IFC Films has released the official trailer for iconoclastic director Peter Strickland’s latest project, Flux Gourmet and it looks as though the filmmaker is in no danger of losing his reputation as one of the most controversial and outlandish cinematic artists of the present day.
According to the film’s official website, Flux Gourmet follows a “dysfunctional sonic collective” of artists dedicated to a particular breed of performance art in which they “extract” certain disturbing sounds from a variety of foods in what appears to be an episode of the Barefoot Contessa by way of Hieronymus Bosch as performed by the cast of Legion.
When the collective, portrayed by Game of Thrones‘ Gwendoline Christie, Sex Education star Asa Butterfield, and Ariane Labed take up a residency dedicated to the culinary arts as well as, again via the film’s website, “alimentary performance,” a description which the trailer demonstrates is as borderline scatological as it sounds, they find themselves in conflict with the institute’s mysterious director.
According to Strickland’s interview with Indiewire, the film was born out of an idea to satirize both artists themselves as well as the institutes they must often deal with in order to fund their work.
“I tried to remain neutral and look at both perspectives offering both sympathy and ridicule. Whilst exploring the month-long residency of an art collective that deal with food, I became interested in the idea of taboo and shock value in art, which in this context opened up the dark side of the stomach and the bowels. I want to reveal a very human story about problems that people are often too embarrassed to talk about, but hopefully many of us can relate to regardless of how healthy or unhealthy our stomachs are. Within the seriousness, I also wanted to present a somewhat silly world exploring creative conflict, rejection, power and the dilemmas facing both artists and their patrons.”
– Robert Strickland
Taboo, shock, and food are certainly present in the new trailer. Whether Strickland’s gastro-horror allows its characters’ humanity to shine through – or indeed to be heard through the noise — is something audiences will have to wait and find out.
Flux Gourmet will be released in theaters on June 24.
