Grossmann Info

The 3rd day of Grossmann Fantastic Film and Wine Festival will start already at 13:00h, when the gates of Torture Garden shall open within the dark dungeons of Alcatraz Cinema. It will feature five extremely fierce genre extravaganzas, brought to us in a steel cage by our last year's short film jury member Julian Richards, co-founder of Jinga Films, our partners in this year's B-marathon of blood, laughs and weirdness. Two of these films he also directed – found footage shocker The Last Horror Movie, which was favourably compared to cult classic Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, and macabre pagan thriller Darklands in which Rosemary's Baby meets The Wicker Man. Both films won numerous awards, including EFFFF's prestigious Melies d'Argent. But to get to them, you will have to witness the terror of the gruesome US horror The House With 100 Eyes which makes every so-called »torture porn« film blush like a schoolgirl, Canadian Tromaesque horror comedy Bad Meat which will make you sick to your stomach, and the notorius US arty exploitation The Bunny Game which is banned in UK.

Do not, no matter what, take you kids to the Torture Garden, but take them to the Enchanted Cinema instead, where they will be able to enjoy British animated family comedy Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit, another hit film by Aardman studio.

Our special Metal Hurlant 40th anniversary tribute section will feature the legendary Canadian animation anthology Heavy Metal, inspired by stories by giants of comic book art such as Richard Corben, Berni Wrightson and Jean Giraud – Moebius, and featuring soundtrack by the likes of Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Trust and Devo.

A very special treat awaits action fans at Cineplexx Murska Sobota - an exclusive screening of Indonesian martial arts epic The Raid 2, lauded by critics as the greatest action film ever, chock full of breath-taking scenes that make Hollywood blockbusters look like child's play in comparison. No words of praise can adequately describe The Raid 2, so let's just say that this is definitely a film that you can't afford to miss!

In our Shock Doc section there will be an outbreak of Super 8 Madness. Director Fabrice Blin's documentary brings back the times of amateur low-budget horror films shot on 8mm film. Get acquainted with titles such as The Toilet Plunger Massacre, Indiana Fonebone and the Lost Toilet Seat, Close Encounter of the Bad Kind and Cannibal Aftermath!

Retrospective of films by Djordje Kadijević will continue with his extremely creepy metaphisycal horror The Protected One, a haunting story of a young man, followed by a mysterious man in black coat, who takes shelter in a mental hospital, only to find out that his follower has no intention of letting him go. In The Protected One, Kadijević masterfully creates a tense atmosphere of dread, achieving the heights of cinematic horror that only a few filmmakers were able to reach in the history of genre film.

Fans of extreme splatter will be taken care of by our Grossmann Grindhouse section, featuring Brazilian director Rodrigo Aragão's low-budget zombie gorefest Dark Sea where Braindead, Evil Dead 2 and Dagon meet on a tropical island in a brutal orgy of violence.

Open Air Cinema will have you laughing and crying with Hungarian dark comedy Heavenly Shift from our main competition program. Its story is set in 1992 and follows former medicine student Milan who escapes from the Bosnian battlefield to Budapest and gets a job as a part of a paramedic team. He soon finds out that his colleagues have a sinister business arrangement with a funeral director. Superb acting, numerous bizarre situations and pitch black humour are main features of writer/director Mark Bodzsar's debut film which has already taken festival audiences by storm and was awarded at this year's Fantasporto.

Hotel Stela terrace will be the scene of the main event of our wine program, public wine tasting of all the samples in competition for the Wine Champion Vicious Cat. Renowned wine writer, judge and lecturer Darrel Joseph, the main guest of the Wine Program, will give his expert opinion on each of the competing wines. The wine tasting will be also attended by this year's Slovenian Wine Queen Špela Štokelj.

A tremendous dose of dread will be provided by Czech anthology of ten short films entitled Pioneers of Horror which will be presented by directors Jiří Fábík and Pavel Soukup. This project was initiated by a young couple of filmmakers and horror fans, Josef Blazek and Adela Hrivnakova, and also includes famous names such as Marek Dobeš, Robert Jašków and Václav Vydra.

At the end of the day, full of cinematic pleasures and divine wine, your ears will be ferociously assaulted by US psychobilly trio Koffin Kats who will appear at Club Oxygen, along with dark rock'n'roll band Kripl from Slovenia.

More info on our film, wine and accompanying program can be found on our website

www.grossmann.si/home/.

"The Cat shall sing its vicious song and dare you all to sing along..."