Join the Campaign to Save the Edinburgh Filmhouse

Cinema goers were saddened last month when it was announced that the Centre for the Moving Image was going into administration, meaning the end of Edinburgh's Filmhouse Cinema (and its online sister Filmhouse at Home), Aberdeen's Belmont Cinema and the Edinburgh International Film Festival. The reasons given for the collapse of the charity include the effect of the pandemic on reducing cinema audiences (I've rarely been to the cinema since COVID struck and have watched films online including on Filmhouse at Home), the recent huge hike in energy prices in the UK and the general cost of living crisis. In truth, apparently, the signs had been there for years, but the charity hadn't made them public. I think if problems had been made public, then people would have rallied round to save the cinemas and festival before all this happened. 

At the same time, one of the major art galleries in Edinburgh has closed its doors until the Spring and there are rumours of other closures across the Scottish arts sector.

We need our cultural institutions! Depending on the film, cinema can offer escapism or directly address the issues that face the world. 

So, a campaign has been launched to Save the Filmhouse. You can read about the campaign on the Edinburgh Evening News website here, find out more on the campaign website or follow @SaveFilmhouse on Twitter. 

Edited to add: A crowdfunder has now been set up to secure the future of Filmhouse. 

 

Two SF films at Edinburgh International Film Festival

Edinburgh International Film Festival ends tonight and here are my two final reviews. 

The Vast of Night 



The debut from director Andrew Patterson, The Vast of Night, framed as an episode of The Twighlight Zone, is set over the course of a single night a small town in late 1950s New Mexico. Most residents of the town are at a basketball game, except for radio presenter Everett (Jake Horowitz) and switchboard operator Fay (Sierra McCormick), who hear mysterious sounds disrupting their lines and broadcasts. This leads to an investigation involving a veteran who phones into the radio station to recount his experiences and an elderly lady who shares snippets of a language she has heard that seems connected to the other strange sounds.

It's a beautifully made film which feels to very realistically evoke the era. It's a very low key drama, with the story developing slowly and there being little disagreement between Fay and Everett despite what must be trying events. A burgeoning romance between the two is very slightly hinted at but doesn't develop at all, avoiding the obvious sub-plot (though possibly decreasing the amount of engagement for some viewers?). 

Definitely worth watching, it should get at least a restricted release in the UK in the next few months.


 Time Crimes 




Going back in time (in more ways than one) Time Crimes is a 2007 Spanish film featuring Hector a middle aged man who finds himself caught in a time loop and tries to keep going back to correct what went wrong last time he travelled back in time. It's one of those films that messes with your brain, specially if you think about it too much. 

One of the great things about the Edinburgh International Film Festival is that it includes well curated retrospective strands that include films like this, that might otherwise be forgotten. 

Disclaimer: I received free press tickets for the public screenings of these two films. 

 You can read my earlier reviews from Edinburgh International Film Festival 2019, by following the links below:

Boyz in the Wood a group of teenage boys get lost in the Scottish Highlands.

2040 - can technology offer solutions to our current climate and ecological crises?

 Bait - Cornish fishermen try to adapt to a changing world

How to Fake  a War (on my Shapeshifting Green blog) what happens when a rock star decides to meddle in international affairs?


Farm Animals on Film - featuring The Biggest Little Farm - an inspiring story of the creation of a sustainable biodiverse farm in California, plus Vulture, an experimental film about farm animals.

Virgin and Extra: Land of the Olive Oil.
 
Chef Diaries Scotland: Spanish Chefs the Roca brothers take the viewer on a culinary road trip round Scotland

 Up the Mountain - a year in an artists' studio in the Chinese mountains.

The Amber Light - a cinematic ode to Scotland's national drink

Aren't You Happy (on my Shapeshifting Green blog) - a writer searches for the meaning of life while not actually writibg anything

The Deer - a Basque language film following two poachers in a national park on the outskirts of San Sebastien.

Hurt by Paradise - a poet keeps searching for a publisher and an actor keeps trying to get a role

Photograph (on my Shapeshifting Green blog) - a street photographer in Mumbai invents a fiancee for himself....

Endzeit - an ecofeminist road movie with zombies. 

Vai and Venezia - 2 films from sinking worlds. 

Hamada - (on my Shapeshiting Green blog) life for young refugees of the Sahwari people in the Sahara. 

