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Edinburgh International Film Festival · 2017

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2017

European Perspectives

Programme

21 films · 11 reviews

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1945

Review preview for 1945

As stark as its empty landscapes, as measured as the tread of the strangers along the poplar avenue, as compelling as the panic that grows in the village ahead of them.

Andrew Robertson · 4.5 out of 5
A Hungarian village becomes a mirror for the failure of an entire society.

(Country: Hungary; Year: 2017; Director: Ferenc Török; Writer: Gábor T Szántó, Ferenc Török, Krisztina Esztergályos; Stars: Péter Rudolf, Bence Tasnádi, Tamás Szabó Kimmel, Dóra Sztarenki, Ági Szirtes, József Szarvas, Eszter Nagy-Kálózy, Iván Angelus, Marcell Nagy, István Znamenák, Sándor Terhes, Miklós B. Székely, György Somhegyi, Tünde Szalontay, Béla Gados)

Full review

UK premiere

Attraction (Prityazhenie)

Review preview for Attraction

Fedor Bonarchuk blends blockbuster stylings with a cultural critique which, he has said, he considers to have present day relevance far beyond Russia's borders.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
The teenage daughter of a military chief bonds with an alien after his spacecraft is shot down.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2017; Director: Fedor Bondarchuk; Writer: Oleg Malovichko, Andrey Zolotarev; Stars: Irina Starshenbaum, Alexander Petrov, Rinal Mukhametov, Oleg Menshikov, Sergey Garmash, Nikita Kukushkin, Lyudmila Maksakova, Aleksey Maslodudov, Evgeniy Mikheev, Darya Rudenok, Evgeniy Sangadzhiev, Igor Serebryanyy, Tatyana Shitova, Nikita Tarasov)

Full review See: Fedor Bondarchuk on Attraction

UK premiere

Dalida

Based on the true story of the pop icon.

(Country: France; Year: 2016; Director: Lisa Azuelos; Writer: Lisa Azuelos, Orlando, Jacques Pessis, Catherine Rihoit; Stars: Sveva Alviti, Riccardo Scamarcio, Jean-Paul Rouve, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Alessandro Borghi, Valentina Carli, Brenno Placido, Niels Schneider, Michaël Cohen, Davide Lorino, F. Haydee Borelli, Vincent Perez, Patrick Timsit, Ercole Alviti, Philippe Blondelle)

UK premiere

Darkland (Underverden)

A successful doctor becomes a masked warrior bent on vengeance at night.

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2017; Director: Fenar Ahmad; Writer: Fenar Ahmad, Adam August; Stars: Dar Salim, Stine Fischer Christensen, Ali Sivandi, Dulfi Al-Jabouri, Jakob Ulrik Lohmann, Roland Møller, B. Branco, Anis Alobaidi, Brian Siva, Hamza Al-Jabouri, Amany Turk, Marianne Mortensen, Joen Højerslev, Christopher Læssø, Dya Josefine Hauch)

UK premiere

Fog In August (Nebel im August)

Review preview for Fog In August

Like the fog in August of its title, the horrors of Wessel's film don't come in a rush, but insinuate themselves gradually in what, initially, appears to be a comparatively benign setting before leaving you chilled to the bone.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A teenager is a mental hospital uncovers a Nazi euthanasia programme.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2016; Director: Kai Wessel; Writer: Holger Karsten Schmidt, Robert Domes; Stars: Ivo Pietzcker, Sebastian Koch, Thomas Schubert, Fritzi Haberlandt, Henriette Confurius, Branko Samarovski, David Bennent, Jule Hermann, Niklas Post, Karl Markovics, Patrick Heyn, Juls Serger, Franziska Singer, Arne Wichert)

Full review

UK premiere

Glory (Slava)

Review preview for Glory

This is black comedy at its best, subtle, confident in deadpan, as bleak and dry as a sun-scorched siding.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
A railway worker finds a large amount of money on the line and duly hands it over to the authorities, who give him a watch, which stops working.

(Country: Bulgaria, Greece; Year: 2016; Director: Kristina Grozeva , Petar Valchanov; Writer: Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov, Decho Taralezhkov; Stars: Stefan Denolyubov , Margita Gosheva)

Full review

UK premiere

Goodbye Berlin (Tschick)

Review preview for Goodbye Berlin

The scrappy nature of their adventures would be better suited to a short TV series.

Amber Wilkinson · 2.5 out of 5
Two German teenagers steak a Lada and go on a roadtrip.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2016; Director: Fatih Akin; Writer: Wolfgang Herrndorf, Lars Hubrich, Fatih Akin, Hark Bohm; Stars: Tristan Göbel, Aniya Wendel, Justina Humpf, Paul Busche, Jerome Hirthammer, Max Kluge, Udo Samel, Anja Schneider, Nadine Dubois, Henning Peker, Uwe Bohm, Anand Batbileg, Katerina Poladjan, Sammy Scheuritzel, Julius Felsberg)

Full review

UK premiere

Halal Daddy

Culture-clash comedy inspired by the story of Ireland's first Halal meat factory.

