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"2551" Trilogy, at SectionX of MOTELX 2025
SectionX, the guardian section of underground and experimental cinema at MOTELX, features as the main highlight of this 19th edition the "2551" trilogy by Norbert Pfaffenbichler, one of the most fascinating figures in European avant-garde cinema. Serious cinephilia: attend at your own risk.
Rooted in avant-garde cinema traditions, the "2551" trilogy by Austrian filmmaker Norbert Pfaffenbichler propels us into a universe of utopian perversion and politicized delirium. A work made on — and about — the margins, it caused a stir on the European film festival circuit and now arrives at MOTELX to test the limits of bad taste as an art form.
"2551.01 – The Kid" (2020), described by the director himself as a “dystopian slapstick film,” is a bold and anarchic reimagining of Chaplin’s The Kid. In it, a man wearing an ape mask takes in an abandoned child, and together they wander through an underground world populated by grotesque figures inhabiting the depths of physical and existential horror.
"2551.02 – The Orgy of the Damned" (2023) continues this burlesque homage to Chaplin, asserting itself as an act of pure visual punk, in which our Ape Man becomes lost in a labyrinth of endless depravities, marked by the explosive fusion of eroticism and extreme black humour.
Everything culminates in "2551.03 – The End" (2025), the final chapter that, in a tone of nihilistic melancholy, concludes the protagonist’s journey through a universe obliterated by the corruptibility of power imposed through sex and violence.
The "2551" trilogy is a vanguard, outsider cinematic journey that made waves on the European festival circuit and now arrives in full at MOTELX to challenge the artistic and conceptual boundaries of radical cinephilia.
In SectionX, MOTELX conjures the ghost of horror within underground cinema.
"2551.01 – The Kid" (2020), described by the director himself as a “dystopian slapstick film,” is a bold and anarchic reimagining of Chaplin’s The Kid. In it, a man wearing an ape mask takes in an abandoned child, and together they wander through an underground world populated by grotesque figures inhabiting the depths of physical and existential horror.
"2551.02 – The Orgy of the Damned" (2023) continues this burlesque homage to Chaplin, asserting itself as an act of pure visual punk, in which our Ape Man becomes lost in a labyrinth of endless depravities, marked by the explosive fusion of eroticism and extreme black humour.
Everything culminates in "2551.03 – The End" (2025), the final chapter that, in a tone of nihilistic melancholy, concludes the protagonist’s journey through a universe obliterated by the corruptibility of power imposed through sex and violence.
The "2551" trilogy is a vanguard, outsider cinematic journey that made waves on the European festival circuit and now arrives in full at MOTELX to challenge the artistic and conceptual boundaries of radical cinephilia.
In SectionX, MOTELX conjures the ghost of horror within underground cinema.