Enter A Murderous Dream State With Ali Abbasi's M FOR MARKUS

It's not unusual for me to receive email from young directors claiming to be the next Gaspar Noe or David Cronenberg or some such thing. It's quite common, actually, and the vast majority of the time they are quite wrong. It happens significantly less, however, that I receive a similar email from an experienced producer who believes he may have discovered the next Noe or Cronenberg. And when it comes from someone who has been around the block a time or two then it is time to pay attention. Particularly when the producer in question has the local equivalent of an Oscar win testifying to their general good taste.

This is exactly the cast with M For Markus and director Ali Abbasi. Abbasi's graduation film, M For Markus has Jacob Jarek as a producer and Jarek, for his part, also produced Paw Charlie Ravn's 2010 animated effort To Venner, which took the Danish equivalent of the Oscar before going on a lengthy tour of the world's finest short film and animation festivals. Jarek is a young producer but a very good one and I'm sure you see where I'm going with this.

A female police detective, TESS, discovers a mutilated body in a crime scene. Her search for the killer leads her to the young and innocent-looking MARKUS. Immediately attracted to Markus, her attraction to him leads her deep into a dreamy and grotesque world where her relationship to Markus is changed upside down - and inside out.

We've got both a teaser and a trailer for this one below, along with a trio of stills by Sturla Brandth Grovlen.