Skip to main content

Edinburgh International Film Festival · 2016

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2016

World Perspectives

Programme

16 films · 8 reviews

Jump to a film

The Actor (Haiyu Kameoka Takuji)

Review preview for The Actor

Through it all Yasuda brings an excellent game.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
An actor falls for a woman in a bar where he is on location.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2015; Director: Satoko Yokohama; Writer: Akito Inui, Satoko Yokohama; Stars: Ken Yasuda, Hirofumi Arai, Kôdai Asaka, Kumiko Asô, Yûki Kudô, Yoshiko Mita, Shôta Sometani, Kaoru Sugita, Shôhei Uno, Tsutomu Yamazaki)

Full review

Angry Indian Goddesses

Billed as India’s first 'female buddy comedy’'

(Country: India, Germany; Year: 2015; Director: Pan Nalin; Writer: Pan Nalin, Subhadra Mahajan, Dilip Shankar, Arsala Qureishi; Stars: Tannishtha Chatterjee, Anuj Choudhry, Rajshri Deshpande, Sarah-Jane Dias, Jeffrey Goldberg, Pavleen Gujral, Adil Hussain, Vikram Kochhar, Amrit Maghera, Anushka Manchanda, Arjun Mathur, Sandhya Mridul)

Avalanche (Bahman)

Drama about a nurse who is spending 10 days on the nightshift, caring for just one patient.

(Country: Iran; Year: 2015; Director: Morteza Farshbaf; Writer: Morteza Farshbaf; Stars: Ahmad Hamed, Fatemah Motamed-Aria, Amir Nasiriunique, Mariah Shirazi, Shirin Yazdanbakhsh)

Brahman Naman

Review preview for Brahman Naman

Cements Shashank Arora - so good in gritty drama Titli and demonstrating sharp comic timing here - as an up-and-coming Indian star to look out for.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A quiz team aim for glory, while targeting the loss of their virginity.

(Country: UK, India; Year: 2016; Director: Qaushiq Mukherjee; Writer: Naman Ramachandran; Stars: Shashank Arora, Denzil Smith, Tanmay Dhanania, Sid Mallya, Shataf Figar, Anula Navlekar, Subhojit Sen, Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy, Vaishwath Shankar, Chaitanya Varad)

Full review See: Brahman Naman director Qaushiq Mukherjee discusses men, music and the resurgence of Indian cinema , Brahman Naman writer Naman Ramachandran and producer Steve Barron in conversation

Forsaken

Review preview for Forsaken

The film is enjoyable enough, but unfortunately Kiefer Sutherland is not Alan Ladd.

Robert Munro · 3 out of 5
A disillusioned former gunslinger tries to reconcile with his father but finds their frontier town terrorised by a brutal gang.

(Country: Canada, France, US; Year: 2015; Director: Jon Cassar; Writer: Brad Mirman; Stars: Kiefer Sutherland, Donald Sutherland, Brian Cox, Michael Wincott, Aaron Poole, Demi Moore)

Full review

Halal Love (And Sex)

Four tragic yet comic interconnected stories come together in this film, which follows devout Muslim men and women as they try to manage their love lives and desires without breaking any of their religion’s rules.

(Country: Lebanon, Germany, United Arab Emirates ; Year: 2016; Director: Assad Fouladkar; Writer: Assad Fouladkar; Stars: Darine Hamze, Rodrigue Sleiman, Zeinab Khadra, Hussein Mokadem, Mirna Moukarzel, Ali Sammoury)

Incident Light (La Luz Incidente)

A widow struggles to rebuild her life with two young daughters in 1960s Argentina.

(Country: Argentina, France, Uruguay; Year: 2015; Director: Ariel Rotter; Writer: Ariel Rotter; Stars: Susana Pampin, Erica Rivas, Marcelo Subiotto)

Karaoke Crazies

Sex and serial killing in a Korean Karoake bar.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2016; Director: Kim Sang-chan ; Writer: Park Ji-Hong; Stars: Bang Jun-Ho, Lee Moon-Sik, Kim Na-Mi, Bae So-eun)

Ken And Kazu (Ken To Kazu)

Review preview for Ken And Kazu

The territory feels familiar and the high cliche level holds this thriller back from being as gripping as it should

