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Glasgow Film Festival · 2013

Glasgow Film Festival 2013

Eurovisions

Programme

23 films · 15 reviews

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80 Million (80 Milionów, 80 Millions)

Review preview for 80 Million

Patient, observational, 80 Million generates tension from small glances and elicits sympathy wih its depiction of everyday lives.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
Under an increasingly totalitarian regime, five activists attempt to safeguard funds by stealing them from their own bank account.

(Country: Poland; Year: 2011; Director: Waldemar Krzystek; Writer: Waldemar Krzystek, Krzysztof Konopka; Stars: Filip Bobek, Marcin Bosak, Wojciech Solarz, Piotr Glowacki, Sonia Bohosiewicz)

Full review

The Artist And The Model (El artista y la modelo)

Review preview for The Artist And The Model

More sedate than scintillating, it is nevertheless impressively shot by newcomer Daniel Vilar - a name to look out for - and beautifully acted.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
An elderly sculptor, tired of life and mankind’s folly, rediscovers the desire to work again, thanks to the arrival of a young Spanish woman who has escaped from a refugee camp.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2012; Director: Fernando Trueba; Writer: Jean-Claude Carrière, Fernando Trueba; Stars: Claudia Cardinale, Götz Otto, Jean Rochefort, Chus Lampreave, Aida Folch, Christian Sinniger, Martin Gamet, Mateo Deluz)

Full review See: Fernando Trueba and Aida Folch in conversation about The Artist And The Model

Blancanieves (Snow White)

Review preview for Blancanieves

Although much of the action is played for dark comedy, Berger undercuts his pastiche with unexpected poignancy at key moments.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
1920s re-imagining of Snow White.

(Country: Spain, Belgium, France; Year: 2012; Director: Pablo Berger; Writer: Pablo Berger; Stars: Maribel Verdú, Ángela Molina, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Inma Cuesta, Macarena García, Josep Maria Pou, Pere Ponce, Ramón Barea, Ignacio Mateos, Emilio Gavira, Carmen Belloch, Sofía Oria, Pere Vall, Sergio Dorado)

Full review See: Pablo Berger interview about Blancanieves , San Sebastian Film Festival Diary: Episode 3

Beyond The Hills (Dupa dealuri)

Review preview for Beyond The Hills

If the way Alina cries and hugs her friend hello, in between train tracks, does not trigger your empathy, you are possibly already dead.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
The story of two female orphans and their friendship in a remote Romanian monastery.

(Country: Romania, France, Belgium; Year: 2012; Director: Cristian Mungiu; Writer: Cristian Mungiu, Tatiana Niculescu Bran; Stars: Cosmina Stratan, Cristina Flutur, Valeriu Andriuta, Dana Tapalaga, Catalina Harabagiu, Gina Tandura, Vica Agache, Nora Covali, Dionisie Vitcu, Ionut Ghinea, Liliana Mocanu, Doru Ana, Costache Babii, Luminita Gheorghiu, Alina Berzunteanu)

Full review See: Interview with Cristina Flutur about Beyond The Hills

Caesar Must Die (Cesare Deve Morire)

A docudrama following drama workshops at Italy's Rebibbia prison, charting the trials and tribulations as the inmates tackle Shakespeare.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2012; Director: Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani; Stars: Fabio Cavalli, Salvatore Striano)

Dormant Beauty (Bella Addormentata)

Review preview for Dormant Beauty

Dormant Beauty expands beyond the central case to look at myriad issues around coma, caring, bereavement, euthanasia, suicide and choice.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Three stories explore Italian concerns in the context of a famous euthanasia case.

(Country: Italy, France; Year: 2012; Director: Marco Bellocchio; Writer: Marco Bellocchio, Veronica Raimo, Stefano Rulli; Stars: Toni Servillo, Isabelle Huppert, Alba Rohrwacher)

Full review See: Marco Bellocchio interview about Dormant Beauty

Easy Money (Snabba Cash)

Review preview for Easy Money

This is at once a densely interlocking slice of Scandi-crime, an intense set of character pieces, and a poly-lingual indictment of a variety of shades of greed.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
A poor student with an expensive elite lifestyle sells cocaine to pay for his extravagant habits.

