Étrange festival 2025: Norbert Pfaffenbichler’s 2551.03 Teh End delivers a Stark Dystopian Vision
The Étrange Festival showcased Norbert Pfaffenbichler’s 2551.03 The End (global selection), the concluding installment of his 2551 trilogy, following The Orgy Of The Damned, presented at the festival in 2023. The film depicts a dystopian future without dialogue, centering on Apeman’s accidental reunion with his lost son, who is arrested for graffiti and appears as an inspector.
A pursuit ensues, with father and son hunted by police brigades in a “city-cable city” populated by masked residents. The narrative unfolds under a masked power structure that publicly displays executions and parades individuals in Venetian masks, operating under the principle of submission or execution. 2551.03 The End blends traditional shots with stop motion animation.
The review highlights the film’s success in conveying emotion through movement and character design, noting that “no face is revealed, so that the costumes and design Characters must ‘betray’ thier dumb dialogues and their emotions of the moment.” It emphasizes the film’s exploration of primal fears,notably the loss of a loved one,and it’s use of visual transitions to create a psychedelic effect. The piece concludes that despite humanity’s resignation, “the emotion of creativity is not dead!”
Culturopoing.com, the volunteer site (Association of Law 1901) publishing the review, notes its commitment to copyright and requests readers to contact Bruno Piszczorowicz (lebornu@hotmail.com) or Olivier Rossignot (culturopoingcinema@gmail.com) regarding any copyright concerns.
