Der Erlprinz

For his second feature (which he began filming before his Venice-premiering debut, Baby Bump), Slamdance alum Kuba Czekaj turns in a swaggering and often spectacular study of a gifted teenage boy driven to emotional extremes by his ambitious and manipulative mother. Czekaj uses heightened reality and a twisting, turning narrative structure to illustrate the love, hate and emotional incest between a mother and son (and eventually an estranged father). He careens into flights of fantasy - even diving underwater - to convey the rich and confused inner reality of the boy. (Slamdance Film Festival)