Skip to main content

Glasgow Film Festival · 2018

Glasgow Film Festival 2018

Pioneer

Programme

32 films · 26 reviews

Jump to a film

Abundant Acreage Available

Review preview for Abundant Acreage Available

The land is a major player in this otherwise small scale drama and the only thing that really keeps pace with Ryan’s performance.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
Two siblings coping with grief find their lives disrupted by the arrival of three brothers who have a surprising connection to their farm.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Angus MacLachlan; Writer: Angus MacLachlan; Stars: Amy Ryan, Terry Kinney, Max Gail, Steve Coulter, Francis Guinan)

Full review

The Bachelors

Review preview for The Bachelors

This is a tale told with unusual sensitivity and skill.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A widowed father and his son meet two women who slowly begin to transform their lives.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Kurt Voelker; Writer: Kurt Voelker; Stars: Odeya Rush, Jean Louisa Kelly, JK Simmons, Julie Delpy)

Full review

Blue My Mind

Review preview for Blue My Mind

An astonishing debut.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
When a teenager who has trouble with her parents moves to Zurich with them, she starts to walk on the wild side.

(Country: Switzerland; Year: 2017; Director: Lisa Brühlmann; Writer: Lisa Brühlmann; Stars: Luna Wedler, Zoë Pastelle Holthuizen, Nicola Perot)

Full review

The Charmer (Chamoren)

Review preview for The Charmer

Remarkably adept in balancing audience sympathies and bold in its refusal to choose the most easily justified routes for its characters, The Charmer is a powerful piece of cinema.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
An intense psychological drama about a young Iranian man who is desperately trying to meet women who can secure his stay in Denmark.

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2017; Director: Milad Alami; Writer: Milad Alami, Ingeborg Topsøe; Stars: Lars Brygmann, Stine Fischer Christensen, Jesper Lohmann, Susan Taslimi, Ardalan Esmaili, Dan Boie Kratfeldt, Nastja Arcel, Hassan El Sayed, Morten Hee Andersen, Amalie Lindegård, Kitt Maiken Mortensen, Thomas Persson, Laura Allen, Austa Lea Jespersen, Soho Rezanejad)

Full review

The Ciambra (A Ciambra)

Review preview for The Ciambra

Carpignano is interested in the margins - and the fringes of those margins.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A teenager faces choices as he comes of age.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Jonas Carpignano; Writer: Jonas Carpignano; Stars: Pio Amato, Koudous Seihon, Damiano Amato, Francesco Pio Amato, Iolanda Amato, Patrizia Amato, Rocco Amato, Susanna Amato) , Trailer

Full review

Columbus

Review preview for Columbus

The sense of poise created, as people move through spaces or talk back and forth, objects often leaving the frame in one direction as another enters from the opposite side, achieves a soothing rhythm.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
Two people meet by chance and forge a connection.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Kogonada; Writer: Kogonada; Stars: Haley Lu Richardson, John Cho, Rory Culkin, Parker Posey, Michelle Forbes, Jim Dougherty, William Willet, Wynn Reichert)

Full review

Dayveon

A young teenager is drawn into a gang after the death of his brother.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Amman Abbasi; Writer: Amman Abbasi, Steven Reneau; Stars: Devin Blackmon, Dontrell Bright, Lachion Buckingham)

The Divine Order (Die göttliche Ordnung)

Review preview for The Divine Order

Leuenberger makes Nora's gradual awakening to gender issues feel like the sun coming out on a dreary day, brimful of unexpected warmth.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A small-town mum joins the suffrage movement in Switzerland.

(Country: Switzerland; Year: 2017; Director: Petra Volpe; Writer: Petra Volpe; Stars: Marie Leuenberger, Maximilian Simonischek, Rachel Braunschweig, Sibylle Brunner, Marta Zoffoli, Bettina Stucky, Noe Krejcí, Finn Sutter, Peter Freiburghaus, Therese Affolter, Ella Rumpf, Nicholas Ofczarek, Sofia Helin, Elias Arens, Mirjam Zbinden)

Full review See: Petra Volpe on The Divine Order, the #MeToo movement and the ongoing fight for equal rights

The Eternal Feminine (Los Adioses)

A biopic of poet, author and activist Rosario Castellanos.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2017; Director: Natalia Beristáin; Stars: Daniel Giménez Cacho, Karina Gidi, Tessa Ia)

Find This Dumb Little Bitch And Throw Her Into A River

Review preview for Find This Dumb Little Bitch And Throw Her Into A River

Ben Brand’s low key camerawork, much of it handheld, fits the culture to which the young protagonists belong and lends events a sense of immediacy.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A teenager becomes the focus of a witch hunt after her brother posts a video of her dropping live puppies into a river online.

