Elephant/Last Days

Double-bill of dramas from acclaimed director Gus Van Sant. 'Elephant' (2003) portrays two days in the life of a suburban American high school that is set to become the scene of a Columbine-style massacre.

Semi-improvised, using unknown teenagers rather than professional actors, the film adopts a fly-on-the-wall approach that surveys the various cliques and social strata of the school in a non-judgmental, documentary-like way.

Against this background, two misfit friends, Eric (Eric Deulen) and Alex (Alex Frost), who spend their free-time collecting Nazi iconography and playing ultra-violent video games, are coolly planning an armed ambush on the school, drawing working diagrams of the school refectory during study period and buying weapons over the Internet.

In 'Last Days' (2005), Michael Pitt stars as introspective artist Blake, who is buckling under the weight of fame, professional obligations and a mounting feeling of isolation.

Many people are looking for Blake - his friends, his managers and record label, even a private detective - but he does not want to be found.

In the haze of his final hours, Blake will seek a final release.