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Edinburgh International Film Festival · 2017

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2017

Best Of British

Programme

18 films · 14 reviews

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Access All Areas

Review preview for Access All Areas

A cast of talented actors and a superabundance of musical acts and a genuine sense of fun.

Andrew Robertson · 3.5 out of 5
A group of British teenagers go on a road trip to an island music festival.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Bryn Higgins; Writer: Oliver Veysey; Stars: Ella Purnell, Georgie Henley, Arnas Fedaravicius, Nigel Lindsay, Bobby Lockwood, Jo Hartley, Phil Daniels, Jordan Long, Jenna Harrison, Jordan Stephens, Edward Bluemel, Paul Blackwell, Stuart Davidson, James Ashton, Laura Marie Howard)

Full review

World premiere

Bad Day For The Cut

Review preview for Bad Day For The Cut

Baugh and his co-writer Brendan Mullin have a good feel for how they can push the absurdity of the situation without turning the whole thing into farce.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
When a farmer's mum is murdered, he finds himself on a path for vengeance.... and a journey into her past.

(Country: UK; Year: 2016; Director: Chris Baugh; Writer: Chris Baugh, Brendan Mullin; Stars: Nigel O'Neill, Susan Lynch, Józef Pawlowski, Stuart Graham, David Pearse, Anna Próchniak, Stella McCusker, Ian McElhinney, Brian Milligan, Shashi Rami, Lalor Roddy, Ryan McParland, Andrew Porter)

Full review

Scottish premiere

Daphne

Review preview for Daphne

It's an unfairness to the quality of her supporting cost to mention how good Beecham is again and again, but life isn't fair.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
A young woman finds herself thrown off balance after she saves the life of a shopkeeper.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Peter Mackie Burns; Writer: Nico Mensinga; Stars: Emily Beecham, Geraldine James, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Nathaniel Martello-White, Osy Ikhile, Sinead Matthews, Timothy Innes, Ritu Arya, Stuart McQuarrie, Karina Fernandez, Ryan McParland, Matthew Pidgeon, Richard Banks, Victoria Willing, Ragevan Vasan)

Full review

UK premiere

Edie

Review preview for Edie

Its strong emotional hub keeps you with the film, even as it flirts with tourist board-style promotional material.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
After the death of her controlling husband, a woman decides to fulfil her dream of climbing a mountain.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Simon Hunter; Writer: Simon Hunter, Edward Lynden-Bell, Elizabeth O'Halloran; Stars: Sheila Hancock, Kevin Guthrie, Paul Brannigan, Amy Manson, Wendy Morgan, Rachael Keiller, Donald Pelmear, Daniela Bräuer, Christopher Dunne, Tori Butler Hart, Calum Macrae, Tanya Winsor, Sallyann Fellowes, Wynne Potts, Tom McHugh)

Full review

World premiere

Julius Caesar

Review preview for Julius Caesar

This play - and this production - belongs to Brutus, however, played by Harriet Walter with a distilled ferocity that brings some of Ian McKellen's best Shakespearean work to mind.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
All-female adaptation of the play, set in a women's prison.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Phyllida Lloyd; Writer: William Shakespeare; Stars: Harriet Walter, Jenny Jules, Jade Anouka)

Full review See: Jackie Clune and Jennifer Joseph on playing Julius Caesar and Trebonius , Karen Dunbar on getting serious with Shakespeare for Julius Caesar , Phyllida Lloyd on shooting the all-female Donmar Warehouse production of Julius Caesar

World premiere

Just Charlie

Review preview for Just Charlie

The heart of the film is a performance from Harry Gilby, in a feature debut - ably managing to convey not only the struggles but the strengths of young Charlie in the face of any number of vicissitudes.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
The life of a young football prodigy is turned upside down after they come out as transgender.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Rebekah Fortune; Writer: Peter Machen; Stars: Ewan Mitchell, Scot Williams, Karen Bryson, Patricia Potter, Caroline Nash, Jeff Alexander, Joshua Pascoe, John Draycott, Jess Collett, Oliver Huntingdon, Eleanor Ham, Benjamin Humphrey, Craig Painting, Harry Gilby, Tia Noakes)

Full review

UK premiere

Kaleidoscope

Review preview for Kaleidoscope

Serious acting, but it becomes something other, something smaller than its stage.

Andrew Robertson · 3 out of 5
Psychological thriller sees an ex-con trying to adjust to freedom, whose life is challenged by his controlling mother.

(Country: UK; Year: 2016; Director: Rupert Jones; Writer: Rupert Jones; Stars: Anne Reid, Sinead Matthews, Toby Jones, Manjinder Virk, Karl Johnson, Deborah Findlay, Frederick Schmidt, Cecilia Noble)

Full review

UK premiere

Let Me Go

The darker side of the mother/daughter relationship.

(Country: UK, Austria; Year: 2017; Director: Polly Steele; Writer: Polly Steele; Stars: Lucy Boynton, Jodhi May, Stanley Weber, Juliet Stevenson, Elizabeth Webster, Abhin Galeya, Éva Magyar, Karin Bertling, Sevda Levent, Gioia Hader, Simona Hughes, Justin Butcher, Thomas Cowperwood)

European premiere

The Last Photograph

Review preview for The Last Photograph

Huston's performances are astounding.

