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East End Film Festival · 2017

East End Film Festival 2017

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Programme

26 films · 6 reviews

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8:30

A group of door-to-door salesmen get a train to a mysterious suburb, and find themselves in what seems to be an infinite time loop.

(Country: Austria; Year: 2017; Director: Laura Nasmyth)

Across The River

What would you do if you ran into an old flame?

(Country: UK; Year: 2016; Director: Warren B Malone; Writer: Keir Charles, Elizabeth Healey, Simon Josiffe, Warren B. Malone, Warren B. Malone, Russell Taylor; Stars: Elizabeth Healey, Keir Charles, Liz Richardson, Tomasz Aleksander, Leon Ockenden, Gillian MacGregor, Mario Babic, Rowena Perkins, Pippa Abrahams, Tat Whalley, Nick Lashbrook, Andy Robertson, Theo Kalliades, Harper Taylor, Steven Blake)

Arifa

A young British Pakistani woman gets into a relationship with a mysterious professional gamer.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Sadia Saeed; Stars: Shermin Hassan)

Austerity Fight

A documentary challenging the notion that economic austerity is necessary in the UK.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Phil Maxwell, Hazuan Hashim)

Besides These Walls

One man's long, dark night of the soul.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Jules Bishop; Writer: Jules Bishop; Stars: Mark C Phelan, Danny Anderson, Simona Casadei, Paul Sandell)

Chubby Funny

Review preview for Chubby Funny

The comedy is well balanced with awkwardness and grim observations of modern life.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Appalled to discover that he is the ‘chubby funny’ best friend type, a down and out actor is determined to change his fortunes.

(Country: UK; Year: 2016; Director: Harry Michell; Writer: Harry Michell; Stars: Harry Michell, Augustus Prew, Isabella Laughland, Jeff Rawle, Jack Cooper Stimpson, Maggie Michell, Johan Schiller, David Bamber, Asim Chaudhry, Phoebe Nicholls, Dave Benson Phillips, Pierre Novellie, Ben Kavanagh, Hugh Stubbins, Paul Adeyefa)

Full review

The Death And Life Of Marsha P Johnson

Documentary, follows a new investigation into the mysterious death of self-described “street queen” Marsha P Johnson, one of the courageous black transgender activists who spearheaded the modern gay civil rights movement.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: David France; Writer: David France, Mark Blane; Stars: Victoria Cruz, Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Taylor Mead, Michael Baden, Vito Russo, Agosto Machado, Kitty Rotolo, Mark Segal, Pat Bumgardner, Chelsea Goodwin, Karla Jay, Randolfe Wicker, Rusty Mae Moore, Coco Rodriguez)

Dennis Skinner: Nature Of The Beast

A portrait of the Labour politician.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Daniel Draper; Writer: Daniel Draper)

DRIB

Review preview for DRIB

Its exploration of the tension between the real and the fake is timely and important.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
The inside story of an energy drink marketing ploy gone wrong.

(Country: Norway; Year: 2017; Director: Kristoffer Borgli; Writer: Kristoffer Borgli; Stars: Amir Asgharnejad, Brett Gelman, Adam Pearson, Annie Hamilton, Verona Blue, Hugo Armstrong, Dean Chekvala, Roy Abramsohn, Y.J. Gold, Joe Hartzler, Scarlett Redmond, Alexandra Marzella, John Zacchino, Kashuna Perfected, Maurice Williams)

Full review

Follow the Money

Hackney filmmakers Steve Boggan, John Hardwick and Ben Unwin follow a $10 bill across the USA.

(Country: UK, US; Year: 2017; Director: John Hardwick, Ben Unwin, Steve Boggan)

Forgotten Man

An actor meets a well-to-do American heiress on a night out. Falling head over heels in love, the feeling seems to be mutual, with only one problem: he performs for a theatre company that works with homeless people, with he himself having spent time living on the street.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Arran Shearing)

Gholam

A taxi driver who refuses to discuss his past in Iran picks up an equally mysterious fare.

(Country: UK, Iran; Year: 2017; Director: Mitra Tabrizian; Stars: Shahab Hosseini)

Ghost Hunting (Istiyad Ashbah)

A set-up for an experiment in an empty room. Former inmates reconstruct an Israeli secret service interrogation centre. These Palestinian men use role play to come to terms with their memories and the humiliation they have experienced.

(Country: France, Palestine, Switzerland, Qatar; Year: 2017; Director: Raed Andoni)

The Ghoul

A detective goes undercover at a patient in a bid to investigate a psychotherapist.