(Country: Ireland, France; Year: 2017; Director: Conor McDermottroe; Writer: Conor McDermottroe, Mark O'Halloran; Stars: Sarah Bolger, Colm Meaney, Art Malik, David Kross, Nikesh Patel, Deirdre O'Kane, Mark O'Halloran, Stephen Cromwell, Gina Costigan, Paul Tylak, Donal O'Kelly, John Burns, Maria McDermottroe, Sorcha Fox, Richie Cunningham)

World premiere

Hostages

A re-telling of the Tbilisi hijacking of November18th, 1983 that shows how the fierce desire for freedom and independence in a group of young Soviets turned into a readiness to use violence.

(Country: Russia, Georgia; Year: 2017; Director: Rezo Gigineishvili; Stars: Avtandil Makharadze)

UK premiere

Insyriated (In Syria)

Review preview for Insyriated

The idea that a family would face the war crime equivalent of lions, tigers and bears in the space of a few hours barges through the boundaries of belief.

Amber Wilkinson · 2.5 out of 5
A woman tries to hold her family together under a constant barrage of war.

(Country: Belgium, France, Lebanon; Year: 2017; Director: Philippe Van Leeuw; Writer: Philippe Van Leeuw; Stars: Hiam Abbass, Diamand Bou Abboud, Juliette Navis, Mohsen Abbas, Moustapha Al Kar, Alissar Kaghadou, Ninar Halabi, Mohammad Jihad Sleik, Elias Khatter, Husam Chadat)

Full review

UK premiere

The King's Choice (Kongens nei)

When the German army invades Norway in April 1940, King Haakon is under pressure: should he legitimise Germany’s occupation with his signature or appeal to his people to resist?

(Country: Norway; Year: 2016; Director: Erik Poppe; Writer: Harald Rosenløw-Eeg, Jan Trygve Røyneland; Stars: Jesper Christensen, Anders Baasmo Christiansen, Karl Markovics, Tuva Novotny, Katharina Schüttler, Erik Hivju, Svein Tindberg, Arthur Hakalahti, Juliane Köhler, Ketil Høegh, Andreas Lust, Gerald Pettersen, Jan Frostad, Rolf Kristian Larsen, Hans Jacob Sand)

UK premiere

The Midwife (Sage Femme)

Review preview for The Midwife

The acting here is of high quality, with Frot shading just enough warmth and melancholy into Claire to stop her becoming a total wet blanket... Deneuve, throwing caution to the wind

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A midwife's life is shaken up by the arrival of her father's old flame.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Martin Provost; Writer: Martin Provost; Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Catherine Frot, Olivier Gourmet, Quentin Dolmaire, Mylène Demongeot, Pauline Etienne, Pauline Parigot, Marie Gili-Pierre, Jeanne Rosa, Élise Oppong, Ingrid Heiderscheidt, Jacques Mechelany, Ana Rodriguez, Karidja Touré, Jisca Kalvanda)

Full review

UK premiere

The Oath (Eiðurinn)

Finnur is a successful heart surgeon and father of two. His family's life begins to unravel when his daugther, Anna gets mixed up with a manipulative drug-dealing boyfriend.

(Country: Iceland; Year: 2016; Director: Baltasar Kormákur; Writer: Ólafur Egilsson, Baltasar Kormákur; Stars: Hera Hilmar, Baltasar Kormákur, Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson, Gísli Örn Garðarsson, Joi Johannsson, Þorsteinn Bachmann, Þorsteinn Gunnarsson, Sigrún Edda Björnsdóttir, Ágúst Bjarnason, Bjarki Þór Jónsson, María Heba Þorkelsdóttir, Jón Páll Eyjólfsson, Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson, Björn Ingi Hilmarsson, Jakob Þór Einarsson)

UK premiere

Pilgrimage

Review preview for Pilgrimage

Muldowney takes things seriously, with cinematographer Tom Comerford using the lowering skies and boggy heaviness to his advantage

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
In 13th-century Ireland, a cadre of monks travel through the war-torn countryside on a mission to bring their land’s most sacred relic to Rome.

(Country: Ireland; Year: 2017; Director: Brendan Muldowney; Writer: Jamie Hannigan; Stars: Richard Armitage, Tom Holland, Jon Bernthal, John Lynch, Stanley Weber, Hugh O'Conor, Eric Godon, Lochlann O'Mearáin, Rúaidhrí Conroy, Tristan McConnell, Peter Cosgrove, Diarmuid de Faoite, Tony Condren, Eoin Geoghegan, Jean Law)

Full review

UK premiere

RAID: Special Unit (Raid dingue)

Cop comedy, sees a woman try to join an elite unite.

