Raven’s Hollow + Wolfkin

Raven's Hollow (2022). UK. 98 min

• Direction: Christopher Hatton.
• Production: Caroline Stern, Todd Lundbohm, Andrejs Ekis / Canoe Film, 828 Productions, Cinevilla Studios, Creativity Media, Filmgate Films.
• Screenplay: Christopher Hatton.
• Photography: Michael Rizzi.
• Music: Robert Ellis-Geiger.
• Edition: Danny Rafic.
• Cast: William Moseley, Melanie Zanetti, Kate Dickie, David Hayman, Oberon K. A. Adjepong, Elizabet Ingram.

Yes, Edgar Allen Poe joined the Army in 1827. He first served at Fort Independence, Boston. And was then transferred to Fort Monroe in Virginia. He earned 5 dollars a month. He made it to the rank of sergeant. And sergeant-major. After a while he resigned. But his father made him enrol at West Point. He clocked up 44 offences and 106 demerits... And so this film by Christopher Hatton, director of Sammyville (1999), about a ghost town that is real, that exists but seems not to, is no lie: Poe was a soldier. And undoubtedly led other soldiers hunting through inhospitable territory. Down where dark, winged creatures devour the bodies of their victims, crucify their remains, and no one knows, has heard or seen a thing. Yes, down in the “raven's hollow”.

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Wolfkin (Kommunioun, 2022). Luxembourg-Belgium. 90 min

• Direction: Jacques Molitor.
• Production: Gilles Chanial, Olivier Dubois / Les Films Fauves, Novak Prod.
• Screenplay: Jacques Molitor, Régine Abadia.
• Photography: Amandine Klee.
• Music: Daniel Offerman.
• Edition: Damien Keyeux.
• Cast: Louise Manteau, Victor Dieu, Marja-Leena Juncker, Jules Werner, Marco Lorenzini.

Since 1937, there have been 30 films made in Luxembourg. Not bad for a Grand Duchy with a population of 630,000, and 33 cinemas... Wolfkin, directed by one of the ten registered film-makers to be found within the 2,586 square kilometres of this parliamentary monarchy, has been screened in London, Lisbon and Sitges under the flag of a land where, of course, they make horror movies (Zombiefilm, 2005). Its presentation in San Sebastian also uses a second, wonderful and meaningful title, Kommunioun, and it features splendidly sepulchral elements of lycanthropy, cannibalism, mother love, a little sex and aristocratic degeneracy. While looking completely different, it recalls the divine As boas maneiras (2017) by  Marco Dutra and Juliana Rojas. Setting aside all distances and oceans.