ABERRANCE – In Select Theaters October 6, 2023

“ sleek and stylish thriller” – The Austin Chronicle 

“work of a talented first-timer, and signals the arrival of a filmmaker we should all keep an eye on” -Screen Anarchy

Freestyle Digital Media will release the Mongolian horror feature film ABERRANCE on October 6, 2023. 

ABERRANCE marks an impressive milestone as the first Mongolian horror feature to be released theatrically in the U.S. introducing Mongolian cinema to new audiences.

The film had its North American premiere at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival to positive reviews as an Official Selection in the Midnighters section.

ABERRANCE is a visually captivating film with a terrifying plot with many twists and turns that will leave you questioning who you can trust and keep you on the edge of your seat.

SYNOPSIS: When city dwellers Erkhmee and Selenge arrive at an old cabin deep in the Mongolian wilds, a foreboding settles over the couple. Erkhmee’s seemingly keen desire to provide a safe and nurturing space for his artistic wife is at odds with the violent actions and mannerisms their quizzical neighbor observes. As the neighbor digs deeper for the reason behind this aberrant behavior, only more questions and trouble arise.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

The film’s inception came to me while I was pondering not what is happening in society today but what is not happening and how we are all quietly complicit with the powers that be. I chose the thriller genre to shock and disturb the audience, hopefully opening their eyes to the larger theme. Genres such as comedy and drama no longer hold the audience’s attention in the way thrillers and horrors do today and in my opinion don’t cover the more pressing issues people are dealing with. Thrillers provide an artistic and fertile social context to the violence, action and psychological trauma being portrayed that’s subtext is more accessible to the general audience.

DIRECTOR’S INTENT

Mongolia is one of the few countries in the world that does not fully exercise its fundamental right to life and health in accordance with the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Sadly the death toll is sometimes higher than in war-torn countries. Our country ranks high in the list of causes of death in terms of cancer, traffic accidents, and suicides. It shows how cheap the establishment thinks our lives are, it’s something as an artist that cuts me deeply. This backdrop of mental illness, coupled with feelings of imprisonment effectively parallel and remind us of the lives many must suffer today in our supposedly free world. In fact, in this society, we have willingly become prisoners of our own thoughts and look for faults externally in a xenophobic wave of fear when the true demons are at our doorsteps and we invite them in.