When the Neuchâtel Fantastic Film Festival launches its 18th edition on 6 July, Rasmus Kloster Bro's 'Cutterhead' will be making its world premiere as one of 16 titles in the International Feature Film Competition. See trailer below.
This year, the international competition is presided over by Canadian director David Cronenberg, who will be tasked with granting the Narcisse award for best feature during the closing ceremony on 14 July.
The story in Rasmus Kloster Bro's feature debut follows Rie, a PR-coordinator visiting a tunnel boring machine to portray the well-oiled European cooperation in the Copenhagen Metro construction. When an accident occurs, she is unable to escape and takes refuge in an airlock with Croatian miner Ivo and Bharan, a worker from Eritrea. They put their lives and bodies in each other's hands to survive the heat, pressure and mud in the claustrophobic cutterhead.
Neuchâtel, the number one Swiss festival dedicated to fantasy and related genres, sends off the film with this mild 'warning':
"Claustrophobes beware: 'Cutterhead' is going to test your limits! With his first feature film, Rasmus Kloster Bro explores the darkest recesses of the human species through a suffocating huis clos in which mud and sweat hide a contemporarily potent allegory. Its striking visuals and decaying characters make it a harrowing experience that provokes physical reactions that are difficult to forget." See more.
'Cutterhead' is written by the director in collaboration with Mikkel Bak Sørensen, producer is Amalie Lyngbo Quist for Beo Starling, and the cast includes Christine Sønderris, Samson Semere and Krešimir Mikic. The film is backed by the Danish Film Institute's talent scheme New Danish Screen. LevelK is handling international sales.
Director Rasmus Kloster Bro graduated from the alternative Danish film school Super16. His work includes radio fiction, music videos, video installation and short films, of which 'Kiss My Brother' (2010) and 'Barvalo' (2012) have won a number of awards.
The Neuchâtel Fantastic Film Festival is running 6-14 July. See more at niff.ch.