(Country: France, Belgium; Year: 2016; Director: Danny Boon; Writer: Dany Boon, Sarah Kaminsky, Sarah Kaminsky; Stars: Alice Pol, Dany Boon, Michel Blanc, Yvan Attal, Sabine Azéma, Patrick Mille, François Levantal, Anne Marivin, Florent Peyre, Alain Doutey, Urbain Cancelier, François Vincentelli, Franck Arditti, Nabila Darbaky, Guillaume Clément)

UK premiere

Sami Blood (Sameblod)

Review preview for Sami Blood

This is a powerful film that not only resonates with the recent cycle of films concerning rebellious girls, but with films made by indigerous peoples.

Sarah Artt · 5 out of 5
A Sámi girl experiences racism in the 1930s.

(Country: Denmark, Sweden, Norway; Year: 2016; Director: Amanda Kernell; Writer: Amanda Kernell; Stars: Hanna Alström, Anders Berg, Katarina Blind, Beata Cavallin, Malin Crépin, Julius Fleischanderl, Ylva Gustafsson, Tom Kappfjell, Anna Sofie Bull Kuhmunen, Andreas Kundler, Marika Lindström, Maj-Doris Rimpi, Olle Sarri, Tove Skeidsvoll, Anne Biret Somby)

Full review

UK premiere

Sister Of Mine (Demonios tus ojos)

The relationship between a young man and his half-sister becomes increasingly transgressive.

(Country: Spain, Colombia; Year: 2017; Director: Pedro Aguilera; Writer: Pedro Aguilera, Juan Carlos Sampedro; Stars: Tomás Baleztena, Ivana Baquero, Natalia Bilbao, Javier Cañas, Nicolás Coronado, Christopher Downs, Elisabet Gelabert, Susana Gil, Lucía Guerrero, John Hopewell, Isabel Moiño, Andreas Muñoz, Mairen Muñoz, Julio Perillán, Chechu Rojo)

UK premiere

Tom Of Finland

Review preview for Tom Of Finland

Although much of Laaksonen's work was hardcore, Karukoski doesn't seek to 'shock' audiences with outrageousness, instead gracefully zoning in on the man and his life to celebrate his both his bravery and his art.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Portrait of the Finnish artist famous for his homoerotic work.

(Country: Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, US; Year: 2017; Director: Dome Karukoski; Writer: Noam Andrews, Aleksi Bardy, Aleksi Bardy, Aleksi Bardy, Mark Alton Brown, Dome Karukoski, Susanna Luoto, Kauko Röyhkä, Mia Ylönen; Stars: Pekka Strang, Lauri Tilkanen, Jessica Grabowsky, Jakob Oftebro, Werner Daehn, Jimmy Shaw, Þorsteinn Bachmann, Seumas F. Sargent, Jan Böhme, Kari Hietalahti, Taisto Oksanen, Georg Kroneis, Niklas Hogner, Siim Maaten, Roy Saaristo)

Full review See: Dome Karukoski on biopic Tom Of Finland

UK premiere

Waterboys

A womanising crime-writer and his adult son head from Holland to Edinburgh.

(Country: Netherlands, UK; Year: 2016; Director: Robert Jan Westdijk; Writer: Robert Jan Westdijk; Stars: Leopold Witte, Tim Linde, Helen Belbin, Julie McLellan, Miles Jupp, Tom Mannion)

International premiere

A Wedding (Noces)

A teenager's relaxed, western lifestyle is threatened by arranged marriage.

(Country: France, Belgium, Pakistan, Luxembourg; Year: 2016; Director: Stephan Streker; Writer: Stephan Streker; Stars: Lina El Arabi, Sébastien Houbani, Babak Karimi, Nina Kulkarni, Olivier Gourmet, Alice de Lencquesaing, Zacharie Chasseriaud, Aurora Marion, Rania Mellouli, Harmandeep Palminder, Sandor Funtek, Bilel Ghommidh, Qari Ikram Nabi Kailany, Hervé Sogne, Édith Le Merdy)

UK premiere

Zer

Review preview for Zer

The closer this film gets to documentary, the better it becomes.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A young man seeks the story behind his gran's sad song.

(Country: US, Germany, Turkey; Year: 2017; Director: Kazim Öz; Writer: Kazim Öz; Stars: Ahmet Aslan, Haleigh Ciel, Füsun Demirel, Tomris Incer, José Ramón Rosario, Teresa Anne Volgenau, Nik Xhelilaj, Bülent Çolak, Güler Ökten, Levent Özdilek)

Full review

UK premiere