Friuli Venezia-Giulia region capital, has announced the first 5 titles of the 2018 official selection.
Five films – four of which Italian premieres – which will lead the audience of this 18th edition towards fantastic and far away worlds: interstellar travels, post-apocalyptic futures, dark and western atmospheres with a Sci-Fi flavour.
Ederlezi Rising by Lazar Bodroža
Serbian director Lazar Bodroža’s debut film will be presented as an Italian premiere in the competition section of this year’s official selection of the Trieste Science+Fiction festival. In a dystopic future, socialism has replaced capitalism while big corporations are colonizing new planets. The astronaut Milutin (Sebastian Cavazza) is sent on a mission to Alpha Centauri by the Ederlezi Corporation. His companion in this interstellar journey is Nimani (Stoya), an android with an advanced operating system enabling her to be at his side and assist him.
A surreal love story in the intergalactic space, where the science-fiction setting is a perfect frame fo a tale of intense indivisual stories which are also a complex metaphor of society at large although far from the conventions of reality.
Future World by James Franco and Bruce Thierry Cheung
Actor and director James Franco, together with Bruce Thierry Cheung, stars and directs the Italian premiere which will be presented out of competition at the Trieste festival, also starring actresses Milla Jovovich (The Fifth Element, The Million Dollar Hotel, the Resident Evil saga) and Lucy Liu (Charlie’s Angels, Cypher, Kill Bill: Volume 1, Slevin). In a post-apocalyptic world reminescent of the Mad Max universe, the planet has exhausted all resources and the dry lands are deserted: nonetheless, the human race has survived but struggles with violence and oppression. A young man (Jeffrey Wahlberg) must cross the desert in search of a medicine to save his mother’s (Lucy Liu) life. On the way he will meet a terrifying Warlord (James Franco), his robot sex slave Ash (Suki Waterhouse) and a ruthless Druglord (Milla Jovovich).
Prospect by Chris Caldwell and Zeek Earl
Another out of competition movie by Chris Caldwell and Zeek Earl, who created an original, rich and detailed world, described from the point of view of the outsiders living at the outskirts of civilization, venturing outside the known frontiers of space, driven by a desperate economic situation, risking their lives looking for redemption. A teenage girl and her father travel to a remote alien moon, aiming to strike it rich. They’ve secured a contract to harvest a large deposit of the elusive gems hidden in the depths of the moon’s toxic forest. But there are others roving the wilderness of this science-fiction western about a fight to survive and longing to return home. From the SXSW’s selection, a fascinating and evocative debut.
Await Further Instructions by Johnny Kevorkian
British director Johnny Kevorkian presents his second feature film, a sci-fi thriller, an Italian premiere for the Trieste Science+Fiction festival 2018. A disturbing and fascinating movie, Cronenberg-style. The Milgram family while celebrating Christmas realizes a mysterious black substance has surrounded their house. Something terrible is about to happen, but exactly waht? An environmental disaster, a terrorist attack, a nuclear war? While the arguments get more heated, the Tv is turned on at the desperate search of news. But only a threatening message appears on the screen: “Stay indoors and wait for further instructions.” . While the messages become more and more threatening, familial tensions and paranoia escalate. Starring David Bradley (Game of Thrones), Sam Gittins (The Smoke), Holly Weston (Howl), Kris Saddler (The Hour) and Grant Masters (Silent Witness).
The Dark by Justin P. Lange and Klemens Hufnagl
Presented at the Tribeca Film Festival 2018 and nominated for best screenplay at the Fantaspoa Fantastic Film Festival of Porto Alegre, the Austrian film by emerging filmakers Justin P. Lange and Klemens Hufnagl is an Italian premiere in competition at the Trieste festival. A violent and dark fairytale inspired by zombie movies, starring two incredibly young and talented actors, the young star Nadia Alexander, winner of the best actress award at teh Tribeca Film Festival 2017 for her role in Blame. A murderous, flesh-eating undead young girl haunting the remote stretch of woods where she was murdered decades earlier discovers a kidnapped and abused boy hiding in the trunk of one of her victim’s cars. Her decision to let the boy live throws her aggressively solitary existence into upheaval, and ultimately forces her to reexamine just how much of her humanity her murderer was able to destroy.
