24.01.24, 20:30, Bad Black (2016)
Adepts of Ugandan action cinema, rejoice. After Who Killed Captain Alex (2012), we are once again preparing our auditorium for Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey Nabwana's martial arts sledgehammer beats (Nabwana I.G.G. for friends). In this SUPA ACTION adrenaline shot, Nabwana proves that he is the devil-does-all of DIY cinema. Made on a small yet powerful budget, Bad Black models wanton spectacle out of limited resources. Shot and edited in his makeshift film studio on the outskirts of the Ugandan capital, Nabwana's films are community projects where the neighbourhood battles Hollywood with scrap metal, hand-painted sets and bricolaged green screens.
When a young girl murders a notorious gang leader, she is given the title of Bad Black. Her vendetta with the Kampala underworld has her cross paths with an idealistic doctor and his mentor: "a no-nonsense ghetto kid named Wesley Snipes". Bad Black proves once again that passion and talent win out over big capital. Nabwana slyly plays with the conventions of the genre and manages to blend cinephile winks, craftsmanship and hand-held fight choreography into a dazzling opera of violence.
English spoken, not subtitled
Cloquet
Godshuizenlaan 4
9000 Gent
Vittorio De Seta, Rosa Butsi, KASKcinemafilmconcertAgendaArtistic activitiesAlthough Italian cinema has no shortage of icons, Vittorio de Seta is something of an odd man out. Trained in his anthropological programme, de Seta devoted his life to capturing disappearing folk customs on film. For years, he wandered around the remote corners of Sicily, Sardinia and Calabria to document how farmers, shepherds and fishermen, among others, were changing their lives in the light of post-war modernisation. These observations would lead him to the monumental Banditi a Orgosolo (1961), which launched his career as a filmmaker and screenwriter.
In the 1950s, however, he also made a series of documentary films that distilled his research into stunning visual material. Musician Roos Denayer (Rosa Butsi) brings some of Seta's early films to life with her characteristically sensitive blend of pop, jazz and folk. As lyrical as they are didactic, these short documentaries are poetic odes to the relationship between humans and their environment and the animal world. In The Age of The Swordfish (1955) and Orgosolo's Shepherds (1958), the work rhythm of shepherds and fishermen is examined, while The Golden Parable (1955), A Day in Barbagia (1958) and The Forgotten (1959) exhibit the human body in a spiral of work, rest and pleasure.
With live accompaniment by musician Rosa Butsi featuring Marie Cocriamont.
The Rider (2017), KASKcinemafilmAgendaArtistic activitiesAfter tackling costume design and location scouting, among other things, we are eagerly continuing our series on the unsung and unloved branches of the film profession. Under the heading Screencrafts, we give lesser-known craftsmen behind the biggest productions in Belgium their fair share of fame. This time, we give free rein to our interest with a series of animal handlers who explain the secrets of their professions. Maité Thijssen (Castingtails), Wendy Van de Gulderij (Kennel Van de Gulderij) and Dietrich Verzele (Zafara) transform everyday dogs, cats, cows, horses, spiders and other multi-legged talents into true film stars. Here, they bring their professional and personal experiences in the field to a multifaceted overview of one of cinema's forgotten professions.
A lively panel discussion will be followed by a screening of The Rider. Before she was showered with Oscars for Nomadland (2020), Chloé Zhao made this sensitive cowboy film about a rodeo rider who no longer dares to get in the saddle. Zhao based the story on the life of horse trainer Brady Jandreau, who plays the lead role here. With stunningly beautiful cinematography and flesh-and-blood characters, The Rider offers a tender reflection on masculinity, the American psyche and the ambiguities in human-animal relationships. It is also a nice trip to the beginning of Zhao's oeuvre before her latest film, Hamnet (2025), is released in Belgian cinemas.
Nocturnes (2024), KASKcinemafilmAgendaArtistic activitiesIn north-eastern India, on the border with Bhutan, scientist Mansi and her assistant Bicki, members of the local Bugung community, hang a white sheet between the trees every night. Under the bright light, hundreds of moths slowly gather, settling on the diamond pattern of the fabric. They observe, photograph and measure. Nocturnes takes us deep into the lush Himalayan forest, where the beating of butterfly wings sounds like breathing, rain echoes like a soft hum, and research becomes a form of meditation.
Directors Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan avoid explanation or commentary. Their camera watches from a distance, as if it too were conducting field research into the relationship between humans, nature and the desire to understand. Nocturnes opts for a meditative, almost obsessive focus on the research process, seen through the eyes of experienced lepidopterists. This results in an enchanting experience that ensures that the film's message is not understood first, but felt deep inside. A sensory and contemplative nature experience, in which science becomes poetry and every flutter raises questions about global ecology.
