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Glasgow Film Festival · 2012

Glasgow Film Festival 2012

It's A Wonderful World

Top picks from international cinema.

Programme

10 films · 9 reviews

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Beauty (Skoonheid)

Review preview for Beauty

Complex ideas are brought out in part through a brilliant script, in part through brilliant direction.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
Winner of the Queer Palm at Cannes 2011, a disturbing and provocative examination of one man's damaging self-hatred.

(Country: South Africa, France, Germany; Year: 2011; Director: Oliver Hermanus; Writer: Oliver Hermanus, Didier Costet; Stars: Deon Lotz, Charlie Keegan, Michelle Scott, Albert Maritz, Sue Diepeveen, Roeline Daneel, Drikus Volschenk, Morné Visser, Leon Kruger, Robin Smith, Jeroen Kranenburg, Tinarie Loots van Wyk, Jan Hendrik Opperman, Marion Holm, Shaun Rossouw) , Trailer

Full review See: Interview with Deon Lotz about Beauty

Bonsái: A Story Of Love, Books And Plants (Bonsái)

Review preview for Bonsái: A Story Of Love, Books And Plants

Cristián Jiménez likes quirkiness and his enthusiasm for it, evidenced in his first film Optical Illusions and again here, goes a good way to convincing you to take the ride.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Tragic-comic love story between two youngsters amid books, literary quotes, coming-togethers and fall-outs.

(Year: 2011; Director: Cristián Jiménez; Writer: Cristián Jiménez, Alejandro Zambra; Stars: Gabriela Arancibia, Cristóbal Briceño, Julio Carrasco, Nathalia Galgani, Trinidad González, Ingrid Isensee, Paola Lattus, Hugo Medina, Diego Noguera, Alicia Rodríguez, Andrés Waas)

Full review See: San Sebastian Film Festival: Intruders, Bonsai, No Rest For The Wicked, Miss Bala

Café De Flore

Review preview for Café De Flore

The film is beautiful, often mesmerising and the soundtrack is superb.

Val Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
Lonely people whose love binds them in painful situations are united by music.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2011; Director: Jean-Marc Vallée; Writer: Jean-Marc Vallée; Stars: Vanessa Paradis, Kevin Parent, Hélène Florent)

Full review

Chinese Take-Away (Un Cuento Chino, Chinese Take-Out)

Review preview for Chinese Take-Away

Darín is superb in the leading role, sympathetic even at his most misanthropic.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A grumpy shopkeeper lends a helping hand to a young Chinese man who cannot speak his language, and his life changes forever.

(Country: Argentina, Spain; Year: 2011; Director: Sebastián Borensztein; Writer: Sebastián Borensztein; Stars: Ricardo Darín, Muriel Santa Ana, Ignacio Huang)

Full review

Cloudburst

Review preview for Cloudburst

Stella is a gleefully crude dyke who could give Malcolm Tucker a run for his money in a creative swearing contest.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
An elderly lesbian couple flee the threat of a nursing home and head to Canada to marry, picking up a hitchhiker along the way.

(Country: US, Canada; Year: 2011; Director: Thom Fitzgerald; Writer: Thom Fitzgerald; Stars: Olympia Dukakis, Brenda Fricker, Ryan Doucette, Kristin Booth, John Dunsworth) , Official site

Full review

Elena

Andrei Zvyagintsev's award-winning account of a struggle over inheritance is accompanied by an effective score by Philip Glass.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2011; Director: Andrei Zvyagintsev; Writer: Oleg Negin, Andrei Zvyagintsev; Stars: Nadezhda Markina, Andrei Smirnov, Elena Lyadova, Alexei Rozin)

Mitsuko Delivers (Hara ga kore nande)

Review preview for Mitsuko Delivers

Riisa Naka is great as somewhat obnoxious Mitsuko.

Lindis Kipp · 4 out of 5
Mitsuko is in her ninth month of pregnancy, but that doesn't stop her taking the lead when all around her are floundering. Yuya Ishii's breathless comic drama has satire, brio and originality to burn.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2011; Director: Yuya Ishii; Writer: Yûya Ishii; Stars: Riisa Naka, Aoi Nakamura, Ryo Ishibashi)

Full review

Once Upon A Time In Anatolia

Review preview for Once Upon A Time In Anatolia

Once Upon A Time In Anatolia produces the most exciting boredom.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4.5 out of 5
A group of men set out to investigate murder in the steppe.

(Country: Turkey, Bosnia, Herzegovina; Year: 2011; Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan; Writer: Ercan Kesal, Ebru Ceylan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan; Stars: Muhammet Uzuner, Yilmaz Erdogan, Taner Birsel, Firat Tanis)

Full review See: New York Film Festival Diary - On cinematic and fairytale influences. , New York Film Festival: Photo Gallery Four

Red Dog

Review preview for Red Dog

The cast do a splendid job of portraying the rough and tumble inhabitants of the mining town, each with their own problems and desires.

Lindis Kipp · 5 out of 5
The story of a Western Australian legend and the tough, warm, independent people whose lives he touched.

(Country: Australia, US; Year: 2011; Director: Kriv Stenders; Writer: Louis de Bernières, Daniel Taplitz; Stars: Josh Lucas, Rachael Taylor, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Noah Taylor, Luke Ford, Bill Hunter, Tiffany Lyndall-Knight, Arthur Angel, John Batchelor, Loene Carmen, Rohan Nichol, Costa Ronin, Eamon Farren, Koko, Shingo Usami) , Official site

Full review

Where Do We Go Now? (Et maintenant, on va où?)

Review preview for Where Do We Go Now?

Labaki manages to get across a view of life that is not predominant in cinematic stories, without making it seem like an agenda.

Lindis Kipp · 5 out of 5
A group of Lebanese women try to ease religious tensions between Christians and Muslims in their village.

(Country: Lebanon; Year: 2011; Director: Nadine Labaki; Writer: Rodney Al Haddid, Jihad Hojeily, Nadine Labaki; Stars: Kevin Abboud, Claude Baz Moussawbaa, Julian Farhat, Ali Haidar, Leyla Hakim, Nadine Labaki, Yvonne Maalouf, Claude Moussawbaa, Antoinette Noufaily)

Full review