THE CAMERA LUCIDA SECTION UNVEILS FOUR ADDITIONAL TITLES

Life in isolation and shifting belief systems are at the heart of Fantasia’s sidebar this year, dedicated to boundary-pushing, auteur-driven works at the intersection of genre and arthouse cinema

In THE SLUG, Chun-hee (Kang Jin-ah, MICROHABITAT) has yet to come out of her shell. Struck by lightning, she begins manifesting her younger self (Park Hye-jin)– who awaits explanations for this sad state of affairs. Who do we become? Director Choi Jin-young spins a delightful fantasy yarn from this perennial question in a perceptive, structurally inventive character study that achieves– much like the lightning bolt at the heart of its plot– miracles within a simple framework. NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE.  

1987, in Alor Setar, at the foot of Mount Keriang in the Malaysian state of Kedah. Cheong, a devout believer in folk god Datuk, falls suddenly, violently ill. His wife Yan embarks on a journey to save his soul.  Based on the director’s lived childhood experience, Chong Keat Aun’s uncanny, autobiographical THE STORY OF SOUTHERN ISLET is a masterful, haunting debut, taking the viewer to the limits of the rational world. Winner of the Best New Director Award at the 57th Golden Horse Awards. NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE.

Not settling for public housing, Ah Been signs up to be a “Happiness Agent” at the TIONG BAHRU SOCIAL CLUB: an upstart, upscale housing estate running on a patented algorithm. “The happiest neighborhood in Singapore!” says the copy. A candy-colored satire of our increasingly Instagram-friendly, hyper-competitive social environments. A box-office success story in its local Singapore and a festival darling abroad, Tan Bee Thiam’s debut cuts through the grind, succeeding at being as fun as it is resonant. NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE.

“Casey here. Today I’m going to take the World’s Fair Challenge.” A lonely teen (Anna Cobb) stares at her computer screen, partaking in a viral game that soon takes hold of her increasingly dissociating mind. A disquieting take on the coming-of-age film, Jane Schoenbrun’s breakout Sundance hit WE’RE ALL GOING TO THE WORLD’S FAIR harnesses the potent aesthetics of found-footage horror and YouTube culture to craft a quietly devastating look at loneliness and despondency in the Internet age. CANADIAN PREMIERE.