DIR. PANOS COSMATOS | 2012 | CANADA | 110 MIN

Young Elena has been a prisoner her entire life, her world consisting of four stark white walls and one single window. And on the other side of that window, Doctor Barry Nyle. Is he Elena’s salvation or her tormenter ? Will she ever be free to live a normal life ? And what, pray tell, is the exact purpose of the glowing pyramid at the centre of the institute that contains them both? Beyond the Black Rainbow is a psychedelic head trip of the highest order. Director Panos Cosmatos plunges the audience into a sort of sensory overload as he fuses elements of Reagan - era paranoia, social engineering run amok and a drug fuelled step up the evolutionary ladder to create a hypnotic experience that plays out like a Tarkovsky style science fiction picture. - TODD BROWN, FANTASIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

PLAYS WITH

A La Carte, dir. Jocelyne Le Leannec, 2012, Canada, 3 min.
It’s feeding time in a dark, unearthly world. Here, tranquil feasts are often disrupted. This time, however, it’s a struggle for life as we follow one beast’s attempts to avoid his fate.