 Volcano - a photpgrapher gets lost in Ukraine

Black Forest - a dysfunctional family holiday in the German forest  

Carmilla - a gothic tale. 

Hamada - screening at Edinburgh International Film Festival

 

Hamada: (h 'ma:d ) n. (geology) a desert terrain that consists of a flat and rocky area mainly devoid of sand. For Sahrawi people, hamada also refers to ‘emptiness’ or ‘lifelessness’. 
 
Hamada follows the lives of young friends living in a refugee camp in the Sahara. A minefield and the second largest military wall in the world separates this group from their homeland that they only know from their parent's stories. The Sahrawi people have lived here for 40 years since Morocco drove them out of Western Sahara.

These young people have the same interests as young people in more fortunate circumstances, they want to learn how to drive, to develop skills, to find meaningful jobs, to find a girlfriend or boyfriend, to enjoy time with their friends and family. Their determination shines through in every scene but it is clear that all of them want more fulfilling lives than the refugee camp can offer them.

Hamada is screening as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival at  1325, Saturday 29 June and at 1530 Sunday 30 June both at Odeon Lothian Road. You can buy tickets here.

You can read my earlier reviews from Edinburgh International Film Festival 2019, by following the links below:

Boyz in the Wood a group of teenage boys get lost in the Scottish Highlands.

2040 - can technology offer solutions to our current climate and ecological crises?

 Bait - Cornish fishermen try to adapt to a changing world

How to Fake  a War (on my Shapeshifting Green blog) what happens when a rock star decides to meddle in international affairs?

Farm Animals on Film - featuring The Biggest Little Farm - an inspiring story of the creation of a sustainable biodiverse farm in California, plus Vulture, an experimental film about farm animals.

Virgin and Extra: Land of the Olive Oil.

Chef Diaries: Scotland - Spanish chefs the Roca brothers take the viewer on a culinary road trip round Scotland.

Up the Mountain - a year in an artists' studio in the Chinese mountains.

The Amber Light - a cinematic ode to Scotland's national drink

Aren't You Happy (on my Shapeshifting Green blog) - a writer searches for the meaning of life while not actually writing anything

The Deer - a Basque language film following two poachers in a national park on the outskirts of San Sebastien.

Hurt by Paradise - a poet keeps searching for a publisher and an actor keeps trying to get a role

Photograph (on my Shapeshifting Green blog) - a street photographer in Mumbai invents a fiancee for himself....

Endzeit - an ecofeminist road movie with zombies. 

Vai and Venezia - 2 films from sinking worlds. 


Volcano - lost in the borderlands of Ukraine.

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the film festival and attended a free press screening of these films.

Photograph - screening at Edinburgh International Film Festival

This new film from Ritesh Batra is the much awaited follow up to the brilliant comedy The Lunchbox.
 

Struggling street photographer Rafi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who also stars in Lunchbox), based in Mumbai, works all the hours he can to pay off an old family debt. His grandmother (Farrukh Jaffar) constantly pressurises him to find a suitable match. He eventually shows his grandmother by a photo of a stranger, Miloni (Sanya Malhotra) claiming she is his fiancée. When his grandmother demands to be introduced to his fiancée, he manages to track down Miloni. Rafi asks her to fake their relationship, to which Miloni  agrees.

The two soon become friends, obviously enjoying each other's company, despite their very different backgrounds, but not becoming romantically involved. The situation is complicated by the fact that Miloni pretends to be an orphan to avoid Rafi's grandmother wanting to meet them. However it becomes difficult to avoid almost bumping into them.

Miloni is a very quiet character, a trait that can come across very poorly in some films, but here it works, she is the quiet but determined young woman not prepared to waste words where they're not needed. Her growing interest in becoming part of Rafi's world is part of her testing out what she wants from life.

The drama that ensues is a sweet entertaining story, well worth savouring.  

Photograph is screening at Edinburgh International Film Festival at 1815 Wednesday 26 June at Odeon Lothian Road and at 2020 Thursday 27 June at Vue Omni Centre. You can book tickets here.

You can read my earlier reviews from Edinburgh International Film Festival 2019, by following the links below:

Boyz in the Wood a group of teenage boys get lost in the Scottish Highlands.

2040 - can technology offer solutions to our current climate and ecological crises?

 Bait - Cornish fishermen try to adapt to a changing world

How to Fake  a War (on my Shapeshifting Green blog) what happens when a rock star decides to meddle in international affairs?