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
Two drug dealers find their life-long friendship tested, when one of them decides he wants out.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2015; Director: Hiroshi Shoji; Writer: Hiroshi Shoji; Stars: Shinsuke Kato, Katsuya Maiguma, Daisuke Ebara, Kisetsu Fujiwara, Shuna Iijima, Takuya Sugiyama, Haruki Takano)

Full review

Lowlife Love (Gesu no ai)

A sleazy film director has a chance at redemption.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2015; Director: Eiji Uchida; Writer: Eiji Uchida; Stars: Masahiko Aoki, Masato Arai, Matsumoto Club, Denden, Kanji Furutachi, Yûmi Gotô, Hariken, Aki Hiraoka, Yoshihiko Hosoda, Beni Itô, Yamada James, Nanami Kawakami, Hôka Kinoshita, Mayuko Kobayashi, Riko Matsui)

Mr. Pig

Review preview for Mr. Pig

Luna wallows in emotional gloom like a pig in mud, coating the script in a layer after layer of regret to little purpose.

Amber Wilkinson · 2.5 out of 5
An ageing farmer and his estranged daughter are brought together by a road trip.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2016; Director: Diego Luna; Writer: Diego Luna, Augusto Mendoza; Stars: Maya Rudolph, Danny Glover, Joel Murray, Naian González Norvind)

Full review

Parched

Review preview for Parched

Female freedom runs like gusts of wind through hair in Leena Yadav's Parched - refreshing and vital yet easily stilled.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Four women's friendship in the face of a patriarchal society.

(Country: India, US, UK; Year: 2015; Director: Leena Yadav; Writer: Supratik Sen, Leena Yadav; Stars: Radhika Apte, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Sayani Gupta, Surveen Chawla, Adil Hussain, Sumeet Vyas, Chandan Anand, Riddhi Sen, Mahesh Balraj, Lehar Khan, Farrukh Jaffar, Tanya Sachdeva, Kamla Devi, Daddi Pandey)

Full review See: Director Leena Yadav on gender politics and getting away from the blame game in Parched

River

Review preview for River

River carries the viewer along at a thundering pace as deeper currents gradually find their way to the surface.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A volunteer doctor becomes a fugitive after he becomes the prime suspect in a murder.

(Country: Canada, Laos; Year: 2015; Director: Jamie M Dagg; Writer: Jamie M Dagg; Stars: Rossif Sutherland, Douangmany Soliphanh, Sara Botsford, Ted Atherton, David Soncin, Aidan Gillett, Yannawoutthi Chanthalungsy, Karen Glave, Vithaya Pansringarm, Amphaiphun Phommapunya, Naliphone Siviengxay)

Full review

Sand Storm

Review preview for Sand Storm

Our sympathies are torn and turned on a dime.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A young woman struggles to cope with the expectations of tradition.

(Country: Israel; Year: 2016; Director: Elite Zexer; Writer: Elite Zexer; Stars: Lamis Ammar, Ruba Blal-Asfour, Hitham Omari, Jalal Masrwa, Khadija Al Akel)

Full review

Shepherds And Butchers

A lawyer takes on the case of a prison guard left traumatised by witnessing executions.

(Country: South Africa, US, Germany; Year: 2016; Director: Oliver Schmitz; Writer: Chris Marnewick, Brian Cox; Stars: Andrea Riseborough, Steve Coogan, Deon Lotz, Robert Hobbs, Siya Mayola, Julian Koberman, Garion Dowds, Marcel van Heerden, Matthew Dylan Roberts, Brett Williams, Rob van Vuuren, Nicola Hanekom, Eduan van Jaarsveldt, Carel Nel, Patrick Lavisa)

Trivisa (Chu Tai Chiu Fung)

A trio of criminals grapple with the upheaval as British administered Hong Kong is set to be handed over to China in the summer of 1997.

(Country: Hong Kong, China; Year: 2016; Director: Jevons Au, Frank Hui, Vicky Wong; Writer: Tin Shu Mak; Stars: Richie Jen, Jordan Chan, Ka Tung Lam, Kwong Leung Wong, Hua Yueh, Stephen Au, Suet Lam, Yeung-Ming Wan, Philip Keung, Frankie Chi-Hung Ng, Fung Woo)