Ann Oren's 'Objet a' Lands Locarno Premiere, U.S. Deal
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- Ann Oren's "Objet a" premiered in Locarno's main competition — her second Locarno berth after 2022's "Piaffe" — and Oscilloscope Laboratories has already acquired U.S. rights, per Variety's review
- Aenne Schwarz and Louis Hofmann star as surgeons Ingeborg and Adam, whose disciplined, identical-black-wardrobe lives conceal a kleptomaniac streak and a submissive objectification fetish respectively
- The narrative pivots on Ingeborg's subway-spurred tibia fracture and the arrival of Gaia (Simone Bucio, reprising from "Piaffe"), an earth-connected figure whose presence causes fungi to sprout in various crevices
- A leather-and-steel leg brace — compared by Variety to David Cronenberg's "Crash" — and a custom timber corset for Adam furnish the film's kinky design centerpiece
- The 95-minute feature is lensed in 16mm by Juan Sarmiento G., with sets by Audrey Hernu and costumes by Carmen Di Pinto
- The title riffs on Lacan's 'objet a' — the object-cause of desire rather than a physical thing — anchoring a sex-positive, eco-minded thesis about how restricted human urges cut us off from the natural world
Why it matters: Oren's second consecutive Locarno main-competition slot, paired with an early Oscilloscope U.S. pickup, confirms her as a marketable arthouse-auteur bet, with 'Objet a' extending 'Piaffe's singular embodied-uncanny lens into a 95-minute 16mm feature that pairs Cronenbergian fetish hardware with Lacanian philosophical scaffolding.
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