“The Middle Mystery Of Kristo Negro” World Premiere at Rotterdam 2009
http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/en/IFFR-2009/films-az/film.aspx?ID=ee2b6bc6-f9d3-446f-98e2-dcfde6cc4560
THE MIDDLE MYSTERY OF KRISTO NEGRO
This is not a film by Khavn
Maybe animal lovers should come in ten minutes too late. Yet the ritual slaughter of a young water buffalo is a powerful start to a sombre and nightmarish film about the Passion of Christ. No, it doesn’t look like that are the film. This Christ has no idea either.
Not everyone can cope with it, but the film opens with what should be an age-old ritual. Several men slaughter and skin an animal in the open field. It’s a young water buffalo that continues to breathe when it hardly has any skin left. The landscape has a biblical appeal and the people are dressed in timeless garb. Less timeless are the Roman legionaries who appear and disappear. A Christ-like figure is left on his own in the empty landscape and starts dragging the carcass of the water buffalo as if it were his cross. He seems to carry all his sins through a hellish landscape that looks as if it were designed in a feverish dream.
Without the Catholic Church, there probably wouldn’t be any such thing as a cult film. The old, theatrical and mystical rituals of the church are a never-ending source of inspiration for film makers who are sensitive to a similarly hysterical rapture or who want to mock the conservative institution.
Although you could expect it from an outspokenly underground film maker like Khavn, in this case one cannot really talk about direct mockery of religion. Is it’s more that he takes the element of self chastising that is part of certain rituals (such as the acted Way of the Cross) one step further and makes the ritual more real than was maybe intended.
The Hungry Ghosts programme also includes the director’s Three Days of Darkness. (Gertjan Zuilhof)
Director Khavn De La Cruz
Producer Khavn De La Cruz
Scenario Khavn De La Cruz
Cast Macoy Duran
Mary Tamayo
Kat Sandoval
Photography Albert Banzon
Editor Lawrence S. Ang
Art design Kristine Kintana, Ma. Krissna Isabelle Cruz, Michelle Ann Frazier, Gladys Melgarejo, Jet Leyco
Length 70′
THEMES
2009 Spectrum
Rotterdam on the wide side. The festival selected topical, powerful and innovative work of the past year by well-known faces and possibly less well-known directors from all four corners of the world.
SCREENINGS
Cinerama 7 Sat 24 Jan 17:15
Lantaren 2 Tue 27 Jan 20:15
Zaal De Unie Fri 30 Jan 19:45
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