Farm Animals on Film - featuring The Biggest Little Farm - an inspiring story of the creation of a sustainable biodiverse farm in California, plus Vulture, an experimental film about farm animals.

Virgin and Extra: Land of the Olive Oil.

Chef Diaries Scotland: Spanish Chefs the Roca brothers take the viewer on a culinary road trip round Scotland

 Up the Mountain - a year in an artists' studio in the Chinese mountains.

The Amber Light - a cinematic ode to Scotland's national drink

Aren't You Happy (on my Shapeshifting Green blog) - a writer searches for the meaning of life while not actually writibg anything


The Deer - a Basque language film following two poachers in a national park on the outskirts of San Sebastien.

 Hurt by Paradise - a poet keeps searching for a publisher and an actor keeps trying to get a role

Endzeit - ecofeminist road movie, with zombies

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the film festival and attended a free press screening of these films.

Aren't You Happy? Screening at Edinburgh International Film Festival

Writer-director Susanne Heinrich’s first feature length film is a cinematically interesting exploration of life, love and gender relations for today's young woman. 

A nameless and melancholy young woman (Marie Rathscheck) is a writer with writing issues (she's got no further than the first line of the second chapter of her novel). She searches for meaning to life and a bed for the night while waiting for the end of capitalism. She meets various men, none of whom she allows to mean anything to her. She visits art galleries and philosophises about beauty, feminism and consumerism.

The film is very stylised (reminding in this particular though not in others of Fassbinder's Fear Eats the Soul) and almost static, broken down into self consciously announced episodes. Everything takes place in a very distinctive colour palette dominated by pink and blue. 

Then suddenly in the middle there's a wonderful animated music video then we're back to the same clever and contrived format as before.  

There are moments of humour here and some ideas worth thinking about but mostly it's melancholy and feels as though it should be more entertaining than it is.

Aren't You Happy? is nominated for the 2019 Award for Best International Feature Film.

Aren't You Happy screens at the Edinburgh International Film Festival at 2020 Monday 24 June and 2040 Wednesday 26 June both at Vue Omni Centre. You can book tickets here.

You can read my earlier reviews from Edinburgh International Film Festival 2019, by following the links below:

Boyz in the Wood a group of teenage boys get lost in the Scottish Highlands.

2040 - can technology offer solutions to our current climate and ecological crises?

 Bait - Cornish fishermen try to adapt to a changing world

How to Fake  a War what happens when a rock star decides to meddle in international affairs?

Farm Animals on Film - featuring The Biggest Little Farm - an inspiring story of the creation of a sustainable biodiverse farm in California, plus Vulture, an experimental film about farm animals.

Virgin and Extra: Land of the Olive Oil.


Chef Diaries: Scotland - Spanish chefs the Roca brothers take the viewer on a culinary road trip round Scotland.

Up the Mountain - a year in an artists' studio in the Chinese mountains.

The Amber Light - a cinematic ode to Scotland's national drink

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the film festival and attended a free press screening of these films.

How to Fake a War - film review

This is how World War Three starts, an explosive mix of fame obsessed celebrities, fake news, international meddling in a sovereign state's affairs, naivety and misadventure.

Hip-hop star Harry Hope (Jay Pharoah) claims to have won every music and acting award going and now has its sights set on the Nobel Peace Prize. So when he hears about war breaking out on the border of Georgia and a neighbouring republic that no-one has ever heard of, he sees this as his chance and announces a major Concert for Peace. But almost immediately a ceasefire is brokered and Harry is annoyed that his opportunity for greater fame has been undermined. So he tasks his PR consultant, Kate (Katherine Parkinson), and her sister and intern, Peggy (Lily Newmark),with manufacturing a fake conflict for long enough for Harry's concert to be seen as the catalyst for peace. 

This is as dubious a proposition as it sounds and leads to mayhem, violence and the build up to potentially serious international conflict. 

Despite being billed as a comedy, this is more often very uncomfortable viewing. You may laugh at this seemingly ridiculous story, but underneath, in this world of fake news and celebrity obsession, you sort of wouldn't be too surprised to find out it's true.

How to Fake a War is screening as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2019 at 1755, Saturday 22 June and at 1515, Sunday 23 June, both at Odeon, Lothian Road. You can buy tickets here.


You can read my earlier reviews from Edinburgh International Film Festival 2019 (posted on my Crafty Green Poet blog) by following the links below:

Boyz in the Wood a group of teenage boys get lost in the Scottish Highlands.

