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NORBERT PFAFFENBICHLER'S 2551 TRILOGY (2021-2025)
Norbert Pfaffenbichler’s 2551 TRILOGY: Part 01 – “The Kid” / Part 02 – “The Orgy of the Damned” / Part 03 – “The End”
Imagine Mad Max run amok in the Mütter Museum: a nightmarish subterranean world of superstition, magic and deformity, ruled by fear and oppression – and “peopled” with a spine-chilling assortment of mutants and masked monstrosities including faceless stormtroopers, parasites, nude figures, taxidermied monkeys, alchemists and other occult horrors. Welcome to the unearthly visions of Austrian artist and director Norbert Pfaffenbichler’s “2551 Trilogy,” a staggering combination of avant garde cinema, post-apocalyptic sci-fi / horror / monster action, dystopian political nightmare, silent cinema techniques (all 3 features are told without dialogue, with different color tinting), endless subterranean labyrinths shot in abandoned WW2 bunkers in Vienna, myriad grotesque masks, industrial and death metal music, the Bros. Quay and Jan Švankmajer and Joel-Peter Witkin and David Lynch all mixed together. Definitely NOT for the faint of heart, this is experimental filmmaking for fans of SILENT HILL, HELLBOY 2, ERASERHEAD, MAD GOD and BEGOTTEN, The Cure and Bauhaus and Metallica, lucha libre, and (unbelievably) Charlie Chaplin. In other words, it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen (or dreamt of) before.
2551.01 – THE KID (2021, 65 min.) During a violent uprising, the Apeman (Stefan Erber) grabs The Kid (David Ionescu) in a burlap sack mask with two crude eyeholes clutching a deformed mummy-doll, and runs off with him. So begins the epic odyssey of the resilient Apeman and the vulnerable Child struggling to stay together in an underground world where the mutant dregs of civilization barely eke out an existence.
2551.02 – THE ORGY OF THE DAMNED (2023, 83 min.) Separated from The Kid at the end of Part 01, the Apeman loses his bearings and descends into a dungeon labyrinth of surreal sexual depravity, searching for a female wrestler in a luchadora mask (Veronika Herber). Meanwhile, The Kid (Juri Föger) is brutally indoctrinated into the ways of oppression by the police state.
2551.03 – THE END (2025, 82 min.) Years have gone by, but the Apeman continues his search for the now-grown Kid, who has become an Inspector (Ben Schiola) for the police state. Meanwhile, the carnival-masked Dictator (Stephane Marin) lords over goblin markets selling crucified monkeys and alchemists hawking living homunculi in jars. Part 03 is the most David Lynch-like of the Trilogy: after entering an anti-matter dimension, the Apeman emerges as the Apewoman (Manuela Deac), to wreak terrible vengeance on the tools of the oppressive state.
Trigger warning: all 3 films contain nightmarish images featuring simulated sexual and violent acts, as well as strobe lights and stroboscopic effects. For adult viewers only
SPECIAL FEATURES
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Seven experimental short films by Pfaffenbichler from 1998 – 2019
- Santora
- Notes on Film 1: Else
- Notes on Film 4: Intermezzo
- Notes on Film 5: Conference
- Notes on Film 9: Odessas Crash Test
- Notes on Film 10: Camera
- Notes on Noise 01: Hoffman's Hymn
- Four new video interviews with director Pfaffenbichler, lead actor Stefan Erber, cinematographer Martin Putz, and stop-motion VFX artist Paul Lechmann
- New interview with Pfaffenbichler discussing his avant garde films, conducted by Danish filmmaker Reinert Kiil
- "Don’t Let it Fester: (Anti)Sentimentality in 2551.01" - New visual essay by journalist and physical media expert Ryan Verrill and film professor Dr. Will Dodson of Someone’s Favorite Prod.
- "Angel of the Abject: The 2551 Trilogy as a Necropolis of Cinema" - New visual essay by experimental filmmaker and film scholar Stephen Broomer
- New audio commentaries by writer & film scholar Shelagh Rowan-Legg, film archivist Eva Létourneau, artist, curator & writer Anne Golden, and podcaster Mike White (The Projection Booth)
- “Jam of the Damned: Behind the Scenes of 2551.03” featurette
- Behind-the-scenes VFX Reel narrated by VFX artist Paul Lechmann
- Two deleted scenes from 2551.03: The End
- Soundtrack score from all three films
- Three new trailers
- Blu-ray authoring by David Mackenzie of Fidelity In Motion
- New art by Beth Morris
DELUXE EDITION BONUS CONTENT
- Slipcase featuring new artwork by artist J.G. Jones.
- 80-page illustrated book with:
- New essay by film critic & author Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
- New essay by film critic Walter Chaw
- New Q&A with director Norbert Pfaffenbichler by film historian Rolf Giesen
- A collection of on set and behind-the-scenes photos
LIMITED EDITION OF 2000
