Feast

Tim Leyendekker

Intriguing deconstruction of the infamous Groningen HIV case, in which men were drugged during sex parties and then injected with HIV-positive blood. In seven completely different chapters, each in their own style and cinematography, Tim Leyendekker explores themes such as sexual boundlessness, victimhood and power in relationships.

‘Love is lethal’, a man says in the enacted dialogue at the beginning of Feast. ‘But never criminal’, another man answers. ‘True love is simply without measure.’ During sex parties in Groningen in 2007, several men were drugged and injected with HIV positive blood. What did the victims hope to find at these parties? What did the perpetrators hope to find in their actions? Was it love?

Tim Leyendekker’s Feast explores these and other questions surrounding the case in a surprising, controversial and wholly original way. Partly acted, partly documentary (and the viewer is not always sure which is which), the film takes us along seven vignettes, all shining a different light on the case. Like that of the biologist who infects a tulip to explain how a virus works. For her, transmitting a virus can be seen as a way of bonding. ‘It’s a very special gift’, she says. ‘I’m not saying it’s a thing to do, but it is a way to connect.’

Credits

Director
Tim Leyendekker
Year
2021
Country of production
Netherlands, The
Type
Fiction
Duration
84 minutes
Spoken language
Dutch, English
Subtitles
EN
Dutch distributor
Windmill Film