The Duke of Burgundy

Director: Peter Strickland

Cast: Sidse Babett Knudsen, Monica Swinn, Chiara D'Anna

Young Evelyn works as a housekeeper in a stately country house, where she is caught up in a weird relationship of dominance and submission with Cynthia, mistress of the mansion. At first sight, the butterfly collector Cynthia acts as the dominant one, but the director soon reveals that things may not be as they seem – through repeating scenarios we discover that in a certain way, Evelyn is the master. The eagerly anticipated follow up to Katalin Varga and Berberian Sound Studio, Peter Strickland’s artfully shot, stylish pastiche to the 1970s European sex/horror subgenre is in fact a sensual, dark melodrama, which is more about the romantic than the sexual relationship – about bending ourselves to make one person happy.