A wildly surrealist charade in which a bereaved man, his friend and mother spiral through village life. Dan Geesin blends body-horror absurdity with warmth and wit.

Surely you know the feeling: your head might explode at any moment when the pressure becomes too much. A Messy Tribute to Motherly Love shows exactly how that might look – literally, in a world where people can spontaneously go BOOM!, as happened recently to the wife of piano-tuner Samuel. In most films, that would mark the end of the story. Here, it is only the beginning. Samuel’s mother and his old friend Edwin step in, determined to get him back on track, helped along by, among other things, a magical jam.

Dan Geesin has screened several shorts at IFFR, so festival regulars may already sense the super-stylish, slowly simmering swirl of surrealist hurly-burly awaiting them. At first, A Messy Tribute to Motherly Love plays like a classical Dutch village farce that nudges at ideas one might associate with another IFFR favourite, David Cronenberg. As the film moves forward, it becomes increasingly dreamlike and somnambulant, yet remains light-hearted despite the surrounding madness. In this world, even when everything seems on the verge of blowing apart, a happy ending might still be possible.

– Vanja Kaludjercic