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Glasgow Film Festival · 2020

Glasgow Film Festival 2020

Local Heroes

Programme

14 films · 7 reviews

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Body Of Water

A woman with an eating disorder tries to balance her relationship with her mother and her teenage daughter.

(Country: UK; Year: 2020; Director: Lucy Brydon; Writer: Lucy Brydon; Stars: Sian Brooke, Amanda Burton, Fabienne Piolini-Castle)

Days Of The Bagnold Summer

A single librarian tries to reconnect with her introverted son.

(Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Simon Bird; Writer: Lisa Owens, Joff Winterhart; Stars: Rob Brydon, Tamsin Greig, Alice Lowe, Monica Dolan, Nathanael Saleh, Grace Hogg-Robinson, Earl Cave, Lesley Harcourt, Elliot Speller-Gillott, Stuart Whelan, Patrick Holly, Olivia Buckland, George Wilkins, George Mizen, Alex Ashman)

Escape From Pretoria

Review preview for Escape From Pretoria

This is a thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat but that also has something going on upstairs.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
In 1979 apartheid-era South Africa, two men imprisoned in Pretoria Prison plot to escape.

(Country: UK, Australia; Year: 2020; Director: Francis Annan; Writer: Francis Annan, LH Adams; Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Ian Hart, Daniel Webber)

Full review See: Interview with Francis Annan about Escape from Pretoria

Eternal Beauty

Review preview for Eternal Beauty

There's a volatility and a sweetness at play in what is, at heart, a character study and writer/director Craig Roberts strikes an impressive balance of mood.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A schizophrenic woman finds things change when she embarks on a romance with a failed musician.

(Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Craig Roberts; Writer: Craig Roberts; Stars: Robert Aramayo, Sally Hawkins, David Thewlis, Billie Piper, Banita Sandhu, Penelope Wilton, Robert Pugh, Alice Lowe, Ashley McGuire, Morfydd Clark, Paul Hilton, Kas Meghani, Elysia Welch, Rita Bernard-Shaw, anthony Leader)

Full review

From Scotland With Love

A poignant documentary celebrating a century of Scottish charm, set to a score by King Creosote.

(Country: UK; Year: 2014; Director: Virginia Heath)

Love Sarah

Following the tragic death of Sarah, her nearest and dearest set aside their differences to make her dream come true and open an artisan bakery in Notting Hill.

(Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Eliza Schroeder; Stars: Shelley Conn, Rupert Penry-Jones, Celia Imrie, Bill Paterson)

Make Up

Review preview for Make Up

Oakley doesn't oversell the unnerving elements, instead letting them unsettle us as they settle on Ruth.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A teenager finds herself increasingly troubled on an off-season trip to a caravan site.

(Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Claire Oakley; Writer: Claire Oakley; Stars: Molly Windsor, Joseph Quinn, Stefanie Martini, Theo Barklem-Biggs, Lisa Palfrey, Elodie Wilton, Maureen Wild, Derek Frood, Ruben Wheeler, John Macneill, Emilia Copeland, Yazmin Joy Vigus, Molly Windsor, Joseph Quinn, Stefanie Martini)

Full review

One Way To Denmark

Review preview for One Way To Denmark

Writer Jeff Murphy and director Adrian Shergold use the comedic pretext to explore themes around mental illness and the damage done to people in poverty by a system obsessed with meting out punishment.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
An unemployed Welshman with no hot water travels to Denmark in an attempt to get arrested because he believes that his life will be better in prison there.

(Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Adrian Shergold; Writer: Jeff Murphy; Stars: Rafe Spall, Joel Fry, Steve Speirs)

Full review

Our Ladies

Review preview for Our Ladies

It feels a bit like a box-ticking exercise at a funding body.

Andrew Robertson · 2 out of 5
Comedy drama sees a group of choirgirls on a day trip to Edinburgh.

(Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Michael Caton-Jones; Writer: Michael Caton-Jones, based on the book by Alan Warner; Stars: Eve Austin, Tallulah Greive, Abigail Lawrie, Sally Messham, Rona Morison, Marli Siu)

Full review

Perfect 10

Review preview for Perfect 10

Details sparkle in the script too, pared back to only what is needed.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
An aspiring gymnast finds her life turned upside down by the arrival of the older half-brother she didn't know she had.

(Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Eva Riley; Writer: Eva Riley; Stars: Frankie Box, Alfie Deegan, Sharlene Whyte, William Ash, Billy Mogford, Nicola Wright, Emily Gibson, Leia Desseaux, Jenna Goodwin, Mitchell Murphy, Annie Grainger, Lexa Willis-Gray, Georgia Simpson, Frankie Box, Alfie Deegan)

Full review

Rialto

A man who is suffering a family and work crisis becomes infatuated with a young man from whom he solicits sex.

(Country: Ireland, UK; Year: 2019; Director: Peter Mackie Burns; Writer: Mark O'Halloran; Stars: Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Tom Glynn-Carney, Monica Dolan, Sophie Jo Wasson, Scott Graham, Michael Smiley, Eileen Walsh, Deirdre Donnelly, Deirdre Molloy, Kervin Soobrayen, Alexandra Smith, Jane McGrath, Pom Boyd, Pat McGrath, Ger Ryan)

Rocks

Review preview for Rocks

The camera is, literally, down with the kids, at their eye level, drinking in their mayhem, their laughter and their viewpoint.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A young girl is determined to keep the fact that there mother has left her and her younger brother alone from the authorities, through fear of being separated from him.

(Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Sarah Gavron; Writer: Theresa Ikoko, Claire Wilson; Stars: Bukky Bakray, Kosar Ali, D'angelou Osei Kissiedu, Shaneigha-Monik Greyson, Ruby Stokes, Tawheda Begum, Afi Okaidja, Anastasia Dymitrow, Sarah Niles, Layo-Christina Akinlude, Sharon D. Clarke, Islah Abdur-Rahman, Shola Adewusi, Mohammad Amiri, Brie-Morgan Appleton)

Full review See: Sarah Gavron and Theresa Ikoko on shooting Rocks and pushing for diversity , Rocks interview with Theresa Ikoko and Sarah Gavron

Run

In Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, young men dream of escapism through late-night drag races. Finnie used to be one such lad, but now he works at the fish factory and it’s his son’s turn to dream and race. Until one night when Finnie steals the boy’s car for one last joyride.

(Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Scott Graham; Writer: Scott Graham; Stars: Mark Stanley, Marli Siu, Amy Manson, Anders Hayward.)

Sulphur & White

A successful city trader in London, relentlessly focused on work, is trapped by memories of the past and hostile to anyone who dares to help. Flashbacks reveal a childhood in South Africa at the mercy of an inadequate bully of a father and ineffectual mother.

(Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Julian Jarrold; Stars: Mark Stanley, Emily Beecham, Anna Friel, Dougray Scott)