Irish film ‘Halowin’ winner of Lars Von Trier’s latest project, Gesamt
In August 2012, Danish enfant terrible director Lars von Trier posed a challenge to the aspiring filmmakers of the world: Reinterpret one or more of six classic works (James Joyce’s novel Ulysses, Paul Gauguin’s painting Where do you come from? Who are we? Where are we going? and Sammy Davis Jr.’s step dance performance ‘Choreography’ among them) into a film, video, still, piece of music or soundpiece. True to Trier’s apocalyptic leanings as of late, the project is titled ‘Gesamt – Disaster 501: What Happened to Man.’ Not a competition, the Gesamt project will take 400-plus submissions and work them into one exhibition at the Charlottenborg Palace in Copenhagen, Denmark, to run October 12 through December 30.
The Irish short film Halowin directed by the Spanish-Dublin based director Paco Torres and co-produced by The Element Post, is the only Irish film been part of this new wave of filming, using global filmmaker’s vision and the idea of one of the biggest contemporary directors.
Halowin was shot in only six days in Dublin, from the concept, to the script, preproduction, production and postproduction and has four actors that have done a beautiful performance in such a short term; Joe McKinney, Paul Butler Lennox, Grace Hendy and the Spanish actor Carmen Montero.
The original uniting thread behind the exhibition was uplifting: to show man as a symbolic part of a larger community. But as the submissions poured in, it became apparent to Trier and artistic director Jenle Hallund that the artists reacted to the project’s theme by creating works communicating loneliness and yearning, even taking on a dimension of disaster, hence the series title.
• James Joyce’s novel Ulysses
• August Strindberg’s play The Father
• Albert Speer’s monument Zeppelinfield in Nuremberg
• the painting Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going? by the French painter Paul Gauguin
• the French composer César Franck’s Sonate in A major
• Sammy Davis Jr’s step dance performance Choreography
Torres wrote Halowin inspired in Paul Gauguin, with a simple logline: Three friends get ready for a Halloween good night out. All is perfect, until they encounter a drug dealer who changes their destinies forever. With his vision and full understanding of film, Paco has created an absorbing and puzzling story in only five minutes.
Torres is based in Dublin and is currently finalising the script of his next feature film Blue Guitar, co-write with Johnny Ferguson (Gangster Number One) and Produced by Michael Garland (Death of Superhero) and Paul Myler (The Guard, In America, Bloody Sunday), with Kais Nashif as main cast (Paradise Now) and Javier Aguirresarobe as DOP (Twilight, The Others, amongst others).
Only few months ago, Torres also wrote and directed another spectacular short film based on innocence of children in Benghazi, during the Libya war in 2011, called The Rattle of Benghazi.
• The Rattle of Benghazi has got 15 Official selections in two months and two awards, Human Right Award at Invisibles International Film Festival in Bilbao and Honorific Special Mention at short Shorts Film Festival in Mexico.
• The film talks about the horror of war from a brother and sister point of view.
Synopsis of Halowin
Carmen, Grace and Joe are in their thirties. They three of them are very good friends and share the same apartment as flat mates. A good night out in Halloween for the three friends, with drink, drug and a surprise party. All perfect and ready, when the arrival of the drug dealer to the secret location is going to change the destiny of all of them. Violence, intimidation and a yawning social gulf are exposed in this film, only in five minutes. The film amusingly nails these characters pretensions, Carmen wants to save her baby´s life, Grace wants to be with Joe forever, while Joe gets drugs and keeps on partying. The celebration of the dead, is also the celebration of discovering important issues between the three of them and most of all, what price will you pay to save your life?
More info:
Halowin in Gesamt Project http://www.gesamt.org/uk/
FilmBlog and Torres´Bio: http://elvuelodeltrenfilm.
Festivals The rattle of Benghazi: http://elvuelodeltrenfilm.
Web de The rattle of Benghazi: http://www.wix.com/
Web Distribuidor: http://www.agenciafreak.com/
Facebook The Rattle of Benghazi: https://www.facebook.com/#!/
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Making off The rattle of Benghazi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Soundtrack: http://soundcloud.com/
Facebook Halowin: https://www.facebook.com/
Element site: http://www.element.ie/
Paco Torres (IMDB) http://www.imdb.com/name/
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