(Country: Netherlands; Year: 2018; Director: Ben Brand; Writer: Ben Brand, Ilse Ott; Stars: Nino den Brave, Senna Fokke, Wim Opbrouck)

Full review

Foxtrot

Review preview for Foxtrot

Samuel Maoz steps into the rhythm of the foxtrot to give structure to the three separate chapters of his intense, reverberating film.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4.5 out of 5
A family's world is rocked when they are told about the death of their son.

(Country: Israel, France, Germany; Year: 2017; Director: Samuel Maoz; Writer: Samuel Maoz; Stars: Lior Ashkenazi, Sarah Adler, Yonatan Shiray, Karin Ugowski, Yehuda Almagor, Shira Haas, Dekel Adin, Shaul Amir, Gefen Barkai)

Full review See: Samuel Maoz in conversation on numbers, colours, coincidence, chaos, and Foxtrot , Samuel Maoz and Lior Ashkenazi in conversation on Foxtrot , Lior Ashkenazi in conversation on Foxtrot feature

High Fantasy

Review preview for High Fantasy

The overall effect is more like watching a drama class experimenting with a theme than watching a film.

Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
A group of four young South African friends go on a camping trip in the Northern Cape and experience a supernatural body-swap incident.

(Country: South Africa, Switzerland; Year: 2017; Director: Jenna Cato Bass; Writer: Jenna Bass, Qondiswa James, Nala Khumalo, Francesca Varrie Michel, Liza Scholtz, Loren Loubser; Stars: Loren Loubser, Qondiswa James, Nala Khumalo)

Full review

Keep The Change

Review preview for Keep The Change

Keep The Change tells an intricate love story, featuring people we rarely get to see on the big screen

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
The unlikely love story of two people who meet in a support group.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Rachel Israel; Writer: Rachel Israel; Stars: Samantha Elisofon, Brandon Polansky, Will Deaver, Nicky Gottlieb, Jessica Walter, Christina Brucato, Johnathan Tchaikovsky, And Palladino, Evander Duck Jr., Sondra James, Jennifer Brito, Tommy Beardmore, Alex Emanuel, Tibor Feldman, Macy Cassera, Anna Suzuki, Kurt Enger, Charlton Lamar, James Brickhouse)

Full review See: Rachel Israel in conversation on Keep The Change

A Letter To The President (Namai ba rahis gomhor)

The head of a crime squad faces the death squad after accidentally killing her abusive husband and writes to the president for help.

(Country: Afghanistan; Year: 2017; Director: Roya Sadat; Writer: Aziz Deldar; Stars: Leena Alam, Aziz Deldar, Mamnoun Maqsoudi, Zareen Nory, Mahmoud Aryoubi, Asad-Ullah Tajzai, Abdullah Ibrahem Khel, Sofor Ahan Khel, Abdul Azim Rubaty, Qadir Aryaie, Saeed Meeran Farhad, Nasima Jalal, Sultana Gety Afshar, Farzana Nawabi, Arsalan Deildar)

Liquid Truth (Aos Teus Olhos)

Review preview for Liquid Truth

The focus here, despite the title, is less on the truth and more on how different people respond to uncertainty.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A supervisor tries to get to the truth after a popular swimming instructor is accused of kissing one of his young pupils.

(Country: Brazil; Year: 2017; Director: Carolina Jabor; Writer: Lucas Paraizo; Stars: Daniel de Oliveira, Malu Galli, Marco Ricca)

Full review

Lucky

Review preview for Lucky

Deadpan absurdity, everyday madness and enlightenment through routine merge in an attempt to answer the big questions of life.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
The spiritual journey of a 90-year-old atheist.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: John Carroll Lynch; Writer: Logan Sparks, Drago Sumonja; Stars: Harry Dean Stanton, David Lynch, Ron Livingston, Ed Begley Jr., Tom Skerritt, Beth Grant, James Darren, Barry Shabaka Henley, Yvonne Huff, Hugo Armstrong, Bertila Damas, Ana Mercedes, Sarah Cook, Amy Claire, Ulysses Olmedo)

Full review See: Article about the work of Harry Dean Stanton

Man Proposes, God Disposes

Review preview for Man Proposes, God Disposes

Part romance, part observational comedy, Man Proposes, God Disposes also has a keen sense of the loneliness that being lost in a strange country can bring.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A petty criminal moves from Gdansk to São Paulo to try and do the right thing after he learns that a woman he barely knows is pregnant as a result of their one night stand.