(Country: UK; Year: 2016; Director: Gareth Tunley; Writer: Gareth Tunley; Stars: Tom Meeten, Alice Lowe, Rufus Jones, Niamh Cusack, Geoffrey McGivern, Paul Kaye, Dan Renton Skinner, Waen Shepherd, James Eyres, Rachel Stubbings)

The Hippopotamus

Review preview for The Hippopotamus

Allam makes no secret of the fact that, as Ted, he's essentially playing Fry himself, capturing every little vocal tick and expressive nuance.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
A theatre critic is offered a princely sum to travel to a stately home to investigate a series of unexplained ‘miracles’.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: John Jencks; Writer: Stephen Fry, Robin Hill, Tom Hodgson, Blanche McIntyre; Stars: Roger Allam, Matthew Modine, Fiona Shaw)

Full review

In Extremis

A successful but emotionally broken man deals with the destruction of his family.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Steve Stone; Writer: Steve Stone, Steve Stone; Stars: David O'Hara, Isabelle Allen, Neil Pearson, Toyah Willcox, Bill Fellows, Tina Harris, Nick Cornwall, Lisa Gormley, Joe Simpson, Jeannie McGinnis, Michael David Worden, Stuart Sessions, Amy Popplewell, Luke Ryder, Nicola Taylor Young)

The Last Day

A mayor, a policeman and a Christian Youth leader get into a car…

(Country: Romania; Year: 2016; Director: Gabriel Achim; Writer: Gabriel Achim, Cosmin Manolache; Stars: Doru Ana, Mimi Branescu, Adrian Vãncicã, Adrian Ciglenean, Rodica Lazar, Constantin Cojocaru, Andi Vasluianu, Gabriel Sandu, Cosma Achim, Gabriel Achim)

Papagajka

A mysterious stranger takes over a man’s life.

(Country: UK, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Year: 2016; Director: Emma Rozanski; Writer: Emma Rozanski; Stars: Susanna Cappellaro, Adnan Omerovic, Tina Keserovic, Don Guido, Sabina Mrgan, Vladimir Kajevic)

Provenance

Review preview for Provenance

There's a touch of Claude Chabrol's psychological unease at work in this debut from debut director Ben Hecking

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A classical musician flees to Provence to start a new life with his young lover, only for a mysterious stranger to threaten his new-found happiness.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Ben Hecking; Writer: Ben Hecking; Stars: Charlotte Vega, Christian McKay, Harry Macqueen, Chereene Allen, Ludivine Parra, Luke Beattie)

Full review

The Show

Working relentlessly, the cast of a new production of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé explore challenging personal territory - and then one of them is bereaved.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: James Alexandrou)

Sodom

A man handcuffed to a lamppost during his stag-do has an impromptu encounter with another man.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Mark Wilshin; Writer: Mark Wilshin; Stars: Jo Weil, Pip Brignall)

Sink

Review preview for Sink

There's much here that recalls Ken Loach's I, Daniel Blake, but Mark Gillis' film takes a very different direction and is, in its way, much more subversive.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A man whose father is gradually sliding into dementia and who worries about his junkie son takes a drastic course of action.

(Country: UK; Year: 2018; Director: Mark Gillis; Writer: Mark Gillis; Stars: Martin Herdman, Ian Hogg, Marlene Sidaway, Tracey Wilkinson, Josh Herdman, Mark Gillis, Sadie Shimmin, Joanna Monro, Karen Archer, Robert Calvert, Bradley Hall, Glen Supple, Ken Shorter, Anne Bird, Simon Hepworth)

Full review See: Interview with Mark Gillis about Sink

Strays

Rotoscope animation about modern life.

(Country: UK; Director: Barnaby Miller; Writer: Barnaby Miller; Stars: Tim Bentinck, Taniel Yusef, Trudie Goodwin, Mike Walling, Carl Chambers, Kit Jackson, Tommy Vine, Joshua Hayes, Nick Downes, Charlotte Mafham, Jack Dingley)

Waking David

A young American woman arrives in London, seeking to reconnect with her father's family.

(Country: UK; Year: 2016; Director: Kevin Nash; Writer: Kristy Bruce, Shane Bruce, Harriet Madeley, Kevin Nash; Stars: Harriet Madeley, Kathryn Worth, Kristy Bruce, Rob Tofield, Shane Bruce, Paul Mooney, Mark Katz)

Whose Streets?

A nonfiction account of the Ferguson uprising told by the people who lived it, this is an unflinching look at how the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown inspired a community to fight back — and sparked a global movement.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Sabaah Jordan)