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London Film Festival · 2018

London Film Festival 2018

Debate

Programme

21 films · 7 reviews

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Angelo

Trouble brews for a young African in Europe in the 18th century.

(Country: Austria, Luxembourg; Year: 2018; Director: Markus Schleinzer; Writer: Alexander Brom, Markus Schleinzer; Stars: Alba Rohrwacher, Christian Friedel, Larisa Faber, Michael Rotschopf, Dominic Marcus Singer, Gerti Drassl, Marisa Growaldt, Lukas Miko, Éric Gigout, Daniel Hoesl, Nilton Martins, Nancy Mensah-Offei, Makita Samba, Martine Schambacher, Ryan Nzogang)

An Impossible Love

After a passionate affair leads to a child, a mother raises her alone, unaware that her former partner's darker nature will re-emerge.

(Country: France, Belgium; Year: 2018; Director: Catherine Corsini; Writer: Catherine Corsini, Laurette Polmanss, based on the novel by Christine Angot; Stars: Virginie Efira, Niels Schneider, Jehnny Beth, Camille Berthomier, Estelle Lescure, Catherine Morlot, Régis Romele, Coralie Russier, Didier Sandre, Iliana Zabeth, Virginie Efira, Niels Schneider, Jehnny Beth, Camille Berthomier, Estelle Lescure)

Capernaum (Capharnaüm)

Review preview for Capernaum

You might notice the elegance of composition while knowing that the place contains so much human suffering.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
A child rebels against the life imposed upon him.

(Country: Lebanon, US; Year: 2018; Director: Nadine Labaki; Writer: Nadine Labaki, Jihad Hojeily, Michelle Keserwany, Georges Khabbaz, Khaled Mouzanar; Stars: Zain Al Rafeea, Yordanos Shiferaw, Boluwatife Treasure Bankole, Kawsar Al Haddad, Fadi Yousef, Haita 'Cedra' Izzam, Alaa Chouchnieh, Nadine Labaki, Elias Khoury, Nour El Husseini, Joseph Jimbazian, Samira Chalhoub, Farah Hasno, Joe Maalouf, Alexandre Youakim)

Full review See: Interview with Nadine Labaki about the lives in Capernaum (Capharnaüm)

Debate Gala

Dear Son

Story of parents and their troubled son.

(Country: Tunisia, Belgium, France; Year: 2018; Director: Mohamed Ben Attia; Writer: Mohamed Ben Attia; Stars: Imen Cherif, Mohamed Dhrif, Zakaria Ben Ayyed, Mouna Mejri, Imen Cherif, Mohamed Dhrif, Zakaria Ben Ayyed, Mouna Mejri)

Donbass

Review preview for Donbass

Each successive scene hits you over the head with the ferocity of the action.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
In the Donbass, a region of Eastern Ukraine, a hybrid war takes place, involving an open armed conflict alongside killings and robberies on a mass scale perpetrated by separatist gangs.

(Country: Germany, Ukraine, France, Netherlands, Romania; Year: 2018; Director: Sergei Loznitsa; Writer: Sergei Loznitsa; Stars: Valeriu Andriutã, Boris Kamorzin, Sergey Kolesov, Georgiy Deliev, Sergey Russkin, Alexander Zamuraev, Konstantin Itunin, Irina Plesnyayeva, Vadim Dubovsky, Svetlana Kolesova, Evgeny Chistyakov, Valeriu Andriutã, Boris Kamorzin, Sergey Kolesov, Georgiy Deliev)

Full review

A Family Tour

Story of an exiled filmmaker, who can only see her mother in Taiwan.

(Country: Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia; Year: 2018; Director: Liang Ying; Writer: Wai Chan, Liang Ying; Stars: Nai An, Zhe Gong, Pete Teo, Tham Xin Yue, Nai An, Zhe Gong, Pete Teo, Tham Xin Yue)

Freedom Fields

Review preview for Freedom Fields

Arebi's patiently observational film is full of small moments that encapsulate horrific prejudice or warm, resilient humour.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Documentary spanning six years in the life of Libya’s nascent women’s football scene.

(Country: Libya; Year: 2018; Director: Naziha Arebi)

Full review

Girls Of The Sun (Les Filles Du Soleil)

A battalion made up entirely of Kurdish female soldiers is on the cusp of taking back control of the city where its commander was captured by extremists a few months earlier.

(Country: France, Belgium, Georgia, Switzerland; Year: 2018; Director: Eva Husson; Writer: Eva Husson; Stars: Golshifteh Farahani, Emmanuelle Bercot, Erol Afsin)

House Of My Fathers (Mouna Kaandam)

Two villages at war with each other face the same problem - no woman can conceive. A prophecy must be fulfilled.

(Country: Sri Lanka, UK; Year: 2018; Director: Suba Sivakumaran; Writer: Suba Sivakumaran; Stars: Bimal Jayakodi, Steve De La Zilwa, Deepa Seevaratnam, Bimal Jayakodi, Steve De La Zilwa, Deepa Seevaratnam)

"I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History As Barbarians" ("Îmi este indiferent dacă în istorie vom intra ca barbari")

A young artist is planning to reconstruct a historical event from 1941, during which the Romanian Army carried out ethnic cleansing on the Eastern Front.