This screening will be preceded by the short film Oh, Look! (2024) by Leon Decock.
Dierenmanieren, KASKcinemafilmAgendaArtistic activitiesHairy hooves and shiny fins, the show begins.
Cinema for the youngest moviegoers! Parents and children aged 4 and above are welcome to this screening, where we present a varied and original series of short films.
White Dog (1982), KASKcinemafilmAgendaArtistic activitiesWhen young actress Julie rescues an injured stray dog from certain death, it seems like the beginning of a classic Hollywood story. However, she does not know that the animal is a white dog, trained by a racist to attack only black people. The white shepherd, gentle and affectionate at home, returns after a night-time escape with blood on his fur. What follows is not an animal drama, but a moral nightmare in Technicolour.
Throughout his impressive career, Samuel Fuller was not shy about tackling difficult themes and cultural sensitivities. With White Dog, this enfant terrible of New Hollywood cinema barks at the very foundations of America itself. His film is both pulp and parable, in short: a melodrama that growls. Julie's quest for redemption for her dog (and who knows, perhaps for her country) culminates in a battle between instinct and ideology, fuelled by fear and ignorance. Years after its release, White Dog still bites just as deep. A frenzied, poignantly topical fable about how racism is taught, passed on and, perhaps, unlearned.
This screening will be introduced by avid film lover Tim Maerschand.
Life and Other Problems (2024), KASKcinemafilmAgendaArtistic activitiesAnimal news from Denmark caused a worldwide #uproar in 2014: Copenhagen Zoo had decided to kill their two-year-old giraffe Marius because he was surplus to their breeding programme. His death forms the starting point for Life and Other Problems, the latest film by Danish filmmaker Max Kestner. From this event unfolds a philosophical and playful quest for the big questions of life: Does consciousness really exist? And do trees know of my existence, as I know of theirs?
With his characteristically idiosyncratic style, Kestner travels around the world, from laboratories to primeval forests, seeking answers from veterinarians, physicists, zoo operators and philanthropic billionaires. Along the way, we discover how everything is connected, from cells to humans, from Earth to the universe. What could have been a sombre essay becomes, in Kestner's hands, a light-hearted, curious adventure full of humour and wonder, somewhere between John Berger and John Wilson.
This screening will be preceded by the short film Talking to Elephants (2025) by Juul Schöpping.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990), KASKcinemafilmAgendaArtistic activitiesCowabunga! We conclude our theme month with cinema's most beloved monsters. Flushed down the toilet as pets and drenched in radioactive sludge, baby turtles Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael come under the guardianship of Sensei Splinter – a life-size rat who has retrained himself in the sewers to become a master of Eastern martial arts. The four may bear the names of Renaissance artists, but their attitude is that of runaway youths. Skating, pizza-slurping and beatboxing, this septic superhero team scours New York to fight crime. When the mysterious Foot Clan appears on the scene, the Turtles are forced to crawl out of their shells and save the city from the sinister Shredder.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) was the definitive 80s animated series, a colourful cocktail of everything that was considered cool at the time. After much nagging from everyone's mothers, it finally became a feature film. Although many studio executives believed the film was doomed to fail, TMNT became the biggest blockbuster of the early 90s. Animatronics legend Jim Henson designed the robotically controlled turtle suits. Reboot after reboot shows how these reptilian heroes ooze their way into the present, but nothing beats the original. Turtle Power, indeed.
(Ver)vreemde Vogels, KASKcinemafilmAgendaArtistic activitiesCuckoo! KASKcinema spreads its wings during this winter journey through polyphonic short films. Fluttering past different styles and genres, these filmmakers fill our cinema nest with colourful feathers and bright colours. In this way, we pay tribute to animal elusiveness and show that diversity means that every bird sings as it is beaked.
We take flight with Icarus, Come (2024), in which KASK & Conservatorium alumnus Ziya Lemin takes care of a lost bird. In the feather-light Ray’s Birds (2010), Deborah Stratman visits British bird collector Ray Lowden. The Great Silence (2014) adapts a short story by sci-fi master Ted Chiang about communication between humans and parrots. La Perra (2023) uses the crane bird as a metaphor for queer coming of age. Because clay pigeons are overrated, we then give the stage to plasticine penguin Pingu in Pingu’s Parents Have No Time (1993). With Those that Desire (2018), Elena López Riera delves into the macho world of pigeon racing. We conclude with Stan Brakhage's air caresses Birds of Paradise (1999) before taking Anouk de Clercq's Birdsong (2023) as a swan song.
This evening will be led by artist and Denderdier-expert Claire Stragier.
