The Festival de Cine Fantástico de la Universidad de Málaga (the Fantasy Film Festival of the University of Málaga) unveils the participation of ‘¿Quién puede matar a un niño?’, ‘The Wailing’, ‘K-Shop’ and ‘Ma vie de Courgette’ in this year´s edition. The classic spanish horror ‘¿Quién puede matar a un niño?’, directed by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, celebrates its 40th anniversary at Fancine. The festival has organised the screening of the film accompanied by live music from the band Guilles, previously known as Guilles de Rais and characterised by their original way of playing extreme metal. After five albums and an upcoming sixth, the quintet have embarked on the adventure of conducting the musical story of Tom and Evelyn, a couple of tourists that decided to spend their honeymoon in a Spanish coastal town, where they cannot find enough peace. Trying to look for a more relaxing place, they rent a boat to go to a small island where the only inhabitants are children with a desire to kill.
The horror continues in Fancine with the inclusion of ‘The Wailing’, a film from Na Hong- jin that has been a revelation at the Cannes Film Festival. The Korean director tells the story of the people of Goksung, the town that gave its name to the title of the original film and where a series of terrible killings occur. Because of the events the inhabitants commence a search for the identity of the killer, accusing a recent arrival to the town played by the actor Jun Kunimura, known for playing characters such as Boss Tanaka in
‘Kill Bill’.
Another title for this year´s edition is ‘K-Shop’, a thriller that will receive it´s Spanish premiere in Fancine. Directed by Dan Pringle, the film takes us to a kebab shop in England during a tragic night where Salah´s father fights with angry and drunk clients. The argument finishes with the death of the father and from that moment, Salah starts to seek vengeance using the shop as cover. Futhermore, the film shows us the terror of drinking culture in British society. The film has also taken part in other festivals such as Festival Européen du Film Fantastique de Strasbourg (the Strasbourg European Fantasy Film Festival) and MotelX (the Lisbon International Horror Film Festival) where it was nominated to win Best European Film.
Finally, animation comes from ‘Ma vie de Courgette’, a production from the Swede Claude Barras which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this year. The protagonist is Courgette, who´s real name is Icare. He is a nine year-old boy who never met his father and, after his mother´s death, starts to live in an orphanage where he will discover values such as friendship and trust. The film, animated in stop-motion, has won prizes like the Audience Award at the Annecy Festival. In addition, it has been selected by Sweden to represent the country at the next Oscars in the Best Foreign Language film category.
