The Man Who Sold the World

The second feature from Moroccan brothers Swel and Imad Noury marked one of the most memorable and innovative experiences from this year’s Berlin Film Festival. Based on Dostoyevsky’s short story A Weak Heart, the film unfolds as a literary and metaphysical tale of a young clerk, inept to cope with his inner turmoil. As he cannot accept the joy the marriage with a beautiful cabaret performer renders, the protagonist descends into a mental state of delirium and psychosis.

Said Bey’s award-winning lead is a staggering demonstration of multi-faceted acting. His feverish appearance is hauntingly captured in painterly influenced wide-lens cinematography, intriguing sound design and a tentative narrative, which seem to confuse not only the film’s declining hero.

Set in an anonymous, post-apocalyptic landscape, with a theme reminiscent of Camus, Kafka and Orwell, the film explores the individual’s vulnerability in an autocratic society where love and tolerance are scarce. –Stockholm International Film Festival