Andrew Robertson · 4.5 out of 5
A man's life is thrown into turmoil when a vital photograph is stolen.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Danny Huston; Writer: Simon Astaire; Stars: Danny Huston, Sarita Choudhury, Stacy Martin, Jonah Hauer-King, Vincent Regan, Michelle Ryan, Jaime Winstone, Al Weaver, Katherine Pearce, Christopher Villiers, Imogen Waterhouse, Charlie Clements, Daisy May, Richie Campbell, Lee Nicholas Harris)

Full review

World premiere

London Symphony

Review preview for London Symphony

There are comparisons drawn that are powerful, political, provoking.

Andrew Robertson · 3 out of 5
A black and white journey through the city of London.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Alex Barrett)

Full review

World premiere

The Marker

Review preview for The Marker

Edgar keeps things 'real', with the violence brutal but believable and with psychological underpinnings that are more complex than the average gangland thriller.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A criminal seeks redemption.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Justin Edgar; Writer: Justin Edgar; Stars: Ana Ularu, John Hannah, Ian Sharp, Jack McMullen, Simon Lowe, Patrick Connolly, Barry Aird, Skye Lourie, Cosmo Jarvis, Vanessa Donovan, Laura Hopper, Lara Peake, Struan Rodger, Andrew Shim, Cathy Tyson)

Full review

World premiere

Modern Life Is Rubbish

Review preview for Modern Life Is Rubbish

If you were a fan of Blur, Oasis or Radiohead, there is much here to like and relate to.

Jane Fae · 3.5 out of 5
Rom-com sees a couple whose relationship is on the rocks who find a shared love of music makes breaking up hard to do.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Daniel Jerome Gill; Writer: Philip Gawthorne; Stars: Ian Hart, Freya Mavor, Tom Riley, Sorcha Cusack, Steven Mackintosh, Jessie Cave, Josh Whitehouse, Caroline Boulton, Will Merrick, Kiera Bell, Matt Milne, Daisy Bevan, Daniel Eghan, Emma Bryant, Jason Matthewson)

Full review

World premiere

My Pure Land

Review preview for My Pure Land

Structurally sophisticated, it plays with chronology of action and simultaneity of circumstance to create and build tension and strength and moments of wondrous beauty.

Andrew Robertson · 4.5 out of 5
A mother and her two daughters fight to protect their home.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Sarmad Masud; Writer: Sarmad Masud; Stars: Tayyab Ifzal, Suhaee Abro, Salman Ahmed Khan, Atif Akhtar Bhatti, Ahsen Murad, Sahib Ahmad, Eman Fatima, Razia Malik, Syed Tanveer Hussain, Malik Aslam)

Full review

World premiere

The Pugilist

A heartbroken man who is estranged from his children fights to save his family after a gangland hit.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Glen Kirby; Writer: Glen Kirby; Stars: Matthew Jure, Ian Beattie, Thomas Beatty, Grace Calder, Alan Calton, Paul McGuinness, Adi Alfa, Glen Kirby, Lara Lemon, Jack Gover, Tony Fadil, Samuel Clemens, Sam Wilkinson, Jade Hobday, Isla Carter)

European premiere

The Receptionist

Story of a woman working as a receptionist in an illegal massage parlour.

(Country: UK, Taiwan; Year: 2016; Director: Jenny Lu; Writer: Jenny Lu, Yi-Wen Yeh; Stars: Josh Whitehouse, Lorraine Stanley, Teresa Daley, Tebraiz Shahzad, Nicola Wright, Daniel York, Eric Colvin, Shiang-chyi Chen, Joseph Tremain, Sophie Gopsill, Tom Bonington, Klemens Koehring, Grant Murphy, Shuang Teng, Aidan Creegan)

International premiere

Retaliation (Romans)

Review preview for Retaliation

Orlando Bloom is stunning, a performance of looks and grunts and things unsaid and, gradually, of speaking.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
A man who suffered childhood sexual abuse is forced to confront his past.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Ludwig Shammasian, Paul Shammasian; Writer: Geoff Thompson; Stars: Orlando Bloom, Janet Montgomery, Charlie Creed-Miles, Anne Reid, Josh Myers, Deborah Rock, Alex Ferns, James Smillie, Dan Styles, Dino Fazzani, Michael Chapman, Jo Wheatley, Natasha Sparkes, Kyle Rees, Rory Nolan)

Full review

World premiere

This Beautiful Fantastic

An unlikely friendship blooms between a reclusive young woman and her grumpy widower neighbour.

(Country: UK, US; Year: 2016; Director: Simon Aboud; Writer: Simon Aboud; Stars: Jessica Brown Findlay, Andrew Scott, Jeremy Irvine, Tom Wilkinson, Anna Chancellor, Sheila Hancock, Charlotte Asprey, Eileen Davies, Lola Sultan, Paul Blackwell, Tia Shenton, Mia Farkasovska, Claire Ashton)

UK premiere

That Good Night

Review preview for That Good Night

That Good Night is a fitting tribute to a great actor, but it is not as smooth a swansong as one would hope.

Andrew Robertson · 3.5 out of 5
A terminally ill screenwriter attempts to reconcile with his son, while planning how to end his life.

(Country: UK, Portugal; Year: 2017; Director: Eric Styles; Writer: NJ Crisp, Charles Savage; Stars: John Hurt, Sofia Helin, Max Brown, Erin Richards, Charles Dance, Noah Jupe, Sonita Henry, Amber Townsend, Joana Santos, Tiago Aldeia, Salvador Nery, Eloise Oliver, Juana Pereira da Silva, Georgina White, Kjersti Kaasa)

Full review

World premiere