Janus Contemporaries Announces November 2023 Releases

Coming November 21: Godland, a stunning psychological epic from director Hlynur Pálmason that captures the struggle between the strictures of religion and humankind’s brute animal nature; Tori and Lokita, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s latest humanist drama about two immigrant teens struggling to survive on the margins of European society; and The Eight Mountains, an epic journey of friendship and self-discovery set in the Italian Alps, directed by Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch.

Godland

The struggle between the strictures of religion and humankind’s brute animal nature plays out amid the beautifully forbidding landscapes of remote Iceland in this stunning psychological epic from director Hlynur Pálmason. In the late nineteenth century, Danish priest Lucas (Elliott Crosset Hove) makes the perilous trek to Iceland’s southeastern coast with the intention of establishing a church. There, the arrogant man of God finds his resolve tested as he confronts the harsh terrain, temptations of the flesh, and the reality of being an intruder in an unforgiving land. What unfolds is a transfixing journey into the heart of colonial darkness—one that’s attuned to both the majesty and the terrifying power of the natural world.

INCLUDES

  • Meet the Filmmakers, a new interview with director Hlynur Pálmason
  • A Painter, a 2013 short film by Pálmason
  • Trailer

Tori and Lokita

From two-time Palme d’Or winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne comes the story of seventeen-year-old Lokita and twelve-year-old Tori, two immigrants to Belgium—from Cameroon and Benin, respectively—whose siblinglike bond is the only resource they can depend on in their struggle for survival on the margins of European society. The pair work as performers in a cheap trattoria, dealing drugs on the side, while balancing the demands of an indifferent bureaucracy. When Lokita is held captive in a marijuana grow house, events spiral out of control. Winner of the Seventh-Fifth Anniversary Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, the latest humanist drama from the Dardenne brothers is a heart-stopping thriller that casts an unflinching eye on the trials of the young and dispossessed.

INCLUDES

  • Meet the Filmmakers, a new interview with directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
  • Trailer

The Eight Mountains

An epic journey of friendship and self-discovery set in the Italian Alps, The Eight Mountains is a cinematic experience as intimate as it is monumental. Adapting an award-winning novel by Paolo Cognetti, Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch portray, through observant detail and stunning landscape photography, the profound relationship between Pietro (Luca Marinelli) and Bruno (Alessandro Borghi), who first meet as children in an Alpine village. Years later, the estranged friends reunite, after the passing of Pietro’s father (Filippo Timi), in order to realize his dream of rebuilding a ruined cabin on a mountain slope. This emotional project, and their subsequent explorations of the mountains, create a strong bond between the two—yet individual dreams, and the demands of society, ultimately drive them to pursue irrevocably divergent paths.

INCLUDES

  • Meet the Filmmakers, a new interview with directors Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix van Groeningen
  • The Making of “The Eight Mountains,” a new documentary featuring cast and crew
  • Trailer
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