Some acquisition news coming out of the Toronto International Film Festival: Evokative Films, a Montreal-based distributor, has snatched up Ole Bornedal’s DELIVER US FROM EVIL (FRI OS FRA DET ONDE). Release dates are hopefully coming soon…
If Bornedal’s name is familiar, then you must have seen one or both of his NIGHTWATCH flicks (his Danish original came out in 1994, the U.S. remake came out a few years later), or perhaps his quirky sci-fi venture THE SUBSTITUTE (a flick I really enjoyed). We’ve got the Danish trailer (no subtitles, sorry) below for you, as well as the synopsis.
Lars and Johannes are brothers with very little in common. Johannes is a high-powered lawyer with a beautiful wife and two children; Lars is a truck driver and a drunken brute who beats his girlfriend. Having returned to his hometown in the country, Johannes hopes for a less hectic, more genuine lifestyle. But trouble is underfoot when Lars runs over a woman with his truck. He sees only one way out: put the blame on Alain, a Bosnian refugee with impaired mental functions. But when Lars, the God-fearing husband of the victim, and his friends close in on the Bosnian, Johannes stands up for the man and shelters him. Undeterred, the violent, drunken horde makes their way to Johannes´ secluded house, where the family and Alain fear for their lives. When words no longer suffice to contain the madness, a siege begins, in which unchained anarchy dictates a scenario of terror… DELIVER US FROM EVIL is a piercing insight into human nature driven berserk.
DELIVER US was shown at the Cannes Film market in May, and opens at TIFF on September 16th. It will also play at the awesome Sitges International Film Festival. Strike back below with your thoughts…