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Belfast Film Festival · 2024

Belfast Film Festival 2024

International Competition

Programme

8 films · 3 reviews

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The Ballad Of Suzanne Césaire

Review preview for The Ballad Of Suzanne Césaire

The word ballad is a good choice in the title because Hunt-Ehrlich’s film is a rhythms and muse affair.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Hybrid biopic about the Martinican writer and activist.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Madeleine Hunt Ehrlich; Writer: Madeleine Hunt Ehrlich; Stars: Zita Hanrot, Motell Gyn Foster, Josué Gutierrez, Reese Antoinette, Melisa Lopez)

Full review

Eephus

A pair of New England baseball teams face off for the last time as plans are underway to redevelop their field.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Carson Lund; Writer: Michael Basta, Nate Fisher, Carson Lund; Stars: Frederick Wiseman, Wayne Diamond, Keith William Richards, Conner Marx, Gregory Falatek, Keith Poulson, David Torres Jr., Paul Kandarian, Theodore Bouloukos, Stephen Radochia, John R. Smith Jnr, Jeff Saint-Dic, Annie Tisdale, Chris Goodwin, Cliff Blake)

Familiar Touch

Review preview for Familiar Touch

The writer/director also zeroes in on the importance of physical contact for Ruth - something concrete in a world that is now full of things that she can’t always grasp.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
Follows an octogenarian woman’s transition to life in assisted living as she contends with her conflicting relationship to herself and her caregivers amidst her shifting memory, age identity, and desires.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Sarah Friedland; Writer: Sarah Friedland; Stars: Kathleen Chalfant, Andy McQueen, Carolyn Michelle, H Jon Benjamin, Katelyn Nacon, Alison Martin, London Garcia, Joahn Webb, Sandy Velasco)

Full review

Paul And Paulette Take A Bath

A young American in Paris meets a girl with a morbid curiosity for the darker sides of the city's history.

(Country: UK; Year: 2024; Director: Jethro Massey; Writer: Jethro Massey; Stars: Marie Benati, Jérémie Galiana, Fanny Cottençon, Gilles Graveleau, Laurence Vassiere)

Second Chance

Desolate after experiencing a traumatic incident, Nia travels to the family's summer retreat where she forges a bond with the caretaker's mother-in-law and her grandson.

(Country: India; Year: 2024; Director: Subhadra Mahajan; Writer: Subhadra Mahajan; Stars: Thakri Devi, Dheera Johnson, Kanav Thakur)

To Kill A Mongolian Horse

Review preview for To Kill A Mongolian Horse

What emerges is a carefully calibrated, bleak but elegiac picture of an environment where people are being forced to perform rather than allowed to live on their own terms.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Saina, a herdsman by day and horseback performer by night, is torn between two worlds.

(Country: Malaysia, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, US; Year: 2024; Director: Xiaoxuan Jiang; Writer: Xiaoxuan Jiang; Stars: Saina, Undus, Qilemuge, Tonggalag)

Full review

Universal Language

Multilayered film that interweaves a story about a group of people trying to get frozen money out of the ice, a tale of a tour guide and a man who quits his job to visit his mother.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Matthew Rankin; Writer: Ila Firouzabadi, Pirouz Nemati, Matthew Rankin; Stars: Matthew Rankin, Mani Soleymanlou, Danielle Fichaud, Pirouz Nemati, Sobhan Javadi, Saba Vahedyousefi, Rojina Esmaeili)

Windless (Bezvetrije)

After years away Kaloyan returns to his native Bulgaria in order to sell his late father’s flat leading him to confront the past.

(Country: Bulgaria, Italy; Year: 2024; Director: Pavel G Vesnakov; Stars: Ognyan Pavlov, Veselin Petrov)