This October, CineBrividi returns to Centro Pecci Cinema with horror classics, new discoveries and filmmaker Q&As. For CineBrividi Incontri, Loris Di Pasquale presents Punk State, a brutal game that exposes violence and power relations, and joins the audience for a discussion before and after the screening.
The film's director will be present in the theater.
Seven audience members gather at a theater. Lured by the promise of money, they are ordered onto the stage by three tormentors in paramilitary gear who threaten them. Whoever completes every challenge pockets one hundred thousand euros: a young man is beaten to a pulp; a middle-aged woman exhausts herself on a treadmill; another drinks until she collapses; a young man is forced to masturbate in front of his girlfriend and then before a rape victim—who is subsequently strangled by a priest. The theater thus becomes the stage for a harrowing, brutal game that lays bare the most feral and callous aspects of the human spirit. In a single evening, within a single space, everyone loses both their sanity and their dignity.
"The debut feature by Loris Di Pasquale—who previously created two short films that were screened and awarded on the festival circuit—Punk State is a scream of brutal, nihilistic rage. In just under seventy-five minutes, it confronts the viewer with a succession of shocking scenes—each with an underlying moral message—clearly channeling the spirit of Gaspar Noé. It premiered at the 2026 Pesaro International Film Festival (Mostra Internazionale del Nuovo Cinema di Pesaro) in the 'Italian Debuts' section." (Davide Maria Zazzini)
