The Belly of the Whale 2018
Two down-and-outs bonded together in misfortune devise a plan to rob a small town amusement arcade.
Two down-and-outs bonded together in misfortune devise a plan to rob a small town amusement arcade.
In the cold west, Motel Acacia is tasked with exterminating immigrants by the government through a BED, haunted with the spirit of a Filipino tree demon, that eats men and impregnates women. A young Filipino man, JC, is groomed by his tyrannical caucasian Father to take over the business.
2009, Slovenia. For 30 years, Alija, the miner, has been one of the many Bosnian immigrant workers. Due to the crisis, miners are losing jobs. Alija is sent to check an abandoned mine. His task is to quickly make sure the mine is empty before management sells the company. But in the mine, Alija finds hidden proof of executions after WWII. He is told to stop digging and report the mine empty. He decides to continue, although he is risking his job. Alija discovers thousands of executed people. He informs the police. He found women among the dead. Some of them were civilians, missing persons, just like his sister that was lost in the 1995 genocide in Bosnia. Alija is convinced the victims need to be brought out, identified and buried. But there is no interest in doing that. The mine is proclaimed a WWII military grave and walled in. The dead will stay unburied. Alija loses his job and struggles to preserve his dignity.
The stories narrated by the film bring together individuals all over the world, spanning over sixty years and thus symbolically covering the approximate period of a single human life. Each of the stories is based on true accounts and events, summed up from newspaper articles, statements, and media announcements. Through internal monologues the collage makes up a whole which transcends any individual story.
A day in the life of Rudolf Nietsche, a man who has never even been able to secure a seat on the train, let alone his place in life; a man lacking that Z in his surname, a small yet crucial letter.