10th edition CIFF – 10-14 April 2024

The Lobster (2016 Feature Film)

Yorgos Lanthimos | Ireland, United Kingdom, Greece, France, Netherlands, USA | 2015 | 118 min | English, French | d.s.

At a strange hotel far away in the woods, there is only one rule: date or die. Loneliness is a taboo: the hotel guests irrevocably change into animals if they don’t hook up. They can stretch the deadline a couple of days if they go hunting the feral loners wandering the woods. Absurdism that makes you think.

In Lanthimos’ fabulous film (Jury prize Cannes, two European Film Awards), singles hidden away at a hotel in the woods get a month to find a new partner. If they don’t manage it, they’ll change into an animal of their choice. Colin Farrell has been perfectly cast as the semi-tortured David who abides entirely by the hotel’s strange rules. In his first English-dialogue film, the Greek Lanthimos once again creates a cruel, strange, yet familiar world with its own logic that everyone accepts. He makes the audience think about which subconscious rules actually condition their lives and how we are enslaved by peer pressure. In the walled world of the hotel, the characters live isolated lives with their own rules and secrets. Here, sexual favours are covertly, mechanically handed out. It’s also where violence breaks out suddenly. On these islands everyone is playing a game. Play-acting has become a survival mechanism in this dangerous microcosm.

Place: CINEMA 4

Date: 8 April 2016

Time: 14:45

Duration: 2:00

Place: CINEMA 4

Date: 9 April 2016

Time: 21:30

Duration: 2:00

Place: CINEMA 4

Date: 10 April 2016

Time: 10:45

Duration: 2:00

Year in
Festival

2016

Director

Yorgos Lanthimos

Camera

Thimios Bakatakis

Cast

Colin Farrell
Rachel Weisz
Jessica Barden
Olivia Colman
Ashley Jensen
Ariane Labed
Angeliki Papoulia

Country

Ireland
United Kingdom
Greece
France
Netherlands
USA

Editor

Yorgos Mavropsaridis

Language

English
French

Length

118 min

Music

Amy Ashworth

Producer

Ceci Dempsey
Ed Guiney
Yorgos Lanthimos
Lee Magiday

Production Company

Element Pictures
Limp
Scarlet Films

Production Design

Jacqueline Abrahams

Sales

Protagonist Pictures

Scenario

Yorgos Lanthimos
Efthimis Filippou

Sound Design

Johnnie Burn

Year of Production

2015

Website

Yorgos LANTHIMOS (1973, Greece) studied Film and TV Directing in Athens. Since 1995, he has directed films, plays and a large number of commercials. Dogtooth, his second feature, won the Prix Un Certain Regard at the Cannes film festival in 2009. It went on to win several other awards at festivals worldwide, culminating in an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film in 2011. Alps (2011) is Lanthimos’ third feature. The Lobster won the Jury Prize in Cannes and two European Film Awards.

 

Filmography

Uranisco Disco (2001, short), Kinetta (2005), Kynodontas/Dogtooth (2009), Alpeis/Alps (2011), Venice 70: Future Reloaded (2013, doc), The Lobster (2015)