FOR TRAILER, SEE THE BOTTOM OF THIS ARTICLE
Kim Chapiron's Sheitan is scheduled to be screened at the 22nd Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival (AFFF) on April 21st at 6:00 p.m. (18.00) and April 24th at 3:15 p.m. (15.15). (Thanks to ScreenAnarchy reader Johnson Leow for this information.) Its scheduled to have its North American première at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) on April 28th at 11:30 p.m., and to subsequently be screened there on April 30th at 10:45 p.m., May 3rd at 10:00 p.m., May 4th (technically, May 5th) at 12:00 a.m., and May 6th at 11:30 p.m.. Mars Distribution released the movie theatrically in France on February 1st.
As was previously reported here on ScreenAnarchy, the screenplay for Sheitan was written by Kim Chapiron and Christian Chapiron. The movie stars Vincent Cassel as Joseph, Olivier Barthélémy as Bart, Roxane Mesquida as Eve, Nicolas Le Phat Tan as Thaï, Leïla Bekhti as Yasmine, Ladj Ly as Ladj, Julie-Marie Parmentier as Jeanne, Gérald Thomassin as Maurice, Quentin Lasbazeilles as Gilou, Guillaume Bacquet as Bebert, Alexandre Borrel as Jérôme, and Tarubi as Moustène. Its cast also includes François Levantal, Monica Bellucci, Mokobé, Mouloud, and Oxmo Puccino.
Here's a brief description of Sheitan from the Fangoria article "Eating Out of Cannes": "[SHEITAN], starring Vincent Cassel as a satanic shepherd, resembles a big-budget ANTROPOPHAGUS. The main highlight was a pregnant girl staggering down a corridor, urinating and bleeding, and then depositing her stillborn baby on the floor, with Cassel pouncing to eat it."
Below is a description of Sheitan from the website of international sales agent Wild Bunch Sales Limited.
Christmas Eve. In a Paris nightclub, Bart, Ladj and Thai meet two gorgeous girls, Eve and Yasmin. Drunk and out of control, Bart provokes a ruck. Pissed off, the barman smashes a bottle over his skull and kicks him out into the street. All three guys lust blatantly after Eve, who invites them and Yasmin to spend the weekend at her parents' place in the country.
They arrive at dawn, and are met by Joseph and Marie, the caretakers. Marie, hostile and heavily pregnant, is busy making a doll for Christmas. Without paying her too much attention, the gang visits a nearby hot spring, where Bart picks a fight with a group of local kids. A violent confrontation ensues. One of the bumpkins tears a clump of hair from Bart's head, before Joseph intervenes.
Clearly afraid of the sinister caretaker, the locals depart, cursing as they go.
Back at the house, our heroes eat a Christmas dinner of roasted goat. As night falls, their drunken discussion turns to sex, to evil, to the Devil. Joseph, increasingly unsettling, tells the horrible story of a peasant possessed by Satan and forced to impregnate his own sister. Their cursed child was born on Christmas Day. Our lads are too busy chatting up the girls to notice the diabolical trap closing slowly around them, while Marie finishes her strange doll with scraps of Bart's clothing and the tuft of his hair. Then all Hell breaks loose...
Combining anarchic knockabout comedy with nerve-shredding suspense, jet-black humour and gut-wrenching bloody horror, SHEITAN is the first feature from Kim Chapiron, a member of Kourtrajmé, a loose collective of vibrant, cutting-edge young French film makers championed by Vincent Cassel, who produces and stars as the demonic Joseph.
Sheitan trailer (downloadable 5.8 MB MOV file)
Sheitan official website
Sheitan official blog
Cinempire.com: Sheitan posters & stills gallery (24 JPEGs)
Cinempire.com: Sheitan still #04 (76 KB JPEG - not in the gallery; variation of still #14)
AFFF: Programme (downloadable 544 KB PDF file)
TFF: Sheitan
Variety: Review of Sheitan
