Emancipatory, feminist, subversive, and girly! Third Eye is a section that has the power to turn the world upside down. After all, for years it has showcased female protagonists — sleeping beauties, maidservants, devourers of bodies — who break free from the clutches of an oppressive world. In the process, they often reveal their claws, which is why this year we are turning our gaze to female monsters, mermaids, and Medusas. These monstresses will visit the 24th mBank New Horizons IFF (July 18-28).
Monstresses are leaving the land of horror and fantasy, losing feathers, shedding scales, and seemingly hiding fangs. During this year’s Third Eye, we'll watch monstrosity reflected in modern times. While once, in fairy tales and myths, they guarded the gates to castles, magical forests or enchanted lands, today they invite us into undiscovered worlds. Other monsters open doors to new realities, to spaces of transgression, and freedom from social expectations.
Their guide is the exemplificatory monstress, Bella from Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, who doesn’t see her own monstrosity, and thus smartens the world up. She is followed by other monstrosities — teenage girls transforming into adult women in Anna Roller’s Dead Girls Dancing, a large woman with big desires in Claudia Rorarius’ Touched, a 40-year-old resort entertainer who dares to do the work of young girls in Sofia Exarchou's Animal, and young monstresses cursed by their own families in Rose Glass’ Love Lies Bleeding.
What is a woman rid of self-contempt? Not allowing herself to be disciplined? Not allowing herself to be driven into the ruts of narrowly defined femininity? These questions are explored by Other Monsters.
"The Third Eye films show that monstrosity remains a valid category and serve up a nuanced picture of it. In these films, monstrosity straddles somewhere between dreams of liberation and affirmation of otherness, and the experience of real-life violence and exclusion, often leaving us with bitter reflections," write Aleksandra Nowak and Zofia Krawiec, authors of the article about this year's Third Eye selection.
Nowak and Krawiec will delve deeper into what else is hiding under the skin of the monstresses in three discussions accompanying the section. Join the Monst(her) Talks after selected screenings of Veronica Franz and Severin Fiala’s The Devil’s Bath, Justin Anderson’s Swimming Home, and a set of short films Spellbound. A detailed schedule of screenings and Q&As will be presented on July 2.
The curator of the Third Eye section is Ewa Szabłowska.
The 24th mBank New Horizons IFF in Wroclaw will take place from July 18-28. For an additional week, until August 4, the festival can be experienced online from the comfort of your home. The full program will be announced on July 2, and ticket sales for screenings will begin on July 4.