Cyrus Frisch 2009 90 min The Netherlands
This film tells the story of passionate love between two people who long for a more beautiful life. Through a trick of fate a man in Argentina and a young woman in Amsterdam find themselves connected by telephone. They share a sense of horror with the world around them, from which their conversation provides a welcome escape. Despite the physical distance they develop a strong bond. But even the passion ignited between them can’t avert a fatal ending.
(Amsterdam, 1969) is a Dutch avant-garde filmmaker. Filmmaker Magazine called him the wild man of Dutch film. According to Holland Film Frisch is one of the most daring filmmakers currently working in Holland.
His debut feature film Forgive me, meant as a critique of reality-TV culture, premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (2001) and set his name as a controversial filmmaker. Frisch himself plays the lead in that film. He pretends to be a devilish director without any ethical boundaries in search for the ultimate, exciting (fiction) film. He uses a group of (real) social outcasts and mentally handicapped as actors.
In 2009 Frisch finished Dazzle (aka Oogverblindend) he started shooting 15 years ago, with Dutch star-actress Georgina Verbaan and Rutger Hauer in the lead. Indiewire’s Eric Kohn describes Dazzle as a super-cool cinematic challenge. ARepulsion-like thriller stuffed into the aesthetics of a Chris Marker diary film. According to the Tribeca film festival catalogue, in Dazzle, Frisch creates his own unique vision of a socially engaged cinema. Dazzle is said to be Hauer’s first film in his homecountry in 29 years.