Skip to main content

London Film Festival · 2019

London Film Festival 2019

Dare

Programme

24 films · 14 reviews

Jump to a film

Beanpole (Dylda)

Review preview for Beanpole

The evocation of 1945 Leningrad is brilliantly captured with crumbling buildings and over-crowed trams but too often the dramatic set pieces fail to register

Richard Mowe · 2.5 out of 5
Two young women search for meaning and hope in the struggle to rebuild their lives amongst the ruins of Leningrad after the Second World War.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2019; Director: Kantemir Balagov; Writer: Kantemir Balagov; Stars: Viktoria Miroshnichenko, Vasilisa Perelygina, Timofey Glazkov, Andrei Bykov)

Full review

Burning Cane

A deeply religious mother in rural Louisiana struggles to reconcile her convictions of faith with the love she has for her troubled son.

(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Phillip Youmans; Writer: Phillip Youmans; Stars: Wendell Pierce, Karen Kaia Livers, Dominique McClellan, Braelyn Kelly, Emyri Crutchfield, Erika Woods, Cynthia Capers, Wendell Pierce, Karen Kaia Livers, Dominique McClellan, Braelyn Kelly, Emyri Crutchfield, Erika Woods, Cynthia Capers)

Divine Love (Divino Amor)

A deeply religious woman uses her position in a notary's office to advance her mission to save struggling couples from divorce. While waiting for a sign in recognition of her efforts, she's confronted with a crisis in her own marriage that ultimately brings her closer to God.

(Country: Brazil, Uruguay; Year: 2019; Director: Gabriel Mascaro; Writer: Esdras Bezerra, Rachel Daisy Ellis, Gabriel Mascaro, Lucas Paraizo; Stars: Dira Praes, Julio Machado, Emilio de Melo, Teca Pereira, Mariana Nunes, Thalita Carauta.)

Dogs Don't Wear Pants (Koirat eivät käytä housuja)

Review preview for Dogs Don't Wear Pants

Dogs Don’t Wear Pants ultimately relishes its uncomfortable themes buoyed by a little humour and hopes of a life happy ever after for our two damaged human beings

Tony Sullivan · 3.5 out of 5
A widower is struggling years after his wife drowned... meeting Mona, a dominatrix, changes everything.

(Country: Finland; Year: 2019; Director: Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää; Writer: Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää; Stars: Krista Kosonen, Pekka Strang, Jani Volanen, Oona Airola, Tomi Salmela, Eeva Soivio, Samuel Shipway, Ilona Huhta, Iiris Anttila, Helmi Lahti, Viivi Ihalainen, Sofia Kaipainen, Krista Kosonen, Pekka Strang, Jani Volanen)

Full review

Don't Look Down

Six people gather in an apartment for an evening of fun... and revenge.

(Country: France; Year: 2019; Director: Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau; Writer: Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau; Stars: Manika Auxire, Geoffrey Couët, Simon Frenay, François Nambot, Lawrence Valin, Manika Auxire, Geoffrey Couët, Simon Frenay, François Nambot, Lawrence Valin)

Eternal Beauty

Review preview for Eternal Beauty

There's a volatility and a sweetness at play in what is, at heart, a character study and writer/director Craig Roberts strikes an impressive balance of mood.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A schizophrenic woman finds things change when she embarks on a romance with a failed musician.

(Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Craig Roberts; Writer: Craig Roberts; Stars: Robert Aramayo, Sally Hawkins, David Thewlis, Billie Piper, Banita Sandhu, Penelope Wilton, Robert Pugh, Alice Lowe, Ashley McGuire, Morfydd Clark, Paul Hilton, Kas Meghani, Elysia Welch, Rita Bernard-Shaw, anthony Leader)

Full review

Family Romance LLC

Review preview for Family Romance LLC

The situations highlight a sense of existential loneliness in the modern world that might come with specifically Japanese trappings but which many elsewhere will recognise the emotional truth of.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Docudrama about a company which hires out people to pretend to be family members.

(Director: Werner Herzog)

Full review

Fire Will Come (O Que Arde)

Review preview for Fire Will Come

In terms of basic plotting, there might not seem to be much here, but emotions crackle beneath the surface and the mood burns deep.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A convicted arsonist returns to his rural home.

