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Flux Gourmet

Encounters 2022
© Flux Gourmet, Bankside Films, IFC Productions I
Peter Strickland’s fifth feature takes place in an art residency led by an upper-class aesthete who has invited a culinary collective to perform their “sonic catering” practice for a month. Hired to report on their creative process, a Greek writer begins to suffer from indigestion, to which the institution’s sarcastic doctor responds by advising him to “let food be his medicine”. While his intestinal disorders force him to acknowledge his own malaise, the collective is undermined by internal quarrels as well as external assaults from a group of sardonic, rejected candidates. This may all sound frivolous, but it is quite the opposite, since the film broaches not only a culinary problem but also a question about art. Films have rarely taken food intolerances and human consumption so seriously, or so literally, and certainly not to such hallucinatory and nightmarish ends. With its inimitable, precise and colourful gestures, Strickland’s gory comedy reconnects the image with those organic processes that art usually deems to be impure and unacceptable. Not as a provocation, but to remind us that the imagination should not be seen as separate from the natural realm. As the writer puts it at the outset: “Every day at the Sonic Catering Institute begins with a walk in the park”.
by Peter Strickland
with Asa Butterfield, Gwendoline Christie, Ariane Labed, Fatma Mohamed, Makis Papadimitriou, Leo Bill, Richard Bremmer United Kingdom / USA / Hungary 2022 English, Greek 111’ Colour World premiere

With

  • Asa Butterfield (Billy Rubin)
  • Gwendoline Christie (Jan Stevens)
  • Ariane Labed (Lamina Propria)
  • Fatma Mohamed (Elle di Elle)
  • Makis Papadimitriou (Stones)
  • Leo Bill (Technical Assistant)
  • Richard Bremmer (Dr. Glock)

Crew

Written and Directed by Peter Strickland
Cinematography Tim Sidell
Editing Mátyás Fekete
Sound Design Tim Harrison
Sound Cassandra Rutledge
Production Design Fletcher Jarvis
Costumes Saffron Cullane
Make-Up Siobhan Harper Ryan
Casting Shaheen Baig
Assistant Director Simon Rooke
Producers Serena Armitage, Pietro Greppi
Co-Producer Ildikó Kemény
Co-Production Pioneer Pictures Budapest

World Sales

Bankside Films

Produced by

Lunapark Pictures

Red Breast Productions

Bankside Films

IFC Productions

Photos

Peter Strickland

© Daniel Gasenzer

The British director was born in 1973 and began directing short films in the early 1990s. After a long hiatus from filmmaking during which he created culinary soundscapes with The Sonic Catering Band, he returned to film in the early 2000s and made his first feature, Katalin Varga. Alongside further short and feature films, he has also written radio plays and has made a concert film for Björk, which he co-directed with Nick Fenton.

Filmography

1996 Bubblegum; short film 1998 Conduct Phase; short film 2004 A Metaphysical Education; short film 2005 Berberian Sound Studio; short film 2009 Katalin Varga 2012 Berberian Sound Studio 2014 Björk: Biophilia Live; documentary, co-director: Nick Fenton · The Duke of Burgundy 2018 The Cobblers’ Lot; part of the anthology film “The Field Guide to Evil” · In Fabric 2019 GUO4; short film 2020 Cold Meridian; short film 2022 Flux Gourmet

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2022