The Pied Piper (1986), KASKcinemafilmAgendaArtistic activitiesThe sun rises slowly over Hamelin while underground a cogwheel begins to turn. What appears to be a lively town quickly turns into a mirror of human greed. The wealthy citizens lock themselves away in their own greed, until the town succumbs to its stench of abundance and attracts a relentless swarm of rats. Then a stranger appears with a flute, hired to drive away the plague, but his melody attracts more than just rodents. When Hamelin breaks its promise, the music turns against its inhabitants.
The Pied Piper is Jirí Barta's visionary retelling of the German legend, inspired by Viktor Dyk's sombre 1911 novella Krysarˇ. In this expressionist animated fairy tale, wood, metal and skin merge into a dark tableau. The rats, filmed in flashes of live action, seem more alive than the humans themselves. In their incomprehensible Germanic dialect, the inhabitants sound like puppets of flesh and guilt. The Pied Piper is a cautionary woodcut about greed, betrayal and the price of human desire.
This film is preceded by the short film Historia Naturae, Suita (1967) by Jan Švankmajer.
Max, Mon Amour (1986), KASKcinemafilmAgendaArtistic activitiesAll men are trash, date a chimpanzee! In Paris, Margaret and Peter live the kind of neat, glossy life that can only be derailed by something completely outlandish. And that's exactly what happens: Margaret turns out to be in a relationship with a chimpanzee, Max. The couple are said to be madly in love, and Margaret manages to convince Peter to allow her to bring the sensitive but dangerous animal home.
It is almost impossible to tell when director Nagisa Ôshima is being serious, when he is being ironic, when he is trying to make a metaphorical point about evolution, or when he is commenting on the state of contemporary aristocratic European society. In Max, Mon Amour, he serves up madness with a deadly seriousness that allows the absurd to slip into the everyday, and that is precisely where it becomes irresistibly funny.
The sober, unforced manner in which the often excessive events are presented is reminiscent of Luis Buñuel, a friend of the crew. Charlotte Rampling also succeeds in evoking Margaret's burning love for Max with a deadly serious expression. The result is a tightly served chamber piece, in which the impossible is received with porcelain politeness.
This screening will be introduced by filmmaker Nina de Vroome.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (2024), KASKcinemafilmAgendaArtistic activitiesWhen Shula, back in Zambia after a long absence, finds her uncle's lifeless body, she unwittingly sets in motion a machinery of mourning and secrecy. What follows is a feverish drama, in which every action becomes charged with everything that must remain unsaid. While the body is being washed, an unspoken truth swells beneath it all, one that can no longer be kept quiet. Whispers entrench themselves in back rooms while rumours sweep through the walls like a draught.
Director Rungano Nyoni serves up her satire with a dryness that almost echoes rhythmically in a maze of shame, tradition and denial. The titular guinea fowl is a bird that sounds a loud alarm when danger approaches. While the family hides behind convention, the guinea fowl reacts instinctively and without shame.
The result is a sharp, melancholic and unexpectedly humorous portrait of a community that prefers to look away, until the bird breaks its silence.
Kedi (2016), KASKcinemafilmAgendaArtistic activitiesLick your fur and get ready for some cuddles, Kinoautomat treats you to a documentary that will make you purr.
Kedi is a furry urban symphony that sings the praises of Istanbul and its many street cats. Sunbathing on the Bosphorus or begging for scraps at local tea houses, these noble creatures live in symbiosis with the fabric of the big city. Is it the people who take care of cats, or perhaps the other way around? Director Ceyda Torun follows both two- and four-legged creatures in their routines and interactions with each other in a refined observational style. Her attention to animal details ensures that the whole transcends a YouTube cat montage and captures certain nuances surrounding the human relationship with (domestic) animals.
Our guest speaker lets the cat out of the bag with an explanation about pets and their human owners. Drawing on her own experience as a filmmaker and her personal relationship with her cat Henry, she attempts to describe the complex relationship between “owner” and animal. Where does human control end and animal autonomy begin in the symbiosis of living together?
This screening will be introduced by filmmaker Marthe Peters.
Red River (1948), KASKcinemafilmAgendaArtistic activitiesWe kick off our theme month with a cinephile stampede of epic proportions. Red River is one of Old Hollywood auteur Howard Hawks' undisputed masterpieces. John Wayne and Montgomery Clift shine here as a father-son duo of cattle ranchers trying to drive their herd from Texas to Missouri. Travelling through desolate fields and strangely shaped mountain ranges, the men are dependent on each other. Danger lurks at every turn, while the wounds of the American Civil War are visible in the landscape. Hawks based the story on the true expeditions of the Chisholm Trail, but historical specificity takes a back seat here in exchange for a complex character study that dissects the male mythos behind the “Wild West”.
