Mention South Korea's Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan) to someone unfamiliar with the film festival circuit and you might be met with a puzzled stare. What is a "fantastic" film festival anyway? In this case, it's not a synonym for "amazing" but a reference to works that spring from our fantasies, representatives of imaginative genres such as horror, science fiction, fantasy, monster movies, and more.
It was a bit unexpected that such a film festival should take root in the suburb of Bucheon - the Seoul satellite city changed its spelling in 2000, but the festival kept the old spelling - since the fantastic film festival is a European concept. Beginning in the late 1960s, events were launched in Sitges (Spain), Oporto (Portugal), Brussels, Paris and Rome to support a somewhat darker kind of cinema.
The works that screen at Cannes, Venice or Berlin appeal to one's intellect but fantastic films steal into your unconscious at night, and begin re-arranging the furniture. Today, the fantastic film festival is still largely a European phenomenon, led by the European Fantastic Film Festival Federation (EFFFF) which encompasses events held in 22 cities.
PiFan is one of just four festivals outside of Europe associated with the EFFFF: the others are Fantasia in Montréal, Screamfest LA, and Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas. PiFan's 18th edition was held from July 17-27, with more than 210 films. Special sections were devoted to Godzilla films of the past 60 years; Latin American genre cinema; and Tinto Brass, master of the erotic film genre - but the primary focus was on new short and feature-length films from around the world.
Opening film Stereo, from German director Maximilian Erlenwein, takes us into the troubled mind of Erik, a motorcycle mechanic who lives in the countryside. Erik is dating a pretty woman with a young daughter, but when an aggressive, trash-talking man shows up in town one day, it's a sign of trouble to come - particularly because the man is a projection of Erik's repressed inner self.
Well-received by the audience, Stereo is the type of film that rarely gets a commercial release in South Korea. Nonetheless, a strong response from viewers at PiFan will sometimes convince a local distributor to pick up a film.