(Country: Spain, France, Luxembourg; Year: 2019; Director: Oliver Laxe; Writer: Santiago Fillol, Oliver Laxe; Stars: Santiago Fillol, Oliver Laxe)

Full review

Ghost Town Anthology (Répertoire des villes disparues)

Review preview for Ghost Town Anthology

The bleak chill of the Quebecois winter seeps into the very bones of Denis Côté's latest film, giving a sense of aching longing to the action.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
After a man dies in a car accident, time seems to lose all meaning for the residents of a small town... and then strangers begin to appear.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2019; Director: Denis Côté; Writer: Denis Côté; Stars: Robert Naylor, Diane Lavallée, Rémi Goulet, Jocelyne Zucco, Josée Deschênes, Jean-Michel Anctil, Rachel Graton, Hubert Proulx, Normand Carrière, Larissa Corriveau, Robert Naylor, Diane Lavallée, Rémi Goulet, Jocelyne Zucco, Josée Deschênes)

Full review See: Denis Côté on the allegorical nature of Ghost Town Anthology and why he’s not interested in making masterpieces

I Lost My Body (J'ai perdu mon corps)

Review preview for I Lost My Body

The fingerprints left behind by us an upon us as we go through life are considered by Jérémy Clapin's animated feature debut.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A cut-off hand escapes from a dissection lab with one crucial goal: to get back to its body. As it scrambles through the pitfalls of Paris, it remembers its life with the young man it was once attached to… until they met Gabrielle.

(Country: France; Year: 2019; Director: Jérémy Clapin; Writer: Jérémy Clapin, Guillaume Laurant; Stars: Voices of, Victoire Du Bois, Patrick d'Assumçao, Hakim Faris)

Full review

Judy And Punch (Judy & Punch)

Review preview for Judy And Punch

There's layer upon layer of clever artifice here, yet the result is something that feels fresh and sexy.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Puppeteers Judy and Punch are trying to resurrect their marionette show. The show is a hit due to Judy's superior puppeteering but Punch's driving ambition and penchant for whisky lead to a inevitable tragedy that Judy must avenge.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2019; Director: Mirrah Foulkes; Writer: Mirrah Foulkes; Stars: Mia Wasikowska, Damon Herriman, Benedict Hardie, Eddie Baroo, Don Bridges, Tom Budge, Amy Christian, Virginia Gay, Terry Norris, Michael M. Foster, Gillian Jones, Daisy Axon, Lucy Honigman, Xavier Gouault, Brenda Palmer)

Full review See: Interview with Mirrah Foulkes about Judy And Punch

Dare gala

Little Joe

Review preview for Little Joe

If you're going to do science fiction, you really need to get the science right, because otherwise all you're doing is attacking straw men.

Jennie Kermode · 2 out of 5
A genetically engineered plant scatters its seeds and seems to cause uncanny changes on living creatures. The afflicted appear strange, as if they were replaced - especially for those, who are close to them. Or is it all just imagination?

(Country: Austria, UK, Germany; Year: 2019; Director: Jessica Hausner; Writer: Géraldine Bajard, Jessica Hausner; Stars: Emily Beecham, Ben Whishaw, Leanne Best, Lindsay Duncan, Kerry Fox, David Wilmut)

Full review

Love Me Tender

An agoraphobic pushes herself to overcome her fears.

(Country: Switzerland; Year: 2019; Director: Klaudia Reynicke; Writer: Klaudia Reynicke; Stars: Antonio Bannò, Giorgia Del Don, Muriel Del Don, Anna Galante, Elena Gigliotti, Barbara Giordano, Thomas Mariniello, Jasmin Mattei, Cinzia Morandi, Siro Pedrozzi, Gilles Privat, Maurizio Tabani, Federica Vermiglio, Max Zampeti)

The Man Who Cuts Tattoos

Across two crucial periods in Nigerian history, two young women must ponder the painful sacrifices they are forced to make for love.

(Country: Nigeria; Year: 2019; Director: Michael Omonua; Writer: Michael Omonua; Stars: Valerie Dish, Omowunmi Dada, Duke Elvis)

The Miracle Of The Sargasso Sea (To Thávma Tis Thálassas Ton Sargassón)

Crime drama.

