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Edinburgh International Film Festival · 2016

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2016

Directors' Showcase

Programme

12 films · 6 reviews

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Bleak Street (La calle de la Amargura)

Two old prostitutes go back to their hovels. One of them has problems with the teenage daughter and the husband devoted to cross-dressing. The other one lives completely alone, with no ties. However, that night they have an appointment to celebrate the in-ring victory of two midget wrestlers.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2015; Director: Arturo Ripstein; Writer: Paz Alicia Garciadiego; Stars: Alberto Estrella, Silvia Pasquel, Arcelia Ramírez, Patricia Reyes Spíndola, Alejandro Suárez, Nora Velázquez)

The Commune (Kollektivet)

A couple who inherit a big house by the sea invite their friends to live with them, but things don't work out as they hoped.

(Country: Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands; Year: 2015; Director: Thomas Vinterberg; Stars: Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen, Helene Reingaard Neumann, Martha Sofie Wallstrøm Hansen, Lars Ranthe)

A Conspiracy Of Faith (Flaskepost fra P)

Cold case thriller.

(Country: Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Norway; Year: 2016; Director: Hans Petter Moland; Writer: Nikolaj Arcel, Jussi Adler-Olsen; Stars: Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Fares Fares, Pål Sverre Hagen, Jakob Ulrik Lohmann, Amanda Collin, Johanne Louise Schmidt, Jakob Oftebro, Signe Anastassia Mannov, Søren Pilmark, Michael Brostrup, Morten Kirkskov, Olivia Terpet Gammelgaard, Jasper Møller Friis, Louis Sylvester Larsen, Lotte Andersen)

The Correspondence (La corrispondenza)

Review preview for The Correspondence

The film plays on its clever concept, forgetting that its audience wants the agony to end and the action to begin.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 1.5 out of 5
A relationship between a woman and her tutor conducted almost entirely in the virtual space, takes an unexpected twist.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2016; Director: Giuseppe Tornatore; Writer: Giuseppe Tornatore; Stars: Jeremy Irons, Olga Kurylenko, Simon Johns, James Warren, Shauna Macdonald, Oscar Sanders, Anna Savva, Irina Kara, Sammy Moreno, Marc Forde, Ian Cairns, Simon Meacock, Jean-Luc Julien, Darren Whitfield, Mark Thompson-Ashworth)

Full review

Endless Night (Nobody Wants the Night, Nadie quiere la noche)

Adventure film focuses on courageous women and ambitious men who put anything at stake for love and glory.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2015; Director: Isabel Coixet; Writer: Miguel Barros; Stars: Rinko Kikuchi, Juliette Binoche, Gabriel Byrne, Matt Salinger, Velizar Binev, Ciro Miró)

Families (Belles familles)

Review preview for Families

What should have been a chamber piece for veteran writer/director Jean-Paul Rappeneau turns out to be a racer, neither in control nor out of breath.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 4 out of 5
Family secrets are revealed when relatives fight over a country house.

(Country: France; Year: 2015; Director: Jean-Paul Rappeneau; Writer: Jacques Fieschi, Philippe Le Guay, Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Julien Rappeneau; Stars: Mathieu Amalric, Marine Vacth, Gilles Lellouche, Nicole Garcia, Karin Viard, Guillaume de Tonquedec, André Dussollier, Gemma Chan, Claude Perron, Jean-Marie Winling, Yves Jacques, Noël Hamann, Olga Sokolow, Crispin Redman, Marie-Christine Orry)

Full review See: Interview with Jean-Paul Rappeneau about Families

A Flag Without A Country

Review preview for A Flag Without A Country

Everything here is sincerely meant but Gobadi struggles to make the stories fit together in any meaningful way, with the scripting paradoxically too loose for most of the film and then suddenly far too on the nose.

Amber Wilkinson · 2.5 out of 5
Docu-fiction following two Kurds hoping to construct a better future for the next generation.

(Country: Iraq; Year: 2015; Director: Bahman Ghobadi; Writer: Bahman Ghobadi; Stars: Nariman Anwar, Helly Luv)

Full review

Hunt For The Wilderpeople

Review preview for Hunt For The Wilderpeople

Taika Waititi knows growing up isn't child's play but he also respects childhood as a place of adventure, where spontaneity rules and the possibilities are only limited by imagination.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
A kid and his foster uncle run off into the New Zealand bush.

(Country: New Zealand; Year: 2016; Director: Taika Waititi; Writer: Taika Waititi, based on the novel by Barry Crump; Stars: Julian Dennison, Rachel House, Rima Te Wiata, Oscar Kightley, Rhys Darby, Cohen Holloway, Mike Minogue, Stan Walker, Sam Neill)

Full review

Little Men

Review preview for Little Men

The film could be called "old fashioned" but that is rarely a bad thing.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
Caught up in a family feud over rent, two boys respond with a vow of silence.

(Country: US, Greece; Year: 2016; Director: Ira Sachs; Writer: Ira Sachs, Mauricio Zacharias; Stars: Greg Kinnear, Paulina García, Jennifer Ehle, Theo Taplitz, Michael Barbieri, Talia Balsam, David Krumholtz, Alfred Molina, Clare Foley, Andy Karl, Yolonda Ross, Stella Schnabel, Arthur J. Nascarella, Elia Monte-Brown, Johnny Serret)

Full review

Seoul Station

Review preview for Seoul Station

One of the strongest zombie films for years.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A man sleeping rough at Seoul Station is the catalyst for a zombie apocalypse.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2016; Director: Yeon Sang-ho ; Writer: Yeon Sang-ho; Stars: Ryu Seung-ryong, Joon Lee, Shim Eun-kyung )

Full review

Viva

In contemporary Cuba, a father and son struggle to escape from each other’s expectations, duty, and the burden of past sins.

(Country: Ireland, Cuba; Year: 2015; Director: Paddy Breathnach; Writer: Mark O'Halloran; Stars: Héctor Medina, Jorge Perugorría, Luis Alberto García, Renata Maikel Machin Blanco, Luis Manuel Alvarez, Paula Andrea Ali Rivera, Laura Alemán, Oscar Ibarra Napoles, Mark O'Halloran, Luis Angel Batista Bruzón, Luis Daniel Ventura Garbendia, Yudisvany Rabu, Maikol Villa Puey, Jorge Martínez Castillo, Tomás Cao)

Yoga Hosers

Colleen Collette and Colleen McKenzie are teenage besties from Winnipeg who love yoga and live on their smartphones. But when these sophomores get invited to a senior party by the school hottie, the Colleens accidentally uncover an ancient evil buried beneath their Canadian convenience store.

(Country: US; Year: 2016; Director: Kevin Smith; Writer: Kevin Smith; Stars: Johnny Depp, Haley Joel Osment, Genesis Rodriguez, Natasha Lyonne, Kevin Smith, Austin Butler, Justin Long, Stan Lee, Tyler Posey, Adam Brody, Jason Mewes, Kevin Conroy, Harley Quinn Smith, Lily-Rose Melody Depp, Tony Hale)