EVERY FIRST THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH, MAY – AUGUST 2017
From hyperactive cities to languid villages or post-apocalyptic slums, CINEMA explores the urban conditioning of bodies by routines, ideologies or police control. Anchored by the opening film of Tokyo!, the four selected films follow protagonists as they struggle to rise above cyclic states of discipline. Through the sub-themes of Transformation, Anarchy, and Rebirth, the collection reveals how places shape their inhabitants.
TOKYO! (M18)
3 MAY 2017
Time 8pm
Venue The Substation
Directors Leos Carax, Bong Joon-ho, Michel Gondry
Runtime 107 min
Tokyo! is a city of transitions in three short films. A young woman who finds her life useless experiences a metamorphosis. A disheveled Caucasian emerges from a manhole to face arrest, trial, and execution; he calls himself "Merde" and speaks a language only his look-alike attorney understands. Is he human?
A recluse experiences human contact when a pizza-delivery girl faints at his door during an earthquake. He conquers fear to seek her out.
A chair, a corpse, a hermit: sources of urban connection?
SECRET FILM 2 - TRANSFORMATION
ZOOLOGY (NC16)
8 JUNE 2017
Time 8pm
Venue The Substation
Director Ivan Tverdovsky
Runtime 87 min
Middle-aged zoo worker Natasha still lives with her mother in a small coastal town. As she struggles for independence, she has to endure the absurd reality of her life filled with gossip spread by the women around her. She is stuck and it seems that life has no surprises for her until one day… she grows a tail.
This is the film's Singapore premiere.
SECRET FILM 3 - ANARCHY
HARMONY LESSONS (PG13)
6 JULY 2017
Time 8pm
Venue The Substation
Director Emir Baigazin
Runtime 120 min
Language Kazakh, Russian with English subtitles
Winner of the Silver Bear for Best Cinematography at the Berlinale, Harmony Lessons is set in Kazakhstan, and is centred on a 13-year-old called Aslan who is bullied at his new school by the local thug Bolat. Shy and taciturn Aslan, supported by the relentless new student Mirsain, starts to seek cruel revenge on the bully. Stark and surreal all at once, Harmony Lessons is a riveting exploration of the perpetuation of cycles of cruelty, coercion and violence.
SECRET FILM 4 - REBIRTH
ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE (NC16)
3 AUGUST 2017
Time 8pm
Venue The Substation
Director Jim Jarmusch
Runtime 123 min
Language English
Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive tells the tale of two fragile and sensitive vampires, Adam and Eve, who have been lovers for centuries. Adam, a reclusive underground musician hiding out in the ruins of contemporary Detroit, despairs about human civilization’s decline, and worries about future survival. Eve, takes a longer view of history and is more optimistic. She leaves her home in the ancient city of Tangier to come to his side. As blood has been tainted by the zombies (humans), the formerly immortal Adam and Eve must secure uncontaminated blood from hospitals or they will perish. The couple's precarious footing is further threatened by the uninvited arrival of Eve’s carefree and uncontrollable little sister Ava.