2040 - can technology offer solutions to our current climate and ecological crises?

Bait - Cornish fishermen try to adapt to a changing world. 

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the film festival and attended a free press screening of these films.

The Lure - film review

The Lure is a wonderfully retro Polish musical featuring sister mermaids with vampiric tendencies who are taken on by an underground nightclub to perform backing vocals and striptease. Golden is the sister who most feels the lure of being a vampire, while Silver is the sister who tries to restrain her vampiric tendencies and falls in love with the band's bass player. However their love is doomed, she is a mermaid and he is a human and it's impossible for them to be together. At the same time, mermaid myth says that any mermaid who falls in love with a human who then marries another human will turn to sea-foam on her lover's wedding day..... Is Silver herself therefore doomed?

This is a wonderfully atmospheric film, coping equally well with punk concerts and underwater scenes. It's fun and upbeat but has a melancholy heart. Well worth watching.

The Lure is showing as part of Edinburgh International Film festival:

2055, 24 June at Cineworld.

 You can read my other reviews from this year's film festival by following the links below:





Endless Night.



Homo Sapiens.


Belles Familles.

The Olive Tree.

 Death is Only the Beginning - my review of The Correspondence and The Library Suicides.

The Mine.

The Islands and the Whales.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople. 

Bugs - are insects the food of the future?

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and attended free press screenings of these films

Best of Fest

Edinburgh International Film Festival has announced the line up of the Best of the Fest screenings to be shown on Sunday.

Tickets are on sale now and films screen from Saturday 27 - Sunday 28 June at:

• Filmhouse
• Cineworld
• Odeon Lothian Road.

And now for my own Fest of the Fest! Follow the links below for my reviews

Chicken - a beautifully made coming of age drama focussing on a teenager with learning difficulties and his pet chicken.

Scottish Mussel - a romantic comedy focussing on the fight to conserve the freshwater mussel

Black Mountain Poets - a hilarious tale of two sisters on the run who pretend to be poets and hide out at a poetry retreat in the Welsh Mountains

 Desert Dancer - amazing choreography in this fictionalised biopic of the Iranian dancer Adshin Ghaffarian

Liza the Fox Fairy - a surreal comedy from Hungary

When Elephants Fight - an important documentary about conflict minerals in the Congo

It's been a great festival and many of the films shown deserve to be released into cinemas. 

Disclaimer - I had a press pass for the film festival and attended free press screenings of these films (except for Liza the Fox Fairy)

Liza the Fox Fairy

I wasn't able to get to a press screening of Liza the Fox Fairy but managed to buy a ticket for the last public screening and went along with Crafty Green Boyfriend.

This is a surreal film ('delightfully bonkers' according to Crafty Green Boyfriend) set in a beautifully imagined alternative reality 1970's Hungary where capitalism has replaced communism and everyone eats at Mekk Burger.

Liza is the live in nurse for the widow of the Japanese ambassador. The ghost of a Japanese pop star lives in the same flat and onstantly sings to Liza, though no-one else can see or hear him.

A series of unfortunate incidents in which people close to Liza die convince her that she is in fact a fox fairy, a creature from Japanese mythology who kills everyone who loves her. Can she find her one true love who can break the curse?

This a wonderfully escapist film, entertaining and very funny in parts.

Liza the Fox Fairy was shown as part of the Edinburgh International Film festival and hopefully will eventually get released into cinemas.

To read my other reviews from the film festival, follow the links below

Scottish Mussel - a romantic comedy centred on the fight to save the freshwater pearl mussel

 Black Mountain Poets - sisters on the run join a poetry retreat in the Welsh mountains

Desert Dancer - drama inspired by the life of Iranian dancer Afshin Ghaffarian 

Under Milk Wood - a new cinematic interpretation of Dylan Thomas' classic prose poem

Brand New U - futuristic thriller /  love story 

 Of Chickens and Camels - a review of Chicken (a wonderful coming of age film about a teenager with learning difficultie) and Nearby Sky (a documentary about the camel beauty contests in the Emirates). 

Infini - disaster on an off-planet mine

La Tirisia - love and life in the cacti covered mountains of Mexico

When Elephants Fight - conflict minerals in Congo

 Iron Ministry - a cinematic journey through China by rail

 Index Zero - dystopian SF set in a future Fortress Europe

30 Days Wild goes to the cinema - how the landscape backdrops two films set in very different countries (Sand Dollars and The Gulls) 

Disclaimer - I have a press pass for the film festival and attended free press screening of  these films.

