It was back in 2011 that a tiny budget Dutch indie released that may very well prove to be the launching point of a pair of the more significant talents not only out of the Netherlands but the entire new generation of European talent. That film was Rabat, a critically acclaimed festival darling following a trio of friends driving from Holland to Morocco to deliver a taxi to a friend.
One of Rabat's stars is Marwan Kenzari - an early performance in a career that now has him appearing opposite Tom Cruise in The Mummy, Noomi Rapace in What Happened To Monday, and Kenneth Branagh in Murder On The Orient Express, to say nothing of his starring role as Jafar in the upcoming live action Aladdin - but the real point of interest here is less the film's cast than it's directors.
Rabat was a co-directed affair. One of its helmers was Jim Taihuttu who would later make waves with his fantastic crime thriller Wolf. The second director is Victor Ponten, who now makes his own solo debut with what appears to be a similarly simmering, character driven crime thriller with Catacombe.
Set in the world of professional football - soccer to us foolish North Americans - Catacombe follows a mid-level player on a mid-level team drawn / forced in to the world of match fixing by his mounting gambling debts. They've just released a first teaser for the film and it looks every bit what you would expect and hope for from this team: Moody, gorgeously shot, and revolving around a sort of failed masculinity. This looks pretty fantastic. Take a look at the teaser below.