(Country: Canada, Poland, Brazil; Year: 2017; Director: Daniel Leo; Writer: Daniel Leo, Michael Mac, Mateusz Nedza, Orshi Van Morshi; Stars: Bruna Massarelli, Erick Mozer, Martyna Byczkowska, Mateusz Nedza)

Full review

More (Daha)

Review preview for More

Van Eck holds his own well in the central role whilst Taylan delivers a complex performance.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Gaza lives with his father Ahad on the shores of the Aegean Sea. The intelligent kid would like to continue his studies, but Ahad sees his son’s future differently. He gets Gaza to help with his side business – smuggling refugees from the Mideast.

(Country: Turkey; Year: 2017; Director: Onur Saylak; Writer: Onur Saylak, Dogu Yasar Akal, Hakan Gunday; Stars: Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan, Hayat Van Eck, Turgut Tuncalp, Tankut Yildiz, Tuba Büyüküstün, Kagan Uluca, Ahmet Melih Yilmaz, Ugur Arslan, Pervin Bagdat, Lara Aysal, Onur Akgülgil, Amed Ali, Salih Alkan, Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan, Hayat Van Eck)

Full review

My Friend Dahmer

Review preview for My Friend Dahmer

This is a sudden and astonishing arrival for an adult actor.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
Before Jeffrey Dahmer became one of the most notorious serial killers of all time, he was a teenage loner.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Marc Meyers; Writer: Marc Meyers, based on the graphic novel by Derf Backderf; Stars: Ross Lynch, Alex Wolff, Anne Heche, Vincent Kartheiser, Dallas Roberts, Jack DeVillers, Cameron McKendry, Christopher Mele, Harrison Holzer, Miles Robbins, Tommy Nelson, Liam Koeth,)

Full review

Mobile Homes

A young mother looks to make a new life for her and her son in a mobile home community.

(Country: Canada, France; Year: 2017; Director: Vladimir de Fontenay; Writer: Vladimir de Fontenay, Danielle Lessovitz; Stars: Imogen Poots, Callum Turner, Callum Keith Rennie, Shane Daly, Karen LeBlanc, Raven Stewart, Keith Bowser, Deragh Campbell, Katie Messina, Lyric Justice, Jai Jai Jones, Thamela Mpumlwana, Luke Gallo, Manuel Rodriguez-Saenz, Rebecca Singh)

Never Steady, Never Still

A mother struggles to take control of her life in the face of advanced Parkinson's disease, while her son battles his sexual and emotional identity.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2017; Director: Kathleen Hepburn; Writer: Kathleen Hepburn; Stars: Shirley Henderson, Théodore Pellerin, Mary Galloway, Nicholas Campbell, Jared Abrahamson, Jonathan Whitesell, Beverley Elliott, Eric Keenleyside, Chilton Crane, Steven Cree Molison, Kelly Metzger, Lorne Cardinal, Sean Owen Roberts, Hugo Ateo, Mel Tuck)

No Date, No Signature

Review preview for No Date, No Signature

No Date, No Signature is a moral maze in which superb performances mean we can never lose sight of the human impact of what might seem like logical decisions.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A pathologist is riven with guilt after the death of a child.

(Country: Iran; Year: 2017; Director: Vahid Jalilvand; Writer: Ali Zarnegar, Vahid Jalilvand; Stars: Amir Agha'ee, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Hediyeh Tehrani, Sa'eed Dakh, Alireza Ostadi, Zakiyeh Behbahani)

Full review

Old Beast

Review preview for Old Beast

Though a little too crude to work as powerfully as it might in dramatic terms, Old Beast is nevertheless an important film.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
A man who lies, cheats and steals without conscience finds himself beginning to get into serious trouble.

(Country: China; Year: 2017; Director: Zhou Ziyang; Writer: Ziyang Zhou; Stars: Chaobei Wang, Men Tu, Yi Danna)

Full review

Pity

Review preview for Pity

Yannis Drakopoulos is on fine form in the central role and there are some great supporting performances.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
The story of a man who feels happy only when he is unhappy: addicted to sadness, with such need for pity, that he’s willing to do everything to evoke it from others. This is the life of a man in a world not cruel enough for him.

