“Who has a pig as a pet?”
Demir (Gem Deger) wakes up in his underwear in a bubblegum colored world and he has no idea how he got there. Luckily, Andrew (Austin Chunn) is there to make him breakfast and Drew (Issy Stewart) is there to keep him company, along with their pet pig, Joshua. Andrew is an auctioneer who will stop at nothing to obtain the items he desires. Drew on the other hand wants Andrew’s item of desire, but once Demir shows up, things get a bit glitchy.
It’s not until Drew OD’s and her body is put away, that Demir and Andrew start figuring out what’s really going on. Demir has no memory of his life before showing up at Andrew’s house, but what he does know is that Andrew looks strikingly familiar to the lead actor of Demir’s favorite movie Rebel Instinct. Fueled by drugs and sexual desire, Demir and Andrew will have to figure out what’s going on before everything spins out of control.
When bad things happen, we try to go to a happy place where things are better. In this case, our amnesiac hero wants to live in his favorite movie after a traumatic event that left him broken and desperate for human connection. His disassociation from the brutality of the real world allows him to be his sweet, vulnerable self while falling for a man who won’t let him down and can protect him from the villains in the world.
A stellar directorial debut from lead actor Deger and written by Morris Stuttard, this film takes on a very difficult subject in a serious way. Trauma is terrible and everyone processes it in different ways. When a young man is brutally attacked by someone he trusts he has no choice but to go somewhere he can be safe and secure with someone he has a deep connection with. This film has a bright feel when dealing with a dark subject, especially with the 80’s slasher synth score that suggests that there is something more sinister going on that we wouldn’t wish on our worst enemy.
Reviewed April 18, 2022. Rating: TBC. Running time: 88 min.
PRODUCTION: A Kino Lorber release of a The LAB production. Producers: Martin Raiman & Steve Reverand.
CREW: Director: Gem Deger. Writers: Gem Deger & Morris Stuttard. Editing: Anssi Korhonen. Cinematography: Cédric Larvoire.
CAST: Austin Chunn, Gem Deger, Issy Stewart.