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks which take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

Brand New U

Brand New U, showing at the Edinburgh International Film Festival is a tense, futuristic thriller about parallel identities that at heart is a love story. Slater visits the Brand New U corporation after his girlfriend Nadia disappears. He is given a new identity and a new lifespace with the warning that he musn't take anything from his old life with him. He is however, obsessed with Nadia and is convinced he has found her in his new lifespace, with complicating and dangerous consequences.

This stylish and moody film brings up interesting issues around identity and the existence of a soul-mate and plays with ideas around parallel realities.

It can be confusing. As I left the cinema, I heard someone say she thought it was much more confusing than she had expected, but I found it less confusing than I had expected. 

The soundtrack severely begs for Placebo's track Every You and Every Me. Luckily I know that song pretty well and could add it myself at the appropriate moments. Silently of course so as not to disturb the rest of the audience.

Brand New U is showing as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival at 1550, 27 June at the Odeon.

You can read my other reviews from the film festival over on Crafty Green Poet by following these links

Under Milk Wood - the film (2015) - the new cinematic interpretation of Dylan Thomas' classic prose poem 

Of Chickens and Camels - a review of Chicken (a wonderful coming of age film about a teenager with learning difficultie) and Nearby Sky (a documentary about the camel beauty contests in the Emirates). 

Infini - disaster on an off-planet mine

La Tirisia - love and life in the cacti covered mountains of Mexico

When Elephants Fight - conflict minerals in Congo

 Iron Ministry - a cinematic journey through China by rail

 Index Zero - dystopian SF set in a future Fortress Europe

30 Days Wild goes to the cinema - how the landscape backdrops two films set in very different countries (Sand Dollars and The Gulls)

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the film festival and attended free press screenings for these films. 

As ever, coloured text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

Lights and Shadows

outside the Filmhouse Cinema, Edinburgh

for Shadow Shot Sunday

The Filmhouse is the host and main venue of
Edinburgh International Film Festival
18 - 29 June, 2014 

Die Welt

Abdallah works for a pittance in a Tunis video store where he delights in encouraging customers to try less commercial films. Behind his pride in his homeland though he dreams of leaving the country, inspired partly by his father, who had lived in the Netherlands for several years. Abdallah has a one night stand with a Dutch woman and soon after that loses his job, both of which make him more determined to leave the country.

Die Welt explores the dilemmas faced by young Tunisians, treating the subject matter with a light touch, including enjoyably witty dialogue and lots of vivid scenes set in varied locations including marketplaces, a traditional wedding party and a traditional baths.

The background to the film is interesting. The Dutch director (Alex Pitstra) has a Tunisian father (who plays the father in Die Welt) and the film was inspired by his reactions to the Jasmine Spring revolution in Tunisia. The film blends documentary into the fictional story, even including home videos of Pitstra's childhood in the Netherlands. This brings a revealing and insightful personal element into the film.

Die Welt is showing as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival:

2050, 28 June and 1910, 29 June both at Cineworld. 

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh international Film Festival and attended a free press screening of this film. 

Lilou's Adventure

Lilou, the ten year old daughter of a Guinean father and a Japanese mother, doesn't have friends at her school in Okinawa. She keeps herself pretty much to herself, even not liking to join the groups of children who congregate with her father to play drums and dance. Her classmate Kokuru, meanwhile has stopped dreaming and is upset about this, because she has been keeping a dream dairy so she has something to talk about with her grandfather. The two girls ave a lot in common, both of them have musicians as fathers and both of them are shy and serious. Kokuru had been too shy to speak to Lilou until she stopped dreaming and then felt she needed to reach out.

This marks the beginning of the two girls adventures, in which reality, dreams, myths and video games all start to merge into a beautifully surreal collage. But can Kokuru save her grandfather before time runs out? At times I was wanting to shake the characters and tell them to hurry up! Partly this was because it felt like a very long film (it's almost two hours long) but largely because the viewer gets really sucked into the flow of the film and engaged with the two main characters.

The two young actresses playing the main roles give wonderful performances and the friendship between the two is beautifully developed. The film is a lovely meditation on friendship, belonging and the nature of reality.