(Country: Greece, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden; Year: 2019; Director: Syllas Tzoumerkas; Writer: Youla Boudali, Syllas Tzoumerkas; Stars: Angeliki Papoulia, Youla Boudali, Hristos Passalis, Argyris Xafis, Thanasis Dovris, Laertis Malkotsis, Maria Filini, Michalis Kimonas, Christian Culbida, Thanos Tokakis, Laertis Vasiliou, Katerina Helmy, Alkistis Poulopoulou, Romanos Kalokyris, Areti Seidaridou)

The Painted Bird

Review preview for The Painted Bird

Smutný gives us faces that will stories even when they're still, the weight of long experience etched into every line.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
A lone Jewish boy has to fend for himself in Nazi-occupied eastern Europe.

(Country: Czech Republic, Ukraine, Slovakia; Year: 2019; Director: Václav Marhoul; Writer: Jerzy Kosinski, Václav Marhoul, Václav Marhoul; Stars: Stellan Skarsgård, Harvey Keitel, Barry Pepper, Julian Sands, Udo Kier, Aleksey Kravchenko, Tim Kalkhof, Jitka Cvancarová, Pavel Kríz, Petr Vanek, Lech Dyblik, Petr Kotlar, Radim Fiala, Milan Simácek, Filip Kankovský)

Full review

The Sharks

Review preview for The Sharks

Tightly structured and well-shot

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
While a rumour about the presence of sharks in a small beach town distracts residents, 14-year-old Rosina begins to feel an instinct to shorten the distance between her body and Joselo's.

(Country: Uruguay, Argentina, Spain; Year: 2019; Director: Lucía Garibaldi; Writer: Lucía Garibaldi; Stars: Romina Bentancur, Federico Morosini, Fabián Arenillas, Valeria Lois, Antonella Aquistapache)

Full review

System Crasher (Systemsprenger)

Review preview for System Crasher

This isn't an easy watch but it's a compelling one.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Nine-year-old Benni radically defies every rule. But this feared ‘system crasher’s’ only desire is to stop living in a residential home and go back to her mother.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2019; Director: Nora Fingscheidt; Writer: Nora Fingscheidt; Stars: Helena Zengel, Albrecht Schuch, Gabriela Maria Schmeide, Lisa Hagmeister, Melanie Straub, Victoria Trauttmansdorff, Maryam Zaree, Tedros Teclebrhan, Matthias Brenner, Louis von Klipstein, Barbara Philipp, Amelle Schwerk, Sashiko Hara, Fine Belger, Imke Büchel)

Full review

This is Not Berlin

Seventeen-year-old Carlos doesn't fit in anywhere, not in his family nor with the friends he has chosen in school. But everything changes when he is invited to a mythical nightclub where he discovers the underground nightlife scene: punk, sexual liberty and drugs.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2019; Director: Hari Sama; Writer: Rodrigo Ordoñez, Hari Sama, Max Zunino; Stars: Xabiani Ponce de León, José Antonio Toledano, Mauro Sánchez Navarro, Klaudia Garcia, Ximena Romo, Américo Hollander, Hari Sama, Marina de Tavira, Lumi Cavazos, Fernando Álvarez Rebeil, Juan Carlos Remolina, Rodrigo Rojo, Luna Balvanera, Sara Manni, Emilio Cuaik)

Tlamess

Following the death of his mother, “S”, a young Tunisian soldier, returns home. He deserts the army and is sought by the authorities. After several altercations with the police, “S” is seriously injured, and takes refuge in a nearby forest. “F”, a young pregnant woman, lives in a luxurious villa in the same forest. There she meets the strange “S”, who is undergoing some unusual changes of his own.

(Country: Tunisia, France; Year: 2019; Director: Ala Eddine Slim; Writer: Ala Eddine Slim; Stars: Abdullah Miniawy, Souhir Ben Amara)

Tremors (Temblores)

Review preview for Tremors

Bustamante employs physical earthquakes as well, with a similar subtlety that he goes on to use the myth of La Llorona in his follow up film

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
The coming out of an evangelical father shatters his family, his community and uncovers a profoundly repressive society.

(Country: Guatemala, France, Luxembourg; Year: 2019; Director: Jayro Bustamante; Writer: Jayro Bustamante; Stars: Juan Pablo Olyslager, Mauricio Armas, Diane Bathen, María Telón, Pedro Javier Silva Lira)

Full review

Vitalina Varela

The story of a Cape Verdean who arrives in Lisbon just days after her husband’s funeral - a journey she has been wanting to make for a quarter of a century.

(Country: Portugal; Year: 2019; Director: Pedro Costa; Writer: Pedro Costa, Vitalina Varela; Stars: Vitalina Varela)

A White, White Day (Hvítur, Hvítur Dagur)

Review preview for A White