Competition: Win Frightfest flick ‘Videoman’ on DVD

To celebrate the home entertainment release of Videoman, available on DVD and Digital 18th February 2019, we have a copy of the DVD up for grabs, courtesy of Signature Entertainment. The feature film debut from award-winning Swedish director Kristian A. Söderström, and one of Time Out’s top picks to see at FrightFest 2018, Videoman celebrates the golden days of VHS, the Italian giallo and the films of Mike Leigh.

Ennio (Stefan Sauk), a giallo-obsessed VHS collector with a drinking problem finds a highly collectable video tape that could solve his money problems and save him from eviction. He makes a deal with a shady, anonymous collector before realising the video has been stolen. So begins Ennio’s desperate hunt for the black-gloved perpetrator while, along the way, he meets Simone (Lena Nilsson), an alcoholic woman obsessed with the 80s. As Ennio searches for the tape and begins to lose a grip on reality, his and Simone’s mutual love of nostalgia draws them together. Can they find redemption in each other?

Dario Argento meets Mike Leigh in Kristian A. Söderström’s feature film debut – a darkly comic, creepy and incredibly moving celebration of both gialli and social realism. Fans of genre cinema, art cinema, and collectors will find Videoman an absolute blast.

Let’s face it, social realism and gialli are not genres you often find sitting together in the same sentence. The giallo is big, brash and operatic, full of incredibly beautiful people being murdered in outlandish, gory set pieces. The social realist film, on the other hand, well, it does what it says on the tin. Yet somehow, Kristian A. Söderström successfully brings these two distinct genres together in the masterful Videoman. The film moves seamlessly from scenes of moving dialogue to giallo-esque sequences in which Stefan Sauk’s Ennio finds his life transforming into the films he lives for. Apparently stalked by a film collector even more obsessive than he is, Ennio’s grip on reality loosens and it’s hard to tell if it’s an effect of the copious amounts of J&B he consumes daily, or if he really is living in his own personal giallo.

Ennio is provided with the perfect foil in Simone, played beautifully by Lena Nilsson. A long-time alcoholic, Simone is estranged from her daughter, being bullied at work and becoming increasingly fixated on the 1980s. Desperate for a friend, she opens up to the prickly, distant Ennio with surprising results for both of them. While Ennio and Simone cannot see their own flaws, they seem to be able to tell easily what is wrong with the other and realise they may be each other’s salvation.

On paper, Videoman just shouldn’t work but Söderström has a vision for the film and he carries it out so masterfully, you would swear this couldn’t be his first feature film. It’s certain to mark out Söderström as a director to watch closely.

Purchase link: https://amzn.to/2GarbWB

To win Videomanon DVD, just answer the following question:

Which of the following was also directed by Kristian A. Söderström? Was it:
a) Offspring
b) Papa Roach
c) Sum 41

Email your answer to NerdlyComps@gmail.com, making sure to include your name and address. You can also leave your answer on our Facebook page, just make sure to like us first or your entry will be invalid.

Competition closes February 28th 2019.

COMPETITION T&C’s
• Open to UK participants only.
• 1 (one) winner will receive 1 (one) DVD copy of VIDEOMAN. The prize will be delivered to the winner upon receipt of their email contact details
• The winner will be picked at random. The prize will be delivered to the winner within 28 days of confirmation of delivery address.
• Winners will be notified by email.
• The promoter of this competition is Fetch Dynamic Ltd
• The winner will be drawn at random from all the correct entries, and only they will be contacted personally. Prize must be taken as stated and cannot be deferred. There will be no cash alternatives.
• Nerdly do not accept any responsibility for late or lost entries due to the Internet or email problems. Proof of sending is not proof of receipt. Entrants must supply full details as required on the competition page, and comply with all rules to be eligible for the prizes.
• No responsibility is accepted for ineligible entries or entries made fraudulently.
• Unless otherwise stated, the Competition is not open to employees of: (a) the Company; and (b) any third party appointed by the Company to organise and/or manage the Competition; and (c) the Competition sponsor(s).
• This competition is a game promoted by Nerdly.co.uk. Our decision is final in every situation and no correspondence will be entered into.
• Nerdly reserves the right to cancel the competition at any stage, if deemed necessary in its opinion, and if circumstances arise outside of its control.
• All entries and personal details will be deleted upon the selection of the winner. No correspondence will be entered into.
• Entrants will be deemed to have accepted these rules and to agree to be bound by them when entering this competition.