The Mars Volta's Omar Rodriguez-Lopez is to make his directorial debut at the International Film Festival in Rotterdam next month.

The fetchingly titled 'The Sentimental Engine Slayer' is the 34-year-old's third feature film, but will be the first to get a public outing when it's screened at the festival on February 4th.

His other works, 2001’s A Manual Dexterity and 2003’s Letters from Dystopia, were unreleased.

'The Sentimental Engine Slayer' – starring Rodriguez-Lopez as the main character Barlam - was made on a tiny budget from money borrowed by his parents and a close friend and was filmed on location in El Paso, Texas in 2007.

It tells the story of a 20-something outcast (Barlam) as he struggles to come of age in a drug-addled El Paso.

Amazingly, since work on 'The Sentimental Engine Slayer' finished, Rodriguez-Lopez has finished two more films - 2008's 'El Divino Influjo De Los Secretos' and 2009's 'Boiling Death Request', both of which are in post-production.

(by Scott Colothan)