(Country: Sweden, Germany, Denmark; Year: 2010; Director: Daniél Espinosa; Writer: Maria Karlsson; Stars: Joel Kinnaman, Matias Padin Varela, Dragomir Mrsic)

Full review

Easy Money II (Snabba Cash II)

Released from prison, our hero is drawn back into criminality by the prospect of making large amounts of money quickly.

(Country: Sweden; Year: 2012; Director: Babak Najafi; Writer: Maria Karlsson, Peter Birro; Stars: Joel Kinnaman, Fares Fares, Dejan Cukic)

A Few Hours Of Spring

Review preview for A Few Hours Of Spring

Stéphane Brizé's perfectly balanced two-hander is a breath of fresh air.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
An ex-con struggles to cope with his mother's failing health.

(Country: France; Year: 2012; Director: Stéphane Brizé; Writer: Stéphane Brizé, Florence Vignon; Stars: Vincent Lindon, Hélène Vincent, Emmanuelle Seigner)

Full review See: Interview with Vincent Lindon about his career

The Fifth Season (La Cinquième Saison)

Review preview for The Fifth Season

Depends on a sense of inevitability, of the weight of impending doom that is as much moral as corporeal.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
When the midwinter ritual goes awry, the seasons stop rotating, crops start failing, and a village begins to come apart at the seams.

(Country: Belgium, Netherlands, France; Year: 2012; Director: Peter Brosens, Jessica Woodworth; Writer: Peter Brosens, Jessica Woodworth; Stars: Sam Louwyck, Damien Marchal, Aurélia Poirier, Django Schrevens)

Full review

A Hijacking (Kapringen)

Review preview for A Hijacking

Stark, beautifully observed, genuinely captivating, A Hijacking grabs its audience and does not let go.

Andrew Robertson · 5 out of 5
A brutal drama about a ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean and the subsequent struggles for survival and freedom.

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2012; Director: Tobias Lindholm; Writer: Tobias Lindholm; Stars: Pilou Asbæk, Søren Malling, Dar Salim)

Full review

In The Fog (V Tumane)

Two men in Nazi-occupied Belarus take a third off into the forest, believing he betrayed their murdered friends.

(Country: Germany, Russia, Latvia, Netherlands, Belarus; Year: 2012; Director: Sergei Loznitsa; Writer: Sergei Loznitsa; Stars: Vladimir Svirski, Vlad Abashin, Sergei Kolesov)

Kuma

Review preview for Kuma

One of the best social dramas you are likely to see this year.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A young woman enters into a fake marriage in order to move from Turkey to Austria and become the second wife of an older man.

(Country: Austria; Year: 2011; Director: Umut Dag; Stars: Nihal Koldas, Begüm Akkaya, Vedat Erincin, Murathan Muslu, Alev Irmak)

Full review See: Interview with Umut Dag about Kuma

Looking For Hortense (Cherchez Hortense)

Review preview for Looking For Hortense

An uneven film with occasional moments of genius.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
The life of a tired academic becomes suddenly moe complicated after his wife asks him to pull strings to help a Serbian woman who is facing deportation.

(Country: France; Year: 2012; Director: Pascal Bonitzer; Writer: Agnès de Sacy, Pascal Bonitzer; Stars: Jean-Pierre Bacri, Kristin Scott Thomas, Isabelle Carré)

Full review

Love Is All You Need (Den Skaldede Frisør)

Having just lost her hair to cancer and her husband to another woman, a hairdresser travels to Italy for her daughter's wedding and meets a man with troubles of his own.

(Country: Denmark, Sweden, Italy, France, Germany; Year: 2012; Director: Susanne Bier; Writer: Anders Thomas Jensen, Susanne Bier; Stars: Pierce Brosnan, Kim Bodnia, Trine Dyrholm, Paprika Steen, Sebastian Jessen)

Mercy (Gnade)

A woman's involvement in a hit-and-run accident has unexpected consequences for her family.

