Born of Woman 2023

Fantasia’s top-tier showcase of intimate auteur genre visions returns with eight works from six countries that will leave you shaken and amazed. From Argentina, Lucia Bernal’s SAYANI (International Premiere) is a transfixing dose of otherworldly atmosphere and emotion, directed with tremendous visual command, set in a mysterious place where extra-terrestrial beings guide a lost pilot to her destiny. Belgium rumbles the earth with Salomé Crickx’s multi-faceted black comedy SAID OF A DEER THAT SHEDS ITS ANTLERS (Montreal Premiere), possibly the most subversive film the country’s produced since MAN BITES DOG. In a small, rural town, the 167th annual moult will soon begin and writer/director Crickx is about to become your new hero.

Britain screams with Noomi Yates’ ONLY YOURSELF TO BLAME (World Premiere), in which a girl walking home at night finds herself followed by a frightening figure that copies her every movement. A stunningly tense film that combines physical and psychological horror to devastating impact. Executive Produced by Rose Glass. France hits hart with Joséphine Darcy Hopkins’ SWEET TOOTH (Canadian Premiere), her third work to bless the Fantasia screen, following THE DAY MY MOTHER BECAME A MONSTER (2017) and CLOUD (2020), piecing perfectly into her gripping oeuvre of genre storytelling, with startling performances, potent allegorical weight and moments of shock that will freeze you.

Hailing from Germany, Sophia Bierend’s paralyzing THE TASTER (International Premiere) is a captivating master class of slow-burn tension, set in a near-future Romania where a young girl is chosen to work as a food taster for the leader of forces occupying her country. The sole rule to follow is that she must never look this man in the eye. From the USA, Nicole Mejia’s MANCHA (International Premiere) is an extraordinary work that addresses multi-generational trauma with magic realism through the atmosphere of a waking dream. A reactionary political commentator (Madeline Brewer, CAM) struggles to balance her ambitions with her morals when a mass shooter cites her as an influence in Lola Blanc’s PRUNING (International Premiere), a film that hits hard with anger and imaginatively grotesque streaks of surrealism. Michelle Krusiec’s NIAN (Montreal Premiere) brings traditional Chinese mythology into a racially charged American school bullying universe, to wickedly satisfying effect. – Mitch Davis