French filmmaker Quarxx (All the Gods in the Sky, Pandemonium) is back with 19-century horror drama The Ones Who Grieve, and the first teaser reveals a monstrous plague ravaging the countryside.
The Ones Who Grieve will receive its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest, kicking off next week in Austin, Texas, from September 17-24.
In the film, “At the end of the 19th century, on an isolated farm, Zélie is trapped under the authority of her father Jacob, a deeply religious man. As a mysterious disease known as the ‘Black Veil’ ravages the surrounding countryside and faith begins to blur with madness, she must fight to preserve her humanity and claim her freedom.”
A plague may serve as the backdrop, but Quarxx’s director’s statement touches on a much more intimite horror ahead: “The Ones who Grieve is, above all, a film about control. An intimate, insidious form of control that begins within the family unit and gradually contaminates the entire social body. The starting point is neither fear nor the fantastic, but a far more difficult violence to confront: forbidden desire, enforced silence, and domination exercised in the name of moral, paternal, and religious authority.”
The film stars Thierry Frémont, Zélie Rixhon, Isabelle Anciaux and Jean-Baptiste Maunier, and comes from Transgressive Production and Kali Pictures.
The film is currently seeking distribution.
Fantastic Fest wrote of the film, “Quarxx examines the tyranny of a self-proclaimed prophet who wields religion as a tool of domination and control. Thierry Frémont fully inhabits the role, delivering a chilling performance that lays bare the character’s monstrous nature. ”
Stay tuned for more on The Ones Who Grieve and Fantastic Fest when our coverage begins next week.