Screened as part of NZIFF 2019

Ruben Brandt, Collector 2018

Ruben Brandt, a gyűjtő

Directed by Milorad Krstić

Boasting batshit surreal imagery, fist-pumping action sequences and a wall-to-wall shrine of art and cinema references, Ruben Brandt, Collector is a new milestone for animated invention.

Hungary In English and Hungarian with English subtitles
94 minutes DCP

Rent

Director/Production designer

Animation directors

Milorad Krstić
,
Marcell László

Producers

Péter Miskolczi
,
János Kurdy-Fehér
,
Milorad Krstić
,
Hermina Roczkov
,
Radmila Roczkov

Music

Tibor Cári

With

Iván Kamarás (Ruben Brandt)
,
Csaba ‘Kor’ Márton (Mike Kowalski)
,
Gabriella Hámori (Mimi)
,
Matt Devere (Bye-Bye Joe)
,
Henry Grant (Membrano Bruno)
,
Christian Nielson Buckhold (Fernando)
,
Katalin Dombi (Marina)

Festivals

Locarno 2018

Elsewhere

Art heist thriller, brooding neo-noir, bombastic action blockbuster and hallucinatory freak-out all at once, Milorad Krstić’s dazzling, dizzying curiosity Ruben Brandt, Collector marks a welcome escalation for modern animation. After suffering repeat nightmares in which paintings by Warhol, Botticelli, Manet and Hopper (to name just a few) transform into malignant apparitions that attack him, renowned psychotherapist Ruben Brandt decides to undergo a unique method of self-treatment: stealing every painting that is afflicting him. The wild ride that follows is about as innovative, hypnotic and flat-out entertaining as animation for adults will get. — JF

“There are no unintentional strokes on Milorad Krstić’s moving canvas Ruben Brandt, Collector, a 2D animated feature so densely ornate with auteur-adoring references and eye-popping design, a single viewing would only serve as an insufficient introduction to its bona fide one-of-a-kind panache… Unbounded from all conventions of reality, shapes and colors roam free to form characters with a varying number of eyes, flat bodies, sharp-edged faces, and a potpourri of distorted features in unnatural shades…

[It’s] a glorious cinephile’s playlist and a graphic syllabus on art history encased in a thriller. As such, it merits being counted as one of the decade’s best and most wildly original animated triumphs and one of this awards season’s most unforgivable snubs. Time, the most reliable judge when it comes to art, will give Milorad Krstić his due praise.” — Carlos Aguilar, The Playlist