The Wolf House: Animated Allegory
Time & Location
About the Event
Tickets are $12, Streaming begins May 15th: https://kimstimvirtual.vhx.tv/products/the-wolf-house-at-epsilon-spires
Thursday, May 21 at 9pm EDT, live online Q & A with co-director's León & Cociña, moderated by film critic/writer Carlos Aguilar
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Maria, a young girl finds refuge in a house in the south of Chile after escaping from a sect of German religious fanatics. She is welcomed into the home by two pigs, the only inhabitants of the place. Like in a dream, the universe of the house reacts to Maria’s feelings. The animals transform slowly into humans and the house becomes a nightmarish world.
Loosely based on the grim case of Colonia Dignidad, a German émigré-run colony in post-WWII Chile that was revealed to have been used to imprison, torture, and murder dissidents during the Pinochet regime, THE WOLF HOUSE (La Casa Lobo) is an animated fairytale with a much darker foundation than most. As deeply disturbing as its inspiration would suggest, it is also a truly inspired feat of animation, its extraordinary craft and artistic vision fusing with its profoundly sinister themes to powerfully communicate the experience of collective trauma.
The Chilean filmmakers Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña created each image of their visually stunning and horrifying film using life-size models and sets that are in a constant state of evolution. Over the course of 5 years, they set up temporary studios within art gallerys and museums from Chile to Amsterdam, creating the film with art aficionados as their witnesses. Using stop-motion animation to unfurl a never-ending series of transformations that play out as a single sequence shot, THE WOLF HOUSE is easily one of the most accomplished, transporting, and conceptually rich animated features to appear in recent memory. Winner of the Caligari Film Prize at the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival.
"It is not often we encounter a piece of filmmaking that is so assured in its intentions and so astute in how to achieve them. THE WOLF HOUSE is a compelling, enigmatic, and evil puzzle box that continues to burrow into your subconscious long after the film has ended and there’s nothing but shadows left in the cinema." -Evrim Ersoy, Fantastic Fest
“Fuses Grimm's fairytales, the early shorts of David Lynch and the stop-motion work of Jan Svankmajer into a visually engrossing, reference-rich and disturbing tale about psychological trauma.” –Jonathan Holland, Hollywood Reporter
Our new online screenings are an effort to stay connected while social-distancing and enjoy innovative films together while we are temporarily closed. The cost of each online ticket sold will be split between the distributor and Epsilon Spires. Each rental will directly help our venue survive through these challenging times.
♥ Much gratitude to the filmmakers for their partnership, and to you, our community, for your continued support ♥