Lilou's Adventure is showing as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival:

1450, 23 June and 1810, 25 June both at Cineworld

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and attended a free press screening of this film. 

From Tehran to London

From Tehran to London is an unfinished film and presented as such as a testament of the censorship that film-making is subjected to in Iran.

Mania Akbari stopped the filming of the film when several Irainian film-makers had been arrested. She fled to London where she finished producing the film, but left the narrative unfinished.

The story centres on a couple, Ashkan, a wealthy business man and Ava, a poet, who is suffering from writer's block. Near the beginning of the film, their maid Maryam disappears while the couple are on a business trip. Later, Ava's sister has moved into the house.

The whole film is made up of claustrophobic dialogue between the characters, long arguments between the couple and gentler discussions between the sisters as they perform their beauty routines together. Ava is angry with her husband for many reasons, but partly because she feels he is blocking the publication of her latest book of poetry, so the issue of censorship was already at the heart of the film before the director was forced to stop filming.

This is a fascinating film for anyone interested in gender relations or artistic self expression in Iran.

From Tehran to London is showing: 2015, 22 June and 1500, 23 June, both at Filmhouse.


Disclaimer, I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and attended a free press screening of this film.

I'm posting most of my film festival reviews on Crafty Green Poet, you can read them so far here and here.

Edinburgh International Film Festival Reviews

I'm delighted to have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival again this year. I'm reviewing films here and on Crafty Green Poet. This post is an index, which will include links to all the films reviewed on both blogs. This post will be updated after every review with the most recent reviews at the top, will be cross posted to Crafty Green Poet and will stay at the top of both blogs until the end of the film festival.

Rentaneko (Rent-a-cat) - a woman rents out cats to lonely people in a Japanese city
Children and Nature in films - I review Of Skies and Earth and Kid Thing.
What is this Film called Love? - a walking tour of Mexico city, with a few diversions along the way
Riding Zorro - a biopic of rodeo's most famous horse.
Captive Animals Captured on Film - I review Postcards from the Zoo and Bestiaire Vivan las Antipodas! a contemplation of life in four antipodal pair places on the earth
Hospitalité - a Tokyo household is disrupted by an old acquaintance
Official Best of the Fest - the film festivals list of most popular films which will be screened again on Sunday
Attractive Illusion - what happens to a group of illegal Nigerian immigrants on Greece?
The Lifeguard - an hour on the beach in Chile!
Memory, the Future and Experimental Film - I review Dress Rehearsal for Utopia (a collage of images from Mozambique) and Future My Love (thoughts about the failure of a relationship and the failure of the economic system)
Here There - 3 interwoven stories of Chinese life.
Rose - life in the Masurian region of Poland in the aftermath of World War 2. 
Modest Reception - a couple randomly give out money in the mountains of Iran
Poetry in Film - I review Demain, the biopic of Uruguayan poet Delmira Agustin and In Search of Emak Bakia, a movie about the making of Man Ray's film of that name.

as ever, coloured text contains hyperlinks that take you to other pages where you can find out more. 

Hospitalite

Despite the French seeming title, Hospitalité is a Japanese film, described as a 'stylish mixture of deadpan social satire, Buñuelian surrealism and unnerving suspense'. 

A mild-mannered Tokyo man catches up with an old acquaintance he barely remembers. The newcomer manipulates his old friend into giving him a job in his small printing business. He soon moves himself and a blonde woman he introduces as his wife into the household that the printer shares with his sister, his second wife and his daughter from his first marriage.

The members of the local neighbourhood watch group are particularly enthusiastic about their civic duties and (along with the audience) watch the new arrivals with great interest.

The newcomers quickly disrupt family life by manipulating the family members, rudely abusing their hospitality. Things become more and more bizarre, disturbing and downright odd, with everyone turning out to have secrets and constant unexpected plot twists popping up. This is a wonderfully surreal and entertaining film, offering amusing insights into human nature.

Hosptalité is part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and is showing at: 15:20, 30 June at Cineworld 11.

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and attended a free press screening of this film.

As ever, coloured text contains hyperlinks that take you to other pages, where you can find out more.

