Leeds International Film Festival

Latest reviews

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  Roqia

  Review preview for Roqia

  Supernatural possession is closely intertwined with the idea of radicalisation, evil jinn with distorted ideology.

  After a car crash, a man returns home to his family with his face covered in bandages, suffering from amnesia. As mysterious and threatening events accumulate, he fears that he is possessed.
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  Pillion

  Review preview for Pillion

  The constant contrast is the trick, which later extends to the emotional stakes.

  A man is taken on as a motorbike club's leader's submissive but begins to question that role.
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  Rental Family

  Review preview for Rental Family

  It’s not a showy performance, but it’s a standout.

  A lonely American actor living in Tokyo starts working for a Japanese 'rental family' company to play stand-in roles in other people's lives. Along the way, he finds surprising connections and unexpected joys within his built-in family.
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  Little Amélie

  Review preview for Little Amélie

  Amélie doesn’t just narrate but completely dominates this film as a personality.

  Amélie is a little Belgian girl born in Japan. Thanks to her friend Nishio-san, the world is full of adventure and discovery. But on her third birthday, an event changes the course of her life. For Amélie, everything is at stake at that age, happiness as well as tragedy.
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  The Voice Of Hind Rajab

  Review preview for The Voice Of Hind Rajab

  There is some very good work here, and all of it tempered where it needs to be, to give due prominence to Hind herself.

  January 29, 2024. Red Crescent volunteers receive an emergency call. A six-year old girl is trapped in a car under fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue. While trying to keep her on the line, they do everything they can to get an ambulance to her.
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  Happy Birthday

  Review preview for Happy Birthday

  While bringing home the injustice of life for Toha, Goher treads a careful line so as not to turn the adults into cartoonish 'bad guys', which makes the situation all the more upsetting.

  An eight-year-old maid gradually discovers her place in the pecking order on the day of her friend's birthday.
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  The Shepherd And The Bear

  Review preview for The Shepherd And The Bear

  Max Keegan’s documentary sings a beguiling pastoral song, but has keen powers of observation.

  Documentary exploring a conflict after the re-introduction of brown bears into the traditional shepherding community of the Pyrenees.
• 
  Alpha

  Review preview for Alpha

  Alpha exists in the intersection of the probable and the parable.

  Alpha, a troubled 13-year-old, lives with her single mother. Their world collapses the day she returns from school with a tattoo on her arm.
• 
  The Choral

  Review preview for The Choral

  The power of The Choral is that it evokes smiles and laughter in opposition to the oppressive reality of these war years.

  A Yorkshire village’s choral society finds its ranks depleted as men head off to war... leaving it forced to change its rules.
• 
  Cotton Queen

  Review preview for Cotton Queen

  A beguiling mix of magic-realist fable, coming-of-age drama & post-colonial critique.

  In Sudan, Nafisa picks cotton and learns from her grandmother. The arrival of a young businessman, threatens to change their way of life.

A–Z of Leeds International Film Festival 2025 reviews →

Features

• 'You get in the car, you go somewhere, you have an experience'
  Cole Webley and John Magaro on poignant road trip Omaha
• The mighty Amazon
  Gabriel Mascaro on balancing beauty and identification in The Blue Trail
• 'Children can understand a lot more than we think..'
  The makers of Little Amélie on why perceptions about animation are changing
• This land of ours
  Max Keegan on the ancient conflicts underlying The Shepherd And The Bear
• 'I like putting incompatible stuff together and seeing how it works'
  Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke on mixing fantasy and reality in A Useful Ghost
• Song of the desert
  Kangding Ray on changing attitudes to music in cinema, and scoring Sirât
• The beauty of doubt
  Toni Servillo on costumes by Carlo Poggioli and working with Paolo Sorrentino on La Grazia
• It’s about re-enchantment
  Christian Petzold on cinema history, lullabies, Laura, Rebecca and Miroirs No. 3
• The family that slays together
  Tina Romero on her father's legacy, queer community and Queens Of The Dead
• The warrior's way
  Daniel Bernhardt on Steven Kostanski's genius, Slash's beautiful eyes, and Deathstalker
• Teen in a trap
  Paolo Strippoli on his coming-of-age horror The Holy Boy
• Beyond control
  Dakota Gorman on the transformative experience of film and Hellcat
• 'I didn't make this film myself. The Islamic Republic made it by putting me in prison'
  Jafar Panahi on the inspiration for It Was Just An Accident
• 'We never set up interruptions but we were open to being interrupted'
  Dennis Harvey and Lars Lovén on language, music and community in Celtic Utopia
• The Fool's journey
  Annapurna Sriram on psychic predictions, resisting censorship and making Fucktoys
• In too deep
  Alex Phillips on the power of intimacy and the technical challenges of Anything That Moves
• Mum's the word for Camille Cottin
  Call My Agent star on life-work balance, kids and Out Of Love
• 'Simple is actually the hardest to do'
  Eric San - aka Kid Koala - on minimalism and cherishing the moment in Space Cadet
• 'I admit it was crazy idea, but then film people are crazy'
  Richard Linklater on chronicling the creation of Godard's Breathless in Nouvelle Vague
• Warring parents sparked Ramsay’s Cannes entry
  Die, My Love stars Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Lawrence in fighting form
• In pursuit of new challenges
  Matthew McManus and Kevin McManus discuss Redux Redux
• A test of love
  Dusty Mancinelli and Madeleine Sims-Fewer on Honey Bunch
• 'It’s like the supernatural leaks through the cracks of reality'
  Director Laura Casabé on bringing The Virgin Of The Quarry Lake to the screen