(Country: Germany, Norway; Year: 2012; Director: Matthias Glasner; Stars: Jürgen Vogel, Birgit Minichmayr, Henry Stange) , Official site

Our Children (À Perdre La Raison)

Review preview for Our Children

Joachim LaFosse's film builds, inexorably, to an ending that we know from the start is coming.

Anton Bitel · 3.5 out of 5
A couple's relationship becomes strained under pressure from one of their adoptive parents.

(Country: Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland; Year: 2012; Director: Joachim Lafosse; Writer: Thomas Bidegain, Joachim Lafosse, Matthieu Reynaert; Stars: Niels Arestrup, Tahar Rahim, Émilie Dequenne, Stéphane Bissot, Mounia Raoui, Redouane Behache, Baya Belal, Nathalie Boutefeu, Yannick Renier, Claire Bodson, Jean-Charles Hautera, Daniel Feis, Joé Michels, Eléa Gillard, Charlie Hoscheck)

Full review

Reported Missing (Die Vermissten)

A father searching for his missing daughter uncovers a terrible secret whose implications for society are still worse than the things he had feared.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2012; Director: Jan Speckenbach; Writer: Jan Speckenbach, Melanie Rohde; Stars: André M. Hennicke, Luzie Ahrens, Sylvana Krappatsch, Jenny Schily)

Sanctuary

A widowed plastic surgeon seeks escape from his troubled relationship with his daughter and meets a vivacious stranger who seems to hold the promise of a better life.

(Country: Ireland; Year: 2012; Director: Norah McGettigan; Writer: Norah McGettigan, Gabriel Vargas; Stars: Augustyn Frank Cero, Anne-Marie Duff, David Fennelly, Jan Frycz)

The Sex Of The Angels (El Sexo De Los Angeles)

Review preview for The Sex Of The Angels

Bergès-Frisbey is extraordinary.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
When her boyfriend falls for another man, a young woman tries to overcome her jealousy so the three of them can work things out.

(Country: Spain, Brazil; Year: 2012; Director: Xavier Villaverde; Writer: Xavier Villaverde; Stars: Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Álvaro Cervantes, Llorenç González)

Full review

Sleep Tight (Mientras duermes)

Unassuming janitor holds dark fantasies.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2011; Director: Jaume Balagueró; Writer: Alberto Marini; Stars: Luis Tosar, Marta Etura, Alberto San Juan, Petra Martínez, Iris Almeida, Carlos Lasarte, Amparo Fernández, Roger Morilla, Pep Tosar, Margarita Rosed, Rubèn Ametllé, Manel Dueso, Tony Corvillo, Ricard Sadurní, Xavier Pujolràs)

Thérèse Desqueyroux

Review preview for Thérèse Desqueyroux

Miller's stance may remain resolutely ambiguous but it's intriguing nonetheless.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A young aristocrat in a loveless marriage begins to strain against the bounds of her existence.

(Country: France; Year: 2012; Director: Claude Miller; Writer: Claude Miller, based on the book by François Mauriac.; Stars: Audrey Tautou, Gilles Lellouche, Anaïs Demoustier, Catherine Arditi, Stanley Weber)

Full review See: Interview with Audrey Tautou about Thérèse Desqueyroux , Obituary: Claude Miller - A Child Of The Cinema

Women's Day (Dzien Kobiet)

Review preview for Women's Day

What makes this more interesting than the average little-guy-against-the-system drama is that it's also a compellng character study.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A hard-pressed single mother is grateful to be promoted by the supermarket she works for, but grows angry when she realises how ruthlessly it is treating its workers.

(Country: Poland; Year: 2012; Director: Maria Sadowska; Writer: Maria Sadowska, Katarzyna Terechowicz; Stars: Katarzyna Kwiatkowska, Eryk Lubos, Grazyna Barszczewska, Klara Bielawka)

Full review