Underskog

This Austrian feature film is characterized by a disturbing naturalistic style, which is a trademark of Ulrich Seidl’s directing (Guru Werner Herzog ranks Seidl among his top 10 filmmakers). Hundstage stars a mix of professional and amateur actors, and it became mildly controversial for its depiction of unsimulated sex scenes.

With its improvised performances and willingness to stare straight into the abyss of human cruelty, Hundstage is a dark and edgy piece. As its non-professional actors are pushed into ever more extreme situations by the dictates of the sketchy plot, the film’s catalogue of rapes, gunpoint humiliations and soulless orgies begin to take its toll. Refusing these stunted characters any scrap of redemption, Seidl’s feature debut is brave and uncompromising – but definitely not for the fainthearted.

Free entrance & popcorn.