Full Metal Village

As cows graze under an open sky, raging heavy metal music erupts from bands such as Cannibal Corpse, Grave Digger, Raise Hell, Death Angel and Sodom. This is the world’s biggest heavy metal festival, where northern German farmers from the Holstein village Wacken rub shoulders with international hard-rock fans.

FULL METAL VILLAGE is a study of the bizarre, amicable meeting of two cultures and, going beyond the ephemeral music event, documents a rural community whose identity and stability seems to have become inextricable from the heavy metal festival. The complex debut film from South Korean director Sung-Hyung Cho has become an ambitious exploration of the spirit shared by a region and its inhabitants.

Image © Achtung Panda!