Remember Dogtooth? The director, Yorgos Lanthimos, brings us a new surrealist piece of new wave Greek cinema, called Alps:

A nurse, a paramedic, a gymnast and her coach have formed a service for hire. They stand in for dead people by appointment, hired by the relatives, friends or colleagues of the deseassed. The company is called Alps, since they think they will be ‘like the Alps’, in that any mountain in the world could be substituted by an ‘Alp’ and no one would mind. Their leader, the paramedic, calls himself Mont Blanc. Alps members operate under a discipline regime demanded by their leader, however the nurse does not.

THE 15 RULES OF THE ALPS:

Alps memebers:

1. Must declare in advance the things they are unwilling to do by filling out Form 1 (e.g. kissing, lifting weights, travelling, etc.)
2. Must declare in advance the things they are good at by filling out Form 2 (e.g. dancing, waterskiiing, discussing etc.)
3. Must have some basic knowledge of psychology and sociology.
4. Are obliged to support, under all circumstances, the interests of the Alps group.
5. Must respect eachother.
6. Have the right to change their nicknames only twice. They cannot choose a nickname belonging to another Alps member. The nickname must strictly be the name of a mountain in the Alps, and nog something general or irrelevant (e.g. Blonde, Master, Dragon, etc.).
7. Can never talk about Alps acitivities with non-Alps members.
8. Are obliged to take the Gymnastics Club Test, if necessary.
9. Must be over 14 years of age.
10. Should always be smart, clean, punctual, and in complete control.
11. Must never get emotionally involved with clients, or have intimate relations with them.
12. Cannot change their physical appearance without the Leader’s permission (e.g. dye their hair, lose or gain weight, wear coloured contact lenses etc.).
13. Must be able to make convincing facial expressions (e.g. sadness, happiness, despair, etc.).
14. Must honour the title of their membership, and be ready to kill or die for it.
15. Must never attack one another, and must believe in teamwork.

Yorgos Lanthimos and co-writer Efthymis Filippou developed the premise for the film out of the idea of people who allege something which is fabricated, for example via prank calls or by announcing their own deaths. Lanthimos considers it the complete opposite of his previous film, Dogtooth, which he says “is the story of a person who tries to escape a fictitious world. Alps is about a person who tries to enter a fabricated world.”

Although the movie has been screened already at several film festivals, from Korea to Venice (where it received a price for best screenplay), you will have to wait a little longer for it to come to your local cinema. The movie is sure to hit Dutch cinema’s in April 2012.