OFFICIAL SELECTION - 2024 VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (Critics' Week)
Headlined by Albrecht Schuch (All Quiet On The Western Front, Fabian - Going To The Dogs, System Crasher), debut writer/director Bernhard Wenger's biting social satire PEACOCK follows a paid companion who's finding it increasingly difficult to be authentic in his private life.
Moustachioed Matthias (Schuch) is a master of his profession. Working at a Vienna rent-a-friend agency, he’s the perfect chameleon, impeccably at ease in any social situation, wearing any costume, in any character’s skin. Do you need a “cultured boyfriend” to impress your friends? A “perfect son” to influence your business partners’ opinion of you? Or maybe just a sparring partner to rehearse an argument? Whatever it is, simply rent Matthias! Yet, whilst he excels in all of these roles, his girlfriend Sophia (Julia Franz Richter) has lost track of who he actually is. And so has Matthias...
With an appealing absurdist tone that takes delight in sending up the art world and aspirational culture along the way, PEACOCK is a superb black comedy that lays bare the darker - and sometimes ridiculous - essence of social contracts.