Albert is employed to look after Mia, a girl with teeth of ice. Mia never leaves their apartment, where the shutters are always closed. The telephone rings regularly and the Master enquires after Mia’s wellbeing. Until the day Albert is instructed that he must prepare the child to leave...
Director: Lucile Hadzihalilovic 2021, 115 min. In English.
Lucile Hadzihalilovic passed her childhood and adolescence in Morocco, before moving to Paris where she studied first art history, then film at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinématographiques (now la Fémis). Her graduation film was LA PREMIÈRE MORT DE NONO. In the early 1990s she founded the production company LES CINEMAS DE LA ZONE with Gaspar Noé, with whom she worked on CARNE and SEUL CONTRE TOUS (I STAND ALONE). Their collaboration continued with her contribution to the screenplay of Noé’s Enter the Void.
In 1996 Hadzihalilovic produced, wrote, edited and directed LA BOUCHE DE JEAN-PIERRE (MIMI), a 52-minute film that screened in Un Certain Regard, at Cannes, and won the Prix SACD at Avignon Film Festival, the Best Screenplay Award at Angers European First Film Festival, the Special Jury Prize at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and the OCIC Award (Honorable Mention) at Amiens International Film Festival.
In 2004, she wrote and directed the feature film INNOCENCE, based upon Wedekind’s “Mine-haha” produced by Agat Films, BlueLight and Entre chien et loup. The film won the Best New Director Prize at San Sebastian International Film Festival, the Bronze Horse for Best Film and the Best Cinematography Prize (for Benoit Debie) at the Stockholm Film Festival, the FIPRESCI Prize and People’s Choice Award at Istanbul International Film Festival, the Best Film Award at Neuchâtel International Fantasy Film Festival, and the Special Jury Prize at the Yubari Festival, Japan.
In 2015, she directed EVOLUTION, co-written with Alanté Kavaïté and in collaboration with Geoff Cox, and produced by Les films du Worso, Noodles Production, Volcano Films, Scope Pictures and Left Field Ventures. The film won the Special Jury Prize and Best Cinematography Prize (for Manuel Dacosse) at San Sebastian International Film Festival, the Best Cinematography Prize at the Stockholm Film Festival, and the WITFS Fondation International Visionary Award 2015.She has also directed the short films GOOD BOYS USE CONDOMS (1998) NECTAR (2014) and DE NATURA (2018) selected in numerous festivals.
"Now 60 and only three features into her career, Hadzihalilovic is one of the very few filmmakers who actually qualifies as “Lynchian” and I hope she comes back around more often"
FILMMAKER MAGAZINE - Sept 10, 2021 - Vadim Rizov
"Earwig is Hadzihalilovic's first English language film, but it’s her dreary discombobulating of space and time that makes her newest flick stand out"
THE PLAYLIST - Sept 7, 2021 - Andrew Bundy
"It does show how Hadžhalilović is a rare breed among genre directors today, especially those specializing in body horror. Like a good surgeon, she works at her own rhythm, administering gore and violence with extreme caution, killing us but doing it ever so softly. The knife cuts carefully but it cuts deep"
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER - September 10, 2021
Cleveland International Film Festival
Cleveland, OH
March 31 and April 1, 2022
IFC
New York, NY
July 15 - 21, 2022
The Independent Picture House
Charlotte, NC
July 15 - 21, 2022
Cinema Arts Centre
Huntington, NY
July 27, 2022
SPACE Gallery
Portland, ME
July 29, 2022
The Brattle Theatre
Cambridge, MA
July 29 - August 2, 2022
The Roxy Theater
Missoula, MT
August 12, 2022
The Boedecker Theater
Boulder, CO
August 26, 2022
The Belcourt Theatre
Nashville TN
August 24 - 25, 2022
Austin Film Society
Austin, TX
September 2, 3 and 7, 2022
SIFF Cinema Uptown
Seattle, WA
September 2 - 8, 2022
THE GUILD CINEMA
Albuquerque, NM
September 1 - 4, 2022
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