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London Film Festival · 2018

London Film Festival 2018

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Programme

20 films · 11 reviews

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Akasha

A revolutionary soldier on the run hatches a plot to retrieve his beloved gun.

(Country: Sudan, South Africa, Qatar, Germany; Year: 2018; Director: hajooj kuka; Writer: hajooj kuka; Stars: Ekram Marcus, Kamal Ramadan, Ganja Chakado)

Border

Review preview for Border

An original and highly ambitious premise that maintains its grip your attention and imagination.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
When a border guard with a sixth sense for identifying smugglers encounters the first person she cannot prove is guilty, their relationship forces her to confront terrifying revelations about herself and humankind.

(Country: Sweden, Denmark; Year: 2018; Director: Ali Abbasi; Writer: John Ajvide Lindqvist, Abbasi, Isabella Eklöf, based on a story by John Ajvide Lindqvist; Stars: Eva Melander, Eero Milonoff, Viktor Åkerblom, Jörgen Thorsson)

Full review

Dare Gala

Chained For Life

Review preview for Chained For Life

Chained For Life finds a rich vein of comedy in the awfulness of many people's reactions to disability.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A starlet finds herself in unfamiliar territory when she appears in a film about disfigurement that features real disabled people.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Aaron Schimberg; Writer: Aaron Schimberg; Stars: Jess Weixler, Adam Pearson, Stephen Plunkett, Charlie Korsmo, Sari Lennick)

Full review

Consequences

Review preview for Consequences

Shooting under predominantly grey skies in landscapes built of concrete, chipboard and peeling plaster, director Darko Stante invites the audience to share Andrej's feelings of confinement and hopelessness.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A teenager is forced to choose between a charismatic young man he meets in a detention centre and his own sense of moral integrity.

(Country: Slovenia; Year: 2018; Director: Darko Stante; Writer: Darko Stante; Stars: Matej Zemljic, Timon Sturbej, Gasper Markun, Lovro Zafred, Lea Cok, Rosana Hribar, Dejan Spasic, Blaz Setnikar, Iztok Drabik Jug, Matjaz Pikalo, Igor Matijevic, Maja Sever, Jette Ostan Vejrup, Urban Kuntaric, Dominik Vodopivec)

Full review

The Dead And the Others (Chuva E Cantoria Na Aldeia Dos Mortos)

An indigenous teen runs away to the city to avoid becoming a shaman.

(Director: Rene Nader Messora, Joao Salaviza)

Dogman

Review preview for Dogman

Because Simone is so one-note, it's hard to fully swallow the lengths Marcello ultimately goes to in order to shield him.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A dog groomer finds himself groomed to commit crime.

(Country: Italy, France; Year: 2018; Director: Matteo Garrone; Writer: Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti; Stars: Marcello Fonte, Edoardo Pesce, Adamo Dionisi, Francesco Acquaroli, Gianluca Gobbi,)

Full review

The Flower (La Flor)

Episodic drama telling six stories.

(Year: 2018; Director: Mariano Llinás)

The Green Fog

Compiles bits from 98 films and 3 TV shows set in San Francisco and re-imagines a post-modern version of Hitchcock’s classic Vertigo.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, Guy Maddin)

The Image Book (Le Livre D'Image, The Picture Book)

Review preview for The Image Book

Elusively impenetrable stuff that only loosely can be described as cinema.

Richard Mowe · 1 out of 5
Nothing but silence. Nothing but a revolutionary song. A story in five chapters like the five fingers of a hand.

(Country: Switzerland; Year: 2018; Director: Jean-Luc Godard; Writer: Jean-Luc Godard)

Full review

Ladyworld

Review preview for Ladyworld

Ladyworld becomes so burdened by art and symbolism that it almost loses sight of the need to tell a story.

Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
Eight teenage girls find themselves trapped in an endless birthday party after an earthquake.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Amanda Kramer; Writer: Amanda Kramer, Benjamin Shearn; Stars: Ariela Barer, Annalise Basso, Ryan Simpkins, Odessa Adlon, Maya Hawke, Tatsumi Romano, Zora Casebere, Atheena Frizzell, Noel David Taylor, Ariela Barer, Annalise Basso, Ryan Simpkins, Odessa Adlon, Maya Hawke, Tatsumi Romano)

Full review

Lizzie

Review preview for Lizzie

This is a grim, austere story of the pressure cooker of frustration, rage and fear that results when the patriarchy squeezes just as tight as the corsets of the time.

