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Leeds International Film Festival · 2014

Leeds International Film Festival 2014

Official Selection

Programme

30 films · 16 reviews

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Birdman (Birdman Or The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance )

Review preview for Birdman

There's some great black comedy here, at times spectacularly cruel.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A washed-up actor makes a bid on Broadway to reclaim his former glory.

(Country: US, France; Year: 2014; Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu; Writer: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo; Stars: Emma Stone, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Michael Keaton, Andrea Riseborough, Zach Galifianakis, Amy Ryan, Merritt Wever, Natalie Gold, Joel Garland, Anna Hardwick, Carrie Ormond, Clark Middleton, Bill Camp, Stefanie Bari)

Full review

Bird People

An American heads to Paris and deserts his old life.

(Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Pascale Ferran; Writer: Guillaume Bréaud, Pascale Ferran; Stars: Josh Charles, Radha Mitchell, Mathieu Amalric, Clark Johnson, Anaïs Demoustier, Roschdy Zem, Geoffrey Cantor, Hippolyte Girardot, Genevieve Adams, Philippe Duclos, Erin Elizabeth Burns, Anne Azoulay, Sharon Mann, Akéla Sari, Bertrand Constant)

The Boy And The World (O Menino e o Mundo)

Review preview for The Boy And The World

Every bit as interesting to listen to as it is to watch.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A boy goes in search of his dad.

(Country: Brazil; Year: 2013; Director: Alê Abreu; Writer: Alê Abreu; Stars: Marco Aurélio Campos, Vinicius Garcia, Lu Horta)

Full review

Catch Me Daddy

Review preview for Catch Me Daddy

An authentic, no-holds barred roller coaster ride, which gives fresh hope for a new wave of British cinema.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
A young woman on the run from her family finds herself in danger when her brother comes looking for her.

(Country: UK; Year: 2014; Director: Daniel Wolfe; Writer: Daniel Wolfe, Matthew Wolfe; Stars: Sameena Jabeen Ahmed, Connor McCarron)

Full review

Concrete Clouds (Pavang rak)

After a businessman commits suicide in the middle of the economic crisis, his sons come home.

(Country: Thailand, Hong Kong; Year: 2013; Director: Lee Chatametikool; Stars: Ananda Everingham, Janesuda Parnto, Apinya Sakuljaroensuk, Katherine Reilly)

Corn Island (Simindis Kundzuli)

Review preview for Corn Island

Ovashvili tells the story with spare dialogue and absorbing attention to detail.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
An old peasant and his innocent 16-year-old granddaughter sow corn on an island in the middle of the Inguri River dividing Georgia from Abkhazia.

(Country: Georgia, Germany, France, Czech Republic, Kazakhstan; Year: 2014; Director: George Ovashvili; Writer: Roelof Jan Minneboo, George Ovashvili, Nugzar Shataidze; Stars: Ilyas Salman, Mariam Buturishvili, Irakli Samushia, Tamer Levent)

Full review

The Drop

Review preview for The Drop

Bob may have the beefed up body of a bouncer but Hardy continually emphasises his softer, hesitant side, his body language screaming flight even though he is built to fight.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A barman finds himself embroiled in mob trouble after a robbery and facing personal threat after finding a puppy in a dustbin.

(Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Michaël R Roskam; Writer: Dennis Lehane; Stars: Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, James Gandolfini, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Erin Darke, James Frecheville, Matthias Schoenaerts, John Ortiz, Jeremy Bobb, Patricia Squire, Michael Aronov, Michael Esper, James Colby, Morgan Spector, Alex Ziwak)

Full review

Free Fall (Szabadesés)

An old woman flies past six floors after jumping from the roof of her apartment block. Six stories on the poor state of humanity.

(Country: Hungary, France, South Korea; Year: 2014; Director: György Pálfi)

Frozen Stories (Opowiesci z chlodni)

Black comedy about two supermarket workers.

(Country: Poland; Year: 2011; Director: Grzegorz Jaroszuk; Writer: Grzegorz Jaroszuk; Stars: Piotr Trojan, Andrzej Walden, Justyna Wasilewska, Piotr Zurawski)

Showing with Kebab And Horoscope

Goodbye To Language 3D (Adieu Au Langage)

Musings on relationship problems, betrayal and identity.

(Country: Switzerland; Year: 2013; Director: Jean-Luc Godard; Writer: Jean-Luc Godard; Stars: Kamel Abdeli, Dimitri Basil, Zoé Bruneau, Richard Chevallier)

The Imitation Game

Review preview for The Imitation Game

The kind of period drama that screams “festival launch” but doesn’t trust its audience enough to tell its story subtly or with any surprises.

