Harpur Cinema presents ‘The Wild Boys’ – Bertrand Mandico – France – 2017

Mandico’s first feature film, after more than 40 shorts, is “a grand burst of forms and textures, of artifices and effects laid bare, where the seams between images and sounds open as many breaches to the imaginary” (Le Monde). When a band of wealthy boys commit a terrible crime, they are sent off to work on a dreadful ship. After many adventures, they land on a paradise island, a place of mysterious metamorphoses. As it explores the unstable zone of fluctuation between genders, the film experiments with form such as overlapping, instantaneous transitions from monochrome to color, rear projection effects, visual manipulations, all realized while filming and evoking the poetic illusions of early cinema. “A refined example of radical and engaged cinema” (Cineuropa).

Won: Prix Louis Delluc, Best First Feature – Vilnius Film Festival, Best Director

Nominated: Munich Film Festival, Best Director – Venice Film Festival, Queer Lion