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Glasgow Film Festival · 2024

Glasgow Film Festival 2024

International Features

Programme

12 films · 12 reviews

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About Dry Grasses (Kuru Otlar Üstüne)

Review preview for About Dry Grasses

It’s the multiple layers of mystery – which have less to do with actual events than with what different characters are thinking – which make the film compelling.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A young teacher hopes to be appointed to Istanbul after mandatory duty at a small village. After long time waiting he loses all hope of escaping from this gloomy life. His colleague helps him to regain his perspective.

(Country: Turkey, France, Germany, Sweden; Year: 2023; Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan; Writer: Ebru Ceylan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Akin Aksu; Stars: Merve Dizdar, Deniz Celiloglu, Musab Ekici)

Full review

Blue Sunshine

Review preview for Blue Sunshine

Blue Sunshine was made by a woman who has been through it herself, and that shows in every fibre of the film.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
A high school teacher undergoes transition to her new life while working in a conservative small-town school.

(Country: India; Year: 2023; Director: Samyuktha Vijayan; Writer: Samyuktha Vijayan; Stars: Gajaraj, Geetha Kailasam, Masanth Natarajan, Manimegalai, Samyuktha Vijayan)

Full review See: Interview with Samyuktha Vijayan about Blue Sunshine

The Cemetery Of Cinema (Au Cimetière De La Pellicule)

Review preview for The Cemetery Of Cinema

Eventually, Diallo will travel far beyond the villages, to another country, to continue his quest, going to lengths few documentarians would consider - but what he learns there will reveal that the real answer lies back home.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Thierno Souleymane Diallo sets out with his camera in search of the birth of filmmaking in Guinea.

(Country: France, Senegal, Guinea, Saudi Arabia; Year: 2023; Director: Thierno Souleymane Diallo; Stars: Thierno Souleymane Diallo)

Full review

La Chimera

Review preview for La Chimera

Rohrwacher’s visually eclectic style is well suited to exploring the contrasts between present and past, natural and artificial, poverty and wealth.

Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
The story of a group of archaeologists and the black market in historical artefacts.

(Country: Italy, France, Switzerland; Year: 2023; Director: Alice Rohrwacher; Writer: Carmela Covino, Marco Pettenello, Alice Rohrwacher; Stars: Isabella Rossellini, Josh O'Connor, Alba Rohrwacher, Lecu Chikovani, Carol Duate)

Full review See: Alice Rohrwacher on fairy tales and La Chimera

Cold (Kuldi)

Review preview for Cold

Erlingur Thoroddsen has done a fairly good job of cramming in an expansive and complicated story with very little compromise.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
Murder mystery chiller unfolds across two time periods as a man and his daughter try to come to terms with a suicide while he investigates historic deaths at a juvenile centre.

(Country: Iceland; Year: 2023; Director: Erlingur Thoroddsen; Writer: Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, Erlingur Thoroddsen; Stars: Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Elín Hall, Selma Björnsdóttir, Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir, Sara Dögg Ásgeirsdóttir, Mikael Kaaber, Ólöf Halla Jóhannesdóttir, Björn Stefánsson, Baldur Björn Arnarsson, Birgir Dagur Bjarkason, Álfrún Örnólfsdóttir, Kristbjörg Kjeld, Anna Gunndís Guðmundsdóttir, Stefán Jónsson, Vala Kristin Eiriksdottir)

Full review

Disco Boy

Review preview for Disco Boy

If there’s vacillation in general at work, the slippery nature of the film, greased with the sweat of physical and metaphorical dance, remains beguiling.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
The destinies of a man who has joined the Foreign Legion and another in the Niger Delta intersect.

(Country: France, Italy, Belgium, Poland; Year: 2023; Director: Giacomo Abbruzzese; Writer: Giacomo Abbruzzese; Stars: Franz Rogowski, Morr Ndiaye, Laëtitia Ky, Leon Lučev)

Full review

Green Border (Zielona granica)

Review preview for Green Border

Essential, urgent and damning.

Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
Multifaceted drama about the plight of refugees on the Belarus/Poland border.

(Country: Poland, Germany, France, Czechia, Belgium; Year: 2023; Director: Agnieszka Holland; Writer: Agnieszka Holland, Gabriela Lazarkiewicz-Sieczko, Maciej Pisuk; Stars: Jalal Altawil, Maja Ostaszewska, Tomasz Włosok, Behi Djanati Atai, Mohamad Al Rashi, Dalia Naous)

Full review See: Agnieszka Holland speaks out on the targeting of refugees by populists, Europe's tack to the right and pricking people's consciences

Hounds

Review preview for Hounds

Some films take time to gather momentum, but there’s a sense of movement right from the off in Kamal Lazraq’s debut feature.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A fateful night in the life of a father and son after a kidnapping goes awry.

(Country: Morocco, France, Belgium, Qatar, Saudi Arabia; Year: 2023; Director: Kamal Lazraq; Writer: Kamal Lazraq; Stars: Ayoub Elaid, Abdellatif Masstouri, Mohamed Hmimsa, Abdellatif Lebkiri, Lahcen Zaimouzen, Salah Bensalah, Mohamed Kharbouchi, Amine Arakhisis, Amine Malouf, Hicham Bidar, Abdellah Bensaid, Abdelhak Saleh, Mohamed Jenkher, Amine Aboudrar, Hassan Ben Bdida)

Full review

A House In Jerusalem

Review preview for A House In Jerusalem

The house has an older past which, at her tender age, [Rebecca] has not reckoned with, and her discovery of this goes hand in hand with her developing awareness of the political climate surrounding her.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
After a grieving dad and his daughter move from England to Israel, she encounters a little girl that only she can see.

(Country: Germany, Palestinian Territories, Netherlands, United Kingdom; Year: 2023; Director: Muayad Alayan; Writer: Muayad Alayan, Rami Musa Alayan; Stars: Johnny Harris, Miley Locke, Sheherazade Makhoul Farrell, Jiana Awwad, Rebecca Calder, Souad Faress, Mouna Hawa, Shaden Kanboura, Makram Khoury, Riyad Sliman, Rebecca Esmeralda Telhami)

Full review See: Interview with Muayad Alayan and Sheherazade Farrell about A House In Jerusalem

Riddle Of Fire

Review preview for Riddle Of Fire

Told from a child’s point of view, immediate and haphazard, magical and unlikely.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
Three mischievous children on dirt bikes, armed with paint guns and cocky attitudes, launch an attack at a local warehouse, outwitting a security guard and 'liberating' the very latest video game console for themselves - but to make use of it, they need to figure out the password with which their mother has locked the TV.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Weston Razooli; Writer: Weston Razooli; Stars: Lio Tipton, Weston Razooli, Charles Halford, Phoebe Ferro)

Full review

The Teachers' Lounge (Das Lehrerzimmer)

Review preview for The Teachers' Lounge

Thrums from start to almost finish with the sweaty tension of a looming maths test.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
When one of her students is suspected of theft, teacher Carla Nowak decides to get to the bottom of the matter. Caught between her ideals and the school system, the consequences of her actions threaten to break her.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2023; Director: İlker Çatak; Writer: İlker Çatak; Stars: Leonie Benesch, Leonard Stettnisch, Eva Löbau, Michael Klammer, Anne-Kathrin Gummich)

Full review See: llker Çatak on his cinematic inspirations, Wim Wenders and The Teachers’ Lounge

The Vourdalak

Review preview for The Vourdalak

An immensely dark, macabre and unsettling work.

James Gracey · 4 out of 5
Historic vampire tale, adapted from a Tolstoy novella.

(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Adrien Beau; Writer: Adrien Beau, Hadrien Bouvier, based on the novella by, Aleksei Tolstoy; Stars: Ariane Labed, Grégoire Colin, Vassili Schneider, Kacey Mottet Klein)

Full review