Owen Van Spall · 3 out of 5
Alan Turing helps crack the Enigma code.

(Country: UK, US; Year: 2014; Director: Morten Tyldum; Writer: Andrew Hodges, Graham Moore; Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Mark Strong, Charles Dance, Allen Leech, Tuppence Middleton, Rory Kinnear, Hayley Joanne Bacon, Steven Waddington, Tom Goodman-Hill, Matthew Beard, Hannah Flynn, Leigh Dent, Victoria Wicks)

Full review See: Benedict Cumberbatch on playing the WWII cryptologist Alan Turing at the opening of London Film Festival

Journey To The West (Xi You)

Review preview for Journey To The West

A meditative miniature of hypnotic grace.

Rebecca Naughten · 4.5 out of 5
A slow-moving Buddhist monk acquires a follower on the streets of Marseille.

(Country: France, Taiwan; Year: 2014; Director: Tsai Ming-liang; Stars: Lee Kang-sheng, Denis Lavant)

Full review

Kebab & Horoscope

One day you read your horoscope in your favourite magazine The Secret World of Animals and the stars tell you to change your life, quit your job and go into carpet marketing.

(Country: Poland; Year: 2014; Director: Grzegorz Jaroszuk)

Showing with Frozen Stories

Leviathan (Leviafan)

Review preview for Leviathan

The performances are powerful, unforgettable, like ice in the wind

Angus Wolfe Murray · 4 out of 5
A car mechanic tries to defend his property with tragic consequences.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2014; Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev; Writer: Oleg Negin, Andrey Zvyagintsev; Stars: Aleksey Serebryakov, Elena Lyadova, Vladimir Vdovichenkov, Roman Madyanov, Anna Ukolova, Kristina Pakarina, Sergey Pokhodaev, Aleksey Rozin, Lesya Kudryashova, Aleksey Pavlov, Alim Bidnenko)

Full review

Love Steaks

Review preview for Love Steaks

The comedy shifts and jumps with ease from the wintry beach to the pool and into our hearts due to the acute timing of the performances.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
Luxury hotel. Luxury clientele. Irritable staff. A couple who might fall in love, or they might leave their relationship in its raw state – like the titular steaks.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2013; Director: Jakob Lass)

Full review

Modris

A teenager runs into trouble when his mum betrays him to the police.

(Country: Germany, Greece, Latvia; Year: 2014; Director: Juris Kursietis; Writer: Juris Kursietis, Juris Kursietis; Stars: Rezija Kalnina, Kristers Piksa)

My Old Lady

An American inherits an apartment... and an unexpected resident.

(Country: US, France; Year: 2014; Director: Israel Horovitz; Writer: Israel Horovitz, Israel Horovitz; Stars: Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas, Kevin Kline, Dominique Pinon, Francis Dumaurier, Anouk Dutruit)

No One's Child (Nicije dete)

Story based on the true tale of a boy who was found in the forest.

(Country: Serbia; Year: 2014; Director: Vuk Rsumovic; Writer: Vuk Rsumovic; Stars: Denis Muric, Pavle Cemerikic, Isidora Jankovic, Milos Timotijevic, Zinaida Dedakin, Miodrag 'Misa' Jelic, Mihailo Laptosevic, Bora Nenic, Marija Opsenica, Branka Selic, Tihomir Stanic, Goran Susljik, Ljuba Todorovic, Borka Tomovic, Draginja Voganjac)

Paris Of The North (París Norðursins)

The tale of a recovering alcoholic, his largely estranged father, and their incompatible cohabitation.

(Country: Iceland, France, Denmark; Year: 2014; Director: Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson)

Rocks In My Pockets

Review preview for Rocks In My Pockets

It is funny and serious by turns... full of striking and humorous images.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
An animated film exploring living with illness.

(Country: US, Latvia; Year: 2014; Director: Signe Baumane; Writer: Signe Baumane; Stars: Signe Baumane)

Full review

Song Of The Sea

Review preview for Song Of The Sea

The flowing feel of the sea runs through Moore's animation, just as illuminated manuscript ran through Kells.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A brother and sister find themselves on a magical adventure.

(Country: Ireland, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, France; Year: 2014; Director: Tomm Moore; Writer: Will Collins, based on a story by Tomm Moore; Stars: Brendan Gleeson, Fionnula Flanagan, Pat Shortt, David Rawle, Jon Kenny, Lisa Hannigan)

Full review

Stations Of The Cross (Kreuzweg)

Review preview for Stations Of The Cross

Almost perfectly constructed... a stunning piece of filmmaking.

