Other Cannibals

Mixing bone dry situational and offbeat buddy humour with a melancholic reflection on extreme midlife crisis, this is a distinctive and humanistic first feature from Italian writer/director Francesco Sossai.

If it weren't for the title, which suggests the dark thoughts that run through the mind of Fausto (Walter Giroldini), he could be any other world weary middle-aged schlub, toiling his days away at the factory he's worked in for decades before going home for regular matches of verbal tennis with the mother and sister, who - not without reason - are despairing of his comings and goings not to mention his inability to keep track of his keys.

What they don't realise is that he is desperate for change, not just dying his hair blond but embarking on a macabre, if incredibly sketchy, plan with the student Ivan (Diego Pagotto). It's clear from their first encounter in the rural Dolomites that these men are, essentially, strangers, who have settled on an idea - only gradually revealed by Sossai - while not really having the first idea of how they are going to go about it.

There is no doubting the darkness of the nihilism at work here, but somehow Sossai finds ways to connect us to the bleak loneliness and disaffection that is driving Fausto and Ivan's desires while offsetting these emotions with warmer encounters the men have with others. The monochrome lensing from Like early work by Ben Wheatley, like Down Terrace, sinister acts become infused with banality, particularly a trip to a hardware store that ripples with both humour and sadness.

Sossai and co-writer Adriano Candiago are keen observers of dynamics, putting this most unlikely of duos in acutely tricky but believable situations, such as having to act out a made-up long-term friendship for Fausto's mother after being coerced into a sit-down dinner. He also proves the theory that if you leave two blokes talking for long enough, they'll end up discussing football.

Beyond its carnality and violence - and though he uses incident sparingly, Sossai doesn't hold back when he shows the effort that is needed when it comes to destruction, and vegetarians should be warned - there's a nostalgic wistfulness and something that could even be the first tentative glow of friendship, striking a note that harmonises heartbreak and horror with hope.