July 13th at 9:30pm I $7 at the door I $12 advance 3 day passes
NR, approx. 90 min., 35mm
Hadrian Belove: Cinefamily’s Head Programmer in attendance
LOST IN THE DESERT (aka DIRKIE) is a South African kids’ movie sadistic to the point of absurdity, submitting its lone boy protagonist Dirkie, poor eight-year old Dirkie, to a cavalcade of traumas and tribulations punishing in their accumulation, and positively Christ-like in their extremity. This movie is either the bleakest of godless nightmares, or the blackest, most hilarious comedy ever concocted–and made for children, no less. Mel Gibson would flinch at what happens to this kid. And, unbelievably, the film was directed by the wee actor’s da. Stranded in the Kalahari without water, Dirkie biblically wanders the desert with his pet terrier where he is harassed by hyenas, repeatedly injured, sleep-deprived, psychologically tortured, and finally left passed out and half-buried in the sand looking like an image from an Arrabal film. Disturbing and relentless right up to its oblique, ambiguous and haunting last shot…and, oh, those dead puppies in the sand…dead puppies in the sand…
Critical reception for the Cinefamily:
“Simply breathtaking in its scope and ambition” – Peter Martin, Cinematical.com
“Makes movie-going an event, with mega-rare film screenings, musical performances, crazed clip compilations & backyard barbeques.” – LAist.com
“the sheer ambition is hard to overstate…a climate-altering event for Los Angeles moviegoers.”
– LA WEEKLY
“A die-hard movie fan’s wet dream.”
– PAPER MAG
Additional Cinefamily Screenings:
http://hollywoodtheatre.org/cinefamily-hollywood-100-outrageous-f-ks/
http://hollywoodtheatre.org/cinefamily-5-minutes-game/