Andrew Robertson · 5 out of 5
The story of a teenager whose family are Catholic fundamentalists.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Dietrich Brüggemann; Writer: Anna Brüggemann, Dietrich Brüggemann; Stars: Hanns Zischler, Franziska Weisz, Florian Stetter, Birge Schade, Ramin Yazdani, Lucie Aron, Lea van Acken, Moritz Knapp, Klaus Michael Kamp, Georg Wesch)

Full review

Stray Dogs

Story of a family living on the margins of Taipei.

(Country: France, Taiwan; Year: 2013; Director: Ming-liang Tsai; Writer: Peng Fei Song, Ming-liang Tsai, Chen Yu Tung; Stars: Shiang-chyi Chen, Kang-sheng Lee, Yi Cheng Lee, Yi Chieh Lee, Yi Ching Lu)

Testament Of Youth

A woman's coming of age during the First World War.

(Country: UK; Year: 2014; Director: James Kent; Writer: Vera Brittain, Juliette Towhidi; Stars: Kit Harington, Hayley Atwell, Dominic West, Emily Watson, Miranda Richardson, Alicia Vikander, Colin Morgan, Anna Chancellor, Taron Egerton, Charlotte Hope, Joanna Scanlan, Emily Bevan, Amanda Fairbank-Hynes, Jonathan Bailey, Xavier Atkins)

Timbuktu (Le chagrin des oiseaux)

Review preview for Timbuktu

The way Sissako exposes the double standard makes the Jihadists' behavior no less threatening, on the contrary.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4.5 out of 5
After a herdsman accidentally kills someone, he finds himself a victim of Sharia law fundamentalists.

(Country: France, Mauritania; Year: 2014; Director: Abderrahmane Sissako; Writer: Abderrahmane Sissako, Kessen Tall; Stars: Pino Desperado, Abel Jafri, Toulou Kiki, Kettly Noël, Hichem Yacoubi)

Full review

Titli

The youngest of a car-jacking gang plots to escape the business.

(Country: India; Year: 2014; Director: Kanu Behl; Writer: Kanu Behl, Sharat Katariya; Stars: Ranvir Shorey, Shashank Arora, Shivani Raghuvanshi, Amit Sial, Prashant Singh, Lalit Behl)

We Are Mari Pepa (Somos Mari Pepa)

The four boys in the band Mari Pepa have only one song in their repertoire. Yet music is their big hope. Friendships and dreams are suffering from the constraints of everyday life. A film as poetic as punk rock.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2013; Director: Samuel Kishi; Writer: Samuel Kishi, Sofía Gómez-Córdova; Stars: Alejandro Gallardo, Arnold Ramírez, Moisés Galindo, Rafael Andrade, Petra Iñiguez Robles)

Wild

Review preview for Wild

Witherspoon completely inhabits the role.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Adaptation of the best-selling memoir of Cheryl Strayed, a young woman attempts the gruelling 1,100-mile hike across the Pacific Crest Trail.

(Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Jean-Marc Vallée; Writer: Nick Hornby, based on the book by Cheryl Strayed; Stars: Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Gaby Hoffmann, Michiel Huisman, Charles Baker, W. Earl Brown, Kevin Rankin, Brian Van Holt, Thomas Sadoski, J.D. Evermore, Nick Eversman, Leigh Parker, Mo McRae, Beth Hall, Cathryn de Prume)

Full review

Winter Sleep (Kis Uykusu)

Review preview for Winter Sleep

Ceylan explores such themes as moral responsibility, class and altruism with rigour.

Richard Mowe · 3.5 out of 5
A hotel owner gradually has his delusions stripped away from him.

(Country: Turkey, France, Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan; Writer: Ebru Ceylan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan; Stars: Haluk Bilginer, Melisa Sözen, Demet Akbag)

Full review

X+Y

Review preview for X+Y

A strong film with an impressive central performance by up and coming star Asa Butterfield.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
An autistic teenage prodigy travels from the English suburbs for a maths competition in Taipei, challenging his safely defined outlook.

(Country: UK; Year: 2014; Director: Morgan Matthews; Writer: James Graham; Stars: Lewis Adams, Percelle Ascott, Edward Baker-Close, Lee Bolton, Jason Thomas Brown, Asa Butterfield, Tasha Connor, Colin Coombs, Alexa Davies, Jake Davies, Paul J. Dove, James Frost, Sally Hawkins, Alex Lawther, Orion Lee)

Full review