(Country: Greece, Poland; Year: 2018; Director: Babis Makridis; Writer: Efthymis Filippou, Babis Makridis; Stars: Yannis Drakopoulos, Evi Saoulidou, Nota Tserniafski, Makis Papadimitriou, Georgina Chryskioti, Evdoxia Androulidaki)

Full review See: Efthymis Filippou talks about his career in Valencia

Quality Time

Review preview for Quality Time

An excellent demonstration (in places) of Daan Bakker's agility and ability as a writer and director.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
Five men, five stories.

(Country: Netherlands; Year: 2017; Director: Daan Bakker; Writer: Daan Bakker; Stars: Steve Aernouts, Idar Andersen, Maja Baaserud, Thomas Aske Berg, Anneke Blok, Bert Bunschoten, Steef Cuijpers, Raymonde de Kuyper, Randi Egeland, Tore Egeland, Adam Ekeli, Dennis Foose, Gaute Garlid, Fred Goessens, Vegar Hoel)

Full review

Revenge

Review preview for Revenge

Fargeat uses a lot of old tricks to give her desert a haunting, mystical quality, but she uses them well in a film that oozes style.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Three wealthy married men get together for their annual hunting game in a desert canyon. This time, one of them has brought along his young mistress, who quickly arouses the interest of the other two. Things get dramatically out of hand as a hunting game turns into a ruthless manhunt.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Coralie Fargeat; Writer: Coralie Fargeat; Stars: Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, Kevin Janssens, Guillaume Bouchède, Vincent Colombe, Avant Strangel)

Full review

The Rider

Review preview for The Rider

The craft, the knowledge, the deep communication with the animal, shown without words - this is breathtaking, transcendent cinema.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
A young cowboy tries to carve out a new identity.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Chloé Zhao; Writer: Chloé Zhao; Stars: Brady Jandreau, Tim Jandreau, Lilly Jandreau, Cat Clifford, Terri Dawn Pourier, Lane Scott, Tanner Langdeau, James Calhoon, Derrick Janis)

Full review See: Chloé Zhao and Brady Jandreau in conversation on Brady's family, autism, training horses, and cinematographer Joshua James Richards for The Rider , Chloé Zhao and Brady Jandreau in conversation on Werner Herzog and filming The Rider

Sicilian Ghost Story

Review preview for Sicilian Ghost Story

It avoids every cliche laid down in the history of search-and-rescue movies

Angus Wolfe Murray · 4 out of 5
When a boy disappears, a young girl goes looking for him in the dark world that has swallowed him.

(Country: Italy, France, Switzerland; Year: 2017; Director: Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza; Writer: Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza, based on a story from the book by Marco Mancassola; Stars: Julia Jedlikowska, Gaetano Fernandez, Corinne Musallari, Andrea Falzone, Frederico Finocchiaro, Lorenzo Amato, Filippo Luna)

Full review

Super November

Review preview for Super November

This is so well observed that I feel fair expressing concerns about the choices of font in certain official publications.

Andrew Robertson · 4.5 out of 5
A happy couple find their lives turned upside down by political chaos and civil unrest.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Douglas King; Writer: Josie Long; Stars: Josie Long, Sean Biggerstaff, Darren Osborne)

Full review See: Super November première report with Douglas King

Thoroughbreds

Review preview for Thoroughbreds

The weirdness thrives on understatement

Angus Wolfe Murray · 4 out of 5
Two rich girls contemplate murder in Connecticut

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Cory Finley; Writer: Cory Finley; Stars: Olivia Cooke, Anya Taylor-Joy, Anton Yelchin, Kaili Vernoff, Paul Sparks)

Full review

Valley Of Shadows (Skyggenes Dal)

In a village where sheep have been mysteriously slaughtered, a six year old wanders into the woods by himself in search of his lost collie dog.

(Country: Norway; Year: 2017; Director: Jonas Matzos Gulbrandsen; Stars: Adam Ekeli, Jone Hope Larsen, Kathrine Fagerland)

Violeta At Last

Review preview for Violeta At Last

The strength of this film is in Chaverri’’s finely judged performance.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A 72-year-old divorcee plans to rent out rooms in her home and take swimming lessons, but has to deal with family members and financial institutions that think they know what's best for her.

(Country: Costa Rica, Mexico; Year: 2017; Director: Hilda Hidalgo; Writer: Hilda Hidalgo; Stars: Eugenia Chaverri, Gustavo Sánchez Parra, Óscar Castillo)

Full review