Best of the Fest

Edinburgh International Film Festival has just announced its Best of the Fest list (which as far as I'm aware is based on ticket sales). All films are screening for £6 (£5 concession) so here is you chance to see festival films at normal prices:

 

Showing at Cineworld:  

BRAVE (11:00) 

DR SEUSS’ THE LORAX (13:15)

FLICKER (12:10) which I may review tomorrow

7 DAYS IN HAVANA (12:20) which i may review tomorrow

BORROWED TIME (12:30);  

FRED (14:20);  

DAY OF THE FLOWERS (14:30);  

JACKPOT (14:50);  

LIFE JUST IS (16:00);  

THE IMPOSTER (16:25);  

FUTURE MY LOVE (16:25) you can read my review here 

GRABBERS (16:45);  

CALIFORNIA SOLO (18:15);  

AND IF WE ALL LIVED TOGETHER?(18:30);  

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO (18:45);  

SHADOW DANCER (18:55); 

GUINEA PIGS (20:30);  

DRAGON (WU XIA) (20:45) 

PUSHER (21:00).

 

Showing at Filmhouse 

GOD BLESS AMERICA (11:15)
RENT-A-CAT (20:30) which I have bought a ticket for, having missed the press screenings and the public screenings being sold out! 


I'll probably do my own Best of the Fest post at the end of the festival.

Attractive Illusion

The problem with films like Attractive Illusion is that they tend only to attract audiences from amongst those who are already aware of the issues (in this case the fate of illegal immigrants into Europe). This is a shame, because this film deserves a wide audience not only because of the issues it addresses, but because it is a compelling, moving and powerful film.

A group of Nigerians are seen escaping to Greece in the belly of a cramped boat that is barely big enough for them. Once in their new home, they soon discover that they are not welcome, being moved on by the police and finding it hard to find honest work. One of the guys moves from selling CDs on a street stall to selling drugs; another decides that lazing around in bed for most of the day, dreaming of a big house is the answer. Meanwhile the women move into prostitution. Outgoing Enor seems to adapt to her new life with gusto, dancing with abandon and flirting happily with her clients and posing proudly in her sexy clothes. Amen meanwhile works at first in a kitchen and is forced into prostitution by the owner of the bar where Enor works. Amen shrinks from the very thought of selling her body cowers under dirty bedclothes when she's with a client and is raped by the bar owner.

It is a grim life they've all found, with no prospect of making a living by honest means. However at least for the majority of the film, we see that not everything is bleak, there are real friendships and romance, spontaneous sing-alongs and day trips. Ultimately though, everyone's lives spiral out of control and there can only be a tragic ending to the story. It certainly becomes clear that the idea of Europe as offering a golden future is only an illusion.

Not easy viewing, this is however an important film. I hope it gets released into cinemas in the near future. 

Attractive Illusion is showing at Edinburgh International Film Festival at 20:00, 30 June Cineworld 11.

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and attended a free press screening of this film.

The Lifeguard

A busy beach in Chile is patrolled by three lifeguards, Mauricio who believes in preventing accidents and helping people on the beach but who never goes into the water, Jean Pierre who does very little until he needs to go into the water to rescue someone, and Teresa.

The Lifeguard follows them over the course of a few days and eavesdrops on the people on the beach, a couple rebelliously setting up a barbeque on the sand, young guys passing comment on the girls, groups of women gossiping and young Luca who wants to be a lifeguard when he grows up.

It's an intriguing film that holds a lot more than it appears on the surface. What are the attributes of a perfect lifeguard? One who prevents accidents or one who heroically rescues people who ignore the warnings? By the end of the film it is very clear that every lifeguard needs both attributes.

This film had two showings at the Edinburgh International Film Festival but unfortunately there are no more!

Disclaimer, I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and attended a free press screening for this film.

Edinburgh International Film Festival

Edinburgh International Film Festival starts today! It looks like another excellent programme and I'm looking forward to reviewing selected films here and on Crafty Green Poet from next Monday onwards.

You can see the programme here and book tickets here.

Tickets for most films cost £9 (£7.50 concession). Howard from Belvedere Mountain Express complained about this on a post on Crafty Green Poet. However I think it's pretty reasonable value when you consider that the cinemas in walking distance of where I live charge: £7.30; £7.50 or £8.70 for a standard adult ticket for an evening screening. If you choose your films wisely at the Film Festival you can see brilliant films that never come back to the screen and for that I think it's well worth paying up to an extra £1.70.


Admittedly I do have a press pass and will be viewing more films than I would probably do otherwise. I can't make the press screening of RentaNeko unfortunately, and may buy a ticket (if there are any left!) for one of the public screenings.