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Edinburgh International Film Festival · 2004

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2004

British Gala

The EIFF programme says: "The best of British - the finest features produced in the UK in the last 12 months." The Michael Powell Award for best British feature film went to My Summer Of Love.

Programme

12 films · 9 reviews

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Ae Fond Kiss

Review preview for Ae Fond Kiss

Unfortunately, though all the performances are strong, there's simply not enough chemistry between the leads to make their struggle believable.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Dangerous liaison between a lapsed Irish Catholic and a first generation Pakistani Muslim.

(Country: UK/Germany/Belgium/Italy/Spain; Year: 2004; Director: Ken Loach; Writer: Paul Laverty; Stars: Eva Birthistle, Atta Yaqub, Ahmad Riaz, Shabana Bakhsh, Gary Lewis, Ghizala Avan, Shamshad Akhtar, Gerard Kelly, David McKay, Raymond Mearns)

Full review

UK Premiere

Blinded

Review preview for Blinded

All credibility and tension, manifested during the bulk of the film, is completely robbed at the final hurdle by a ludicrous ending.

David Stanners · 2.5 out of 5
A Danish backpacker faces sinister consequences after his work on a rundown farm leads to romance.

(Country: UK; Year: 2003; Director: Eleanor Yule; Writer: Eleanor Yule; Stars: Peter Mullan, Jodhi May, Anders W. Berthelsen, Samantha Bond, Phyllida Law)

Full review

UK Premiere

Dead Man's Shoes

Review preview for Dead Man's Shoes

The violence is heavy going and the atmosphere constantly fraught with a growing sense of foreboding.

David Stanners · 4 out of 5
An ex-army man strolls into town, seeking revenge on his disabled brother's assailants.

(Country: UK; Year: 2004; Director: Shane Meadows; Writer: Paddy Considine, Paul Fraser; Stars: Paddy Considine, Toby Kebbell, Gary Stretch, Jo Hartley, Seamus O'Neill, Stuart Wolfenden, Paul Hurstfield, Emily Aston, George Newton, Craig Considine, Paul Sadot)

Full review

World Premiere

Dear Frankie

Mother of a nine-year-old deaf boy pays a stranger to be dad for a day.

(Country: UK; Year: 2004; Director: Shona Auerbach; Writer: Andrea Gibb; Stars: Emily Mortimer, Gerard Butler, Sharon Small, Jack McElhone, Mary Riggans, Jayd Johnson, Sean Brown)

Full review

UK Premiere

The Hamburg Cell

A fictionalised account of the life of one of the September 11 hijackers.

(Country: UK; Year: 2004; Director: Antonia Bird; Writer: Ronan Bennett, Alice Perman; Stars: Karim Saleh, Maral Kamel, Agni Scott, Omar Berdouni, Adnan Maral, Kamel Boutros, Tamer Doghem, Khalid Laith, Nasser Memarzia, Omar El-Saeidi, Bassem Breish)

World Premiere

Mickybo And Me

During the Troubles in Northern Ireland, two lads strike up a friendship based on a mutual love of Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid.

(Country: UK; Year: 2004; Director: Terry Loane; Writer: Terry Loane, Owen McCafferty; Stars: John Joe McNeill, Niall Wright, Julie Walters, Ciarán Hinds, Adrian Dunbar, Gina McKee, Susan Lynch, Laine Megaw, Barbara Adair, Hannah Carnegie, Patricia Carson)

World Premiere

My Summer Of Love

Review preview for My Summer Of Love

It's a straightforward enough tale, given life and zest by the performances.

Scott Macdonald · 3.5 out of 5
Sad, lonely girl finds happy, lovely girl and has a cuddly, kissy time.

(Country: UK; Year: 2004; Director: Pawel Pawlikowski; Writer: Pawel Pawlikowski; Stars: Nathalie Press, Emily Blunt, Paddy Considine, Dean Andrews, Michelle Byrne, Paul Antony-Barber, Lynette Edwards, Kathryn Sumner)

Full review

World Premiere

Process

Review preview for Process

This is difficult, challenging viewing and a film of considerable bravery from Leigh and his performers.

Keith Hennessey Brown · 2.5 out of 5
Casual sex, a mastectomy, marital disintegration leads a depressed actress to take her life.

(Country: France/UK; Year: 2004; Director: C S Leigh; Writer: C S Leigh; Stars: Beatrice Dalle, Guilliame Depardieu, Julia Faure, Daniel Duval, Sebastien Viala, Francoise Klein, Erik Arnaud, Leos Carax, Hannah Westaway)

Full review

UK Premiere

The Purifiers

Review preview for The Purifiers

The design of the film is straightforward and yet cleverly skewed.

Scott Macdonald · 2 out of 5
Futuristic gang war chopsocky Scottish vigilante action packer.

(Country: UK; Year: 2004; Director: Richard Jobson; Writer: Richard Jobson; Stars: Kevin McKidd, Gordon Alexander, Dominic Monaghan, Amber Sainsbury, Rachel Grant, Jamie Chu, Robin Kerr, Fraser James)

Full review

World Premiere

Stage Beauty

Review preview for Stage Beauty

It feels alienated by the nature of its concerns, as if locked in a fancy dress trunk.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 3 out of 5
To be or not to be a woman on the London stage, circa Pepys, Charles II and 1660.

(Country: UK/US; Year: 2004; Director: Richard Eyre; Writer: Jeffrey Hatcher, based on the play Compleat Female Stage Beauty by Jeffrey Hatcher; Stars: Billy Crudup, Claire Danes, Rupert Everett, Ben Chaplin, Tom Wilkinson, Hugh Bonneville, Edward Fox, Richard Griffiths, Zoe Tapper, Alice Eve)

Full review

Scottish Premiere

Trauma

Review preview for Trauma

Trauma simply fails to engage the viewer's interest.

Keith Hennessey Brown · 2.5 out of 5
A man traumatised by the death of his wife becomes implicated in the death of a pop star.

(Country: UK; Year: 2004; Director: Marc Evans; Writer: Richard Smith; Stars: Colin Firth, Mena Suvari, Naomie Harris, Dorothy Duffy, Cornelius Booth, Dermot Murnaghan, Jamie Owen, Kirsty Young, Jamie Cameron, Justin Edwards, Nicola Cunningham, Paul Rattigan, Brenda Fricker)

Full review

European Premiere

Yasmin

A Muslim woman campaigns for the release of her husband from a detainment centre.

(Country: UK; Year: 2004; Director: Kenny Glenan; Writer: Simon Beaufoy; Stars: Archie Punjabi, Renu Setna, Steve Jackson, Said Ahmed, Shahid Ahmed, Badi Uzzaman)

UK Premiere