Event

Ex-Drummer

(Koen Mortier, Belgium, 2007, 35mm, 104 min)

Somewhere in Belgium a deaf guitar player, a stiff-armed bassist and a psychopathic guitarist-vocalist with a lisp form a rock band for a one-off performance. The trio lacks a drummer so they seek the services of a celebrity author, who also has a reputation as a drummer, to fill the role. Out of this mess is born The Feminists, a quasi-disabled punk rock band whose journey towards its only gig drags almost everybody involved down a black hole of abuse, exploitation and death. Ex-Drummer is adapted from a novel of the same name by Herman Brusselmans, and the film has drawn comparisons to Trainspotting. But the film's non-stop barrage of clever visuals, vulgar humor, random violence and high energy music (The Feminists tackle a solid cover of Devo's "Mongoloid" and tracks from Lightning Bolt, Isis, Mogwai and others also appear on the soundtrack) places Ex-Drummer in an entirely different cultural and aesthetic space than any other film. Ex-Drummer is angry, funny and entertainingly foul from beginning to end.

"Bizarre, horribly violent and frequently brilliant black comedy from Belgium." --Guardian