Coma + Cindy, The Doll Is Mine

To coincide with the UK release of Bertrand Bonello’s acclaimed The Beast (starring Lea Seydoux and George Mackay), we will be showing his 2022 feature Coma and 2005 short Cindy, the Doll Is Mine to launch the ICA’s In Focus series on the French filmmaker.

Bookended by an epistolary address to Bonello’s daughter, Coma follows a teenage girl whose isolation-induced fascination with a YouTuber named Patricia Coma enhances a collapsing boundary between reality and fantasy. Haunting but playful, Coma blends live action with both hand-drawn and stop-motion animation to capture the protagonist’s loosening connection to the material world.

We will also be showing Cindy, the Doll Is Mine, which stars Asia Argento in a dual role, playing both a photographer and her model.

The event will feature a pre-recorded introduction by Nick Newman - the managing Editor of The Film Stage, a publication devoted to world cinema. While employed with Grasshopper Film he released Nocturama and produced the vinyl LP Music from the Films of Bertrand Bonello.