(Country: Czech Republic, France, Bulgaria, Germany; Year: 2018; Director: Radu Jude)

The Kindergarten Teacher

Review preview for The Kindergarten Teacher

For anyone who has experienced the obsessive attentions of a teacher, this makes for uncomfortable viewing.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
When a kindergarten teacher discovers one of her five-year-olds is a prodigy, she becomes fascinated with the boy, ultimately risking her family and freedom to nurture his talent.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Sara Colangelo; Writer: Sara Colangelo; Stars: Rosa Salazar, Gael García Bernal, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Chernus, Anna Baryshnikov, Ajay Naidu, Daisy Tahan, Haley Murphy, Sam Jules, Samrat Chakrabarti, Douglas Taurel, Carson Grant, Aamira Martinez, Stefaniya Makarova, Nikhil Melnechuk)

Full review

Non-Fiction (Doubles vies)

Review preview for Non-Fiction

In Assayas's smashingly sad comedy of manners, shoes drop left and right.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
A drama about the hopelessly intertwined world of publishing.

(Country: France; Year: 2018; Director: Olivier Assayas; Writer: Olivier Assayas; Stars: Guillaume Canet, Juliette Binoche, Vincent Macaigne, Christa Théret, Nora Hamzawi, Pascal Greggory, Laurent Poitrenaux, Sigrid Bouaziz, Lionel Dray, Nicolas Bouchaud, Antoine Reinartz, Aurélia Petit, Thierry de Peretti, Violaine Gillibert, Jean-Luc Vincent)

Full review See: Venice 2018: The Sisters Brothers, Sunset, Non-Fiction, The Mountain, Dragged Across Concrete, Charlie Say and Vox Lux

Rosie

Story of a homeless family trying to find a roof to put over their heads.

(Country: Ireland; Year: 2018; Director: Paddy Breathnach; Writer: Roddy Doyle; Stars: Sarah Greene, Moe Dunford, Natalia Kostrzewa, Lochlann O'Mearáin, Toni O'Rourke, Ross Jones, Killian Coyle, John Dalessandro, Molly McCann, Ruby Dunne, Darragh Mckenzie, Sarah Greene, Moe Dunford, Natalia Kostrzewa, Lochlann O'Mearáin)

Shock Waves: Diary Of My Mind

Dramatisation of a real-life story of a boy who confessed to murder in a school essay.

(Country: Switzerland; Year: 2018; Director: Ursula Meier)

The Spy Gone North (Gongjak)

A former military officer is sent to infiltrate a group of North Korean officials in Beijing, to acquire information about their nuclear programme.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2018; Director: Yoon Jong-bin; Writer: Yoon Jong-bin)

Styx

Review preview for Styx

There's a strong sense of isolation from the start in Fisher's film.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A storm in the middle of the ocean, a boat full of refugees that is about to sink and a woman all by herself...

(Country: Germany, Austria; Year: 2018; Director: Wolfgang Fischer; Writer: Wolfgang Fischer, Ika Künzel; Stars: Susanne Wolff, Gedion Oduor Wekesa, Alexander Beyer, Inga Birkenfeld, Anika Menger, Susanne Wolff, Gedion Oduor Wekesa, Alexander Beyer, Inga Birkenfeld, Anika Menger)

Full review See: Susanne Wolff and Wolfgang Fischer ‪in conversation on‬ her performance, cinematographer Benedict Neuenfels, recording the sound for Styx and Charles Darwin , Susanne Wolff and Wolfgang Fischer ‪in conversation on‬ the high seas and shooting Styx

Touch Me Not

Laura doesn’t want to be touched. Christian, who lives with physical impairments, talks candidly about his sexuality. This film explores our ideas of intimacy.

(Country: Romania, Germany, Czech Republic, France; Year: 2018; Director: Adina Pintilie; Writer: Adina Pintilie; Stars: Laura Benson, Tómas Lemarquis, Christian Bayerlein, Grit Uhlemann, Hanna Hofmann)

This Teacher

Review preview for This Teacher

This isn't racism as white sheet-wearing, torch-bearing awfulness, but the more 'respectable' version that looks squeaky clean and masquerades as 'tolerant' while being insidiously malevolent.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A woman's life begins to slip into a nightmare after a reunion with a childhood friend turns sour.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Mark Jackson; Writer: Mark Jackson; Stars: Hafsia Herzi, Sarah Kazemy, Lucy Walters, Kevin Kane, Lev Gorn)

Full review

U - July 22 (Utøya 22. juli)

A cinematic reconstruction of the attack that took place on Utøya on 22 July 2011 when a heavily armed right-wing extremist killed 69 young people at a summer camp.

(Country: Norway; Year: 2018; Director: Erik Poppe; Writer: Anna Bache-Wiig, Siv Rajendram Eliassen; Stars: Andrea Berntzen, Aleksander Holmen, Brede Fristad, Elli Rhiannon Müller Osbourne, Solveig Koløen Birkeland)

The Vice Of Hope (Il Vizio Della Speranza)

A woman tries to escape her life of sex work after she discovers she is pregnant.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2018; Director: Edoardo De Angelis; Writer: Umberto Contarello, Edoardo De Angelis; Stars: Pina Turco, Massimiliano Rossi, Marina Confalone, Cristina Donadio, Marcello Romolo, Pina Turco, Massimiliano Rossi, Marina Confalone, Cristina Donadio, Marcello Romolo)

Yours In Sisterhood

Women across the US give voice to letters sent by readers to a feminist magazine in the 1970s.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Irene Lusztig; Writer: Irene Lusztig)