I'd Like to Die a Thousand Times

Film by Edwin Brienen. The torch you carry may inflame you...

Last Performance, the fifth feature film from award-winning European director Edwin Brienen, is set in the tumultuous New York theater world. Julia, a European actress who relocated to New York to try and make the big time, stars in an avant-garde theatre play, directed by the eccentric Magda. Inspired by obsessive philosophers such as Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and LaVey - "Forget the weak, the virtuous ones and the compassionate ones" - Magda explores the dark side of life. Julia's co-star, herein, is Cooper who has an abusive relationship with the sexually frustrated Tom. Tom, unable to accept his homosexuality, in turn exploits Julia for his own sexual adventures. Cooper, enraged by jealousy, sets out for revenge and his actions, herein, trigger an inexorable wave of disintegration and misery. Soon, fact and fiction become indistinguishable as Julia too becomes the author of her own demise.

Claire, Romy, Magali, Loete, and Jim are typical Brienen’s characters: their excessive lifestyle rhythmed by sex and drugs puts them in the margins of society, refusing to believe in love or any kind of happiness. Lacking a better alternative, they take a trip to Berlin to perform in their own erotic-trash show. But in Berlin, trouble only begins. Styled images of lost souls straying through the night and their humide debaucheries transport us into an universe of the abject where all moral limits are eliminated by the character’s insatiable bulimia.

A psych-drama-thriller combo that tackles shady politicians, leaked documents and a lack of enthusiasm for religion.

The film tells the story of six mental cases, trying to get rid of society's norms and values by kidnapping Gerard van Dongen, a well-known TV host. During an improvised TV show, the terrorists confront this Van Dongen with their darkest thoughts and emotions, resulting in violent excesses and extreme sexual behavior.

Eva auditions for a role in an obscure art-house film. An anonymous, masked director creates an intimidating atmosphere. He dominates and humiliates Eva, forcing her into prostitution. She sleeps with a Jewish film producer named Josh. When he refuses to help her financially, Eva blackmails him by threatening to tell his wife that they slept together. Back on the film set, Eva's heading towards her own downfall. It's just a matter of time before her individuality and emotions are eliminated for 'the sake of art'.