Screened as part of NZIFF 2012

Sound of My Voice 2011

Directed by Zal Batmanglij

In this creepily ambiguous lo-fi metaphysical sci-fi thriller, a young couple infiltrate a suburban LA cult. With writer/star Brit Marling (Another Earth). “Taut, compelling… [A] nifty little spellbinder.” — Variety

USA In English
84 minutes 35mm

Director

Producers

Hans Ritter
,
Brit Marling
,
Shelley Surpin

Screenplay

Zal Batmanglij
,
Brit Marling

Photography

Rachel Morrison

Editor

Tamara Meem

Production designer

Scott Enge

Costume designer

Sarah de Sa Rego

Music

Rostam Batmanglij

With

Christopher Denham (Peter Aitken)
,
Nicole Vicius (Lorna Michaelson)
,
Brit Marling (Maggie)
,
Davenia McFadden (Carol Briggs)
,
Kandice Stroh (Joanne)
,
Richard Wharton (Klaus)
,
Christy Meyers (Mel)
,
Alvin Lam (Lam)
,
Constance Wu (Christine)
,
Matthew Carey (Lyle)

Festivals

Sundance, SXSW 2011

Brit Marling, who also starred in and co-wrote last year’s Another Earth, proves again that lo-fi metaphysical sci-fi is her medium. In this creepily ambiguous twilight-zone tale a young, hardcore rationalist couple infiltrate a suburban LA cult with the intention of creating a documentary exposé. Their target is Maggie (Marling), a charismatic young woman on life support whose blissed-out disciples believe that she is a refugee from the year 2054 come to prepare the world’s most illusion-fixated city for the apocalypse she escaped. The processes of religious indoctrination are laid out with wicked precision. But the psychosexual power play Maggie lays on her would-be unmaskers goes way deeper than the brainwash they came armed for. Marling’s cool luminosity on screen, the script’s narrative ingenuity and the pared-down direction of first-time director Zal Batmanglij combine to jangle audience insecurities well beyond the final frame.