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Glasgow Film Festival · 2021

Glasgow Film Festival 2021

UK Premieres

Programme

5 films · 4 reviews

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The Mauritanian

Review preview for The Mauritanian

Despite Rahim's excellent work, the real standout here is Benedict Cumberbatch.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A detainee at the US military's Guantanamo Bay detention centre is held without charges for over a decade and seeks help from a defence attorney for his release.

(Country: UK, US; Year: 2021; Director: Kevin Macdonald; Writer: Michael Bronner; Stars: Tahar Rahim, Shailene Woodley, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zachary Levi, Jodie Foster)

Full review See: Interview with Kevin Macdonald about The Mauritanian

Steelers: The World's First Gay Rugby Club

Review preview for Steelers: The World's First Gay Rugby Club

A cheery little film with a subject which will be dear to the hearts of many viewers.

Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
In 1995, in a pub in King’s Cross, a group of friends discussed the idea of a gay rugby club. From that casual conversation, the first gay rugby team was born.

(Country: UK, Netherlands; Year: 2020; Director: Eammon Ashton-Atkinson)

Full review

Surge

A man goes on a bold and reckless journey of self-liberation through London. After he robs a bank he releases a wilder version of himself, ultimately experiencing what it feels like to be alive.

(Country: UK; Year: 2020; Director: Aneil Karia; Writer: Rupert Jones, Rita Kalnejais; Stars: Ben Whishaw, Jasmine Jobson, Ryan McKen, Laurence Spellman, Muna Otaru, Ray Calleja, Paul Blackwell, Abdul Hakim Joy, Jack Pierce, Ranjit Singh Shubh, Yohanna Ephrem, Bradley Taylor, Modupe Adeyeye, Laraine Dix, Haqi Ali)

The Toll

Review preview for The Toll

Much of the humour in the film depends on contrasting viewers' expectations of rural life with the paraphernalia of Sixties spy movies and Seventies cop shows.

Jennie Kermode · 2 out of 5
A toll booth operator's secret past comes back to haunt him.

(Country: UK; Year: 2021; Director: Ryan Andrew Hooper; Writer: Matt Redd; Stars: Michael Smiley, Annes Elwy, Iwan Rheon, Paul Kaye, Gary Beadle, Steve Oram, Evelyn Mok, Darren Evans, Gwyneth Keyworth)

Full review

Undergods

Review preview for Undergods

The dystopian stories in Spanish director Chino Moya's feature debut nest within one another like a series of Russian dolls - dolls that have been carved by someone with a soft-spot for JG Ballard.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
An otherworldly journey through a Europe in decline - a collection of darkly humorous, fantasy tales about ill-fated characters and doomed fortune.

(Country: UK, Belgium, Estonia, Serbia, Sweden; Year: 2020; Director: Chino Moya; Writer: Chino Moya; Stars: Johann Myers, Géza Röhrig, Michael Gould, Hayley Carmichael, Ned Dennehy, Khalid Abdalla, Eric Godon, Tanya Reynolds, Tadhg Murphy, Jan Bijvoet, Kate Dickie, Sam Louwyck, Adrian Rawlins, Slavko Labovic, Jonathan Case)

Full review See: Chino Moya on neoliberal dystopias and fear of the other in Undergods