Although Hawks grazed on different genres and registers throughout his rich career, his work is defined by thematic consistency. Here, too, value systems about professionalism and (gender) identity clash in devilishly fast dialogues. The growing alienation between the two men is further underlined by the film's mise-en-scène, which brings hundreds of animals onto the scene in spectacular cow choreographies. The ballet of the beasts in the vast nothingness of the Great American Plains renders our heroes insignificant despite their grand ambitions. Like ants on the face of history.
This screening will be introduced by KASKcinema programmer Lennart Soberon.
Window Horses (2016), KASKcinemafilmAgendaArtistic activitiesInspired by the Persian tradition of Yaldā, KASKcinema celebrates the shortening of the nights and the lengthening of the days for the fifth year in a row with Kuleshov, Urgent.fm's film programme. For the first time, we are honouring the transition from darkness to light with an animated film: the award-winning but unreleased Window Horses: The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming. However, we are doing so in the traditional manner, with tea, pastries and Persian poetry.
Call it poetic coincidence, because just like the film Universal Language (2024) on the previous Yaldā Night, Window Horses creates an unlikely enriching connection between Iran and... Canada? The main character, Rosie Ming, is an orphan of Chinese-Persian descent who lives with her grandparents in Vancouver. Unexpectedly, as a young poet, she is invited to an international poetry festival in Shiraz, Iran, the poetry capital of the land of poets. During her journey, Rosie learns about the fate of her parents, finding her own (poetic) voice through the beauty of grief, and how to understand each other without speaking the same language. A wonderful culture shock that sparkles with love for family, history, music, and poetry. Independent animator and visual artist Ann Marie Fleming is herself of mixed heritage and sees Window Horses as a modest attempt to add a little more understanding to an increasingly complex, conflicted world.
The screening will be followed by a performance by Ehsan Yadollahi.
Supermen Dönüyor (1979), KASKcinemafilmAgendaArtistic activitiesIs it a bird, is it a plane, is it copyright infringement? All that and so much more. Supermen Dönüyor (The Return of Superman) is the Turkish 70s remake of DC Comics' most iconic crime fighter. With laser-beam eyes set on commercial success, this bootleg B-movie attempted to recreate the success of Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve's Superman adaptation (1978), minus the budget, sets and star power. This formula was not uncommon for the time. With films such as 3 Dev Adam (1973) and Şeytan (1974), American film classics such as The Exorcist (1973), Star Wars (1977) and The Karate Kid (1984) were rapidly remade for the copyright limbo of the Turkish market.
However, to call Supermen Dönüyor a futile pursuit of Hollywood is to pull on the wrong cape. Decades before Sweding was a concept, this era of Turksploitation was already exploring the joys of crude reinterpretations of the cultural canon. In light of the pompous special effects of the reboot-obsessed superhero landscape, this aluminium-clad Man of Steel has only gained strength. A piece of kryptonite for everyone who lets budget constraints hold them back from dreaming.
American Psycho (2000), KASKcinemafilmAgendaArtistic activitiesPatrick Bateman seems to have the perfect life: a prestigious Wall Street job, tailor-made Valentino suits, a stunningly beautiful fiancée and more money than anyone could ever need. But behind this glossy façade lies a darkness that even his intense twelve-step skincare routine cannot hide. The real Bateman is a serial killer whose fuse could blow at any moment.
Mary Harron's American Psycho, based on the controversial novel by Bret Easton Ellis, needs no introduction. The film launched Christian Bale as a Hollywood star and, some 25 years later, remains eerily relevant. What began as a scathing satire on the materialistic Wall Street culture of the 1980s reads today as an equally sharp commentary on the toxicity of internet hustle culture. So warm up those hips with some Huey Lewis & The News and come and compare business cards at this disturbing but irresistibly entertaining finale to Film-Plateau's autumn programme.
This screening will be introduced by film researcher Atalya De Cock.
Les Enfants du Paradis (1945), KASKcinemafilmAgendaArtistic activitiesAs a refuge from the inhospitable winter days, we are opening our doors for a magical matinee screening of Les Enfants du Paradis. This monumental film by Marcel Carné tells the story of a group of lost souls in 19th-century Paris with a smile and a tear. In the theatres of Boulevard du Crime, actors Baptiste Deburau and Frédérick Lemaître live for their art. One embodies the Pantomime tradition, while the other excels in melodrama. Their rivalry on stage becomes heated when both gentlemen fall for the charms of the enigmatic Garance (played by the timeless Arletty). However, the thief and poet Pierre and the sinister aristocrat Édouard also compete for Garance's heart and thus become entangled in a love story doomed to tragedy.
Drawing on the lives of several historical figures, Les Enfants du Paradis captures a period in which values surrounding art, love and power were radically redefined. With poetic verve, Carné makes his characters playthings of their desires and the changing times. Life as a cosmic theatre play that mercilessly unfolds itself on the margins of history.