Owen Van Spall · 3 out of 5
Lays bare the legend of Lizzie Borden to reveal the much more complex, poignant and truly terrifying woman within — and her intimate bond with the family’s young Irish housemaid, Bridget Sullivan.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Craig William Macneill; Writer: Bryce Kass; Stars: Chloë Sevigny, Kristen Stewart, Kim Dickens, Denis O'Hare, Fiona Shaw, Jeff Perry, Jamey Sheridan, Jay Huguley, Jeremy Sykes, Tara Ochs, Darin Cooper, Tom Thon, Zachary Kyle Musten, Jody Matzer, Thomas Mark Higgins)

Full review

Madeline's Madeline

Review preview for Madeline's Madeline

This is a woozily shot, dislocating experience that in its best moments generates the sort of tense mental anxiety that Lynne Ramsay has made her calling card.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A young woman with mental health issues finds herself pushed to the limit by the demands of a theatre group.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Josephine Decker; Writer: Josephine Decker; Stars: Helena Howard, Molly Parker, Miranda July, Curtiss Cook)

Full review See: Interview with Ashley Connor about Madeline’s Madeline, The Miseducation Of Cameron Post and The Death Of Dick Long

Nancy

Review preview for Nancy

An intense character study in triplicate, made gripping both by the deliberately ambiguous way in which Christina Choe approaches everyone's mental state and by the performances.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A woman becomes increasingly convinced that she was kidnapped as a child.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Christina Choe; Writer: Christina Choe; Stars: Andrea Riseborough, Steve Buscemi, Ann Dowd, John Leguizamo, J. Smith-Cameron, Owen Campbell, Virginia Kull, René Ifrah, Samrat Chakrabarti, Olli Haaskivi, Lorenzo Beronilla, Ann Lucente, T. Sahara Meer)

Full review

Petra

(Country: Spain, France; Year: 2018; Director: Jaime Rosales; Writer: Michel Gaztambide, Clara Roquet, Jaime Rosales; Stars: Bárbara Lennie, Alex Brendemühl, Joan Botey, Marisa Paredes, Petra Martínez, Carme Pla, Oriol Pla, Chema del Barco, Natalie Madueño, Bárbara Lennie, Alex Brendemühl, Joan Botey, Marisa Paredes, Petra Martínez, Carme Pla)

Quién Te Cantará

Lila Cassen was the most successful Spanish singer of the nineties until she mysteriously vanished from one day to the next. Ten years later Lila is preparing her triumphant stage comeback; however, shortly before the long-awaited date she is involved in an accident and loses her memory.

(Country: Spain, France; Year: 2018; Director: Carlos Vermut; Writer: Carlos Vermut; Stars: Najwa Nimri, Inma Cuevas, Natalia de Molina, Julián Villagrán, Carme Elias, Vicenta N'Dongo, Eva Llorach, Ignacio Mateos, Catalina Sopelana, Najwa Nimri, Inma Cuevas, Natalia de Molina, Julián Villagrán, Carme Elias, Vicenta N'Dongo)

Sauvage (Full Frontal, Savage)

Review preview for Sauvage

Showing a keen understanding of the nature of sex work and of life on the streets, Vidal-Naquet carries us through several days in Léo's life in a observational, non-judgemental way.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A young male sex worker searches for love and companionship.

(Year: 2017; Director: Camille Vidal-Naquet; Writer: Camille Vidal-Naquet; Stars: Félix Maritaud, Eric Bernard, Nicolas Dibla, Philippe Ohrel, Pavle Dragas, Mehdi Boudina)

Full review

Sticks And Stones

A youngster who is new in town embarks on a toxic friendship with a charismatic rich kid.

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2018; Director: Martin Skovbjerg; Writer: Christian Gamst Miller-Harris; Stars: Natalia Reyes, Patricia Schumann, Peder Thomas Pedersen, Benjamin Kitter, Uffe Rørbæk Madsen, Laufey Elíasdóttir, Emma Sehested Høeg, Jonas Bjerril, Sophia Andersen Martinussen, Vilmer Trier Brøgger, Natalia Reyes, Patricia Schumann, Peder Thomas Pedersen, Benjamin Kitter, Uffe Rørbæk Madsen)

Suburban Birds

When an engineer finds the diary of a schoolboy, he discovers startling parallels within its pages.

(Country: China; Year: 2018; Director: Qui Sheng; Writer: Qui Sheng; Stars: Gong Zihan, Huang Lu, Mason Lee)

Thunder Road

Review preview for Thunder Road

For all his character's vacillations, this is a masterclass in filmmaking control.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
The life of an emotionally unstable cop begins to unravel when his mum dies.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Jim Cummings; Writer: Jim Cummings; Stars: Jim Cummings, Kendal Farr, Nican Robinson, Jocelyn DeBoer, Chelsea Edmundson, Macon Blair, Ammie Leonards, Bill Wise, Jordan Ray Fox, Frank Mosley, Jacqueline Doke, Chris Doubek, William Kevin Olliff, Tristan Riggs, Marshall Allman)

Full review

United Skates

Documentary about activists protesting about skating rink closures.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Tina Brown, Dyana Winkler; Writer: Dyana Winkler)