LEVIATHAN

"Truly spectacular, an optic-aural overload." - Cinema Scope

An awe-inspiring, immersive film that puts audiences onboard the monster alluded to in the film's title - a commercial fishing vessel - as well as in the oceans surrounding and sometimes near-overwhelming it, Leviathan captures the rugged, brutal lives of New England fishermen in hauntingly exquisite detail. Shot via myriad cameras passing fluidly between filmmakers, crew and even prey, this is extraordinary, visceral cinema, unlike anything you've seen before.

Compiled by anthropologist Lucien Castaing-Taylor (Sweetgrass, MIFF 10) and his Harvard Sensory Ethnographic Lab colleague Véréna Paravel (Foreign Parts, MIFF 11), Leviathan recalls the poetic imagery of Stan Brakhage as it dissolves traditional notions of narrative into a deliberately disorienting sensory experience. Musical in structure, visually and sonically ravishing, it is a film to be felt, rather than merely seen; as such, it must be felt in a theatre setting.

Winner of the FIPRESCI Prize (at Locarno), the CPH: DOX New Vision Award and the Viennale's Prix du public.

"A singular cinematic experience … Especially when viewed on a large screen and in a loud theatre, Leviathan is by turns stomach-churning, curious, gruelling and wondrous." - Senses of Cinema

D/P Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel WS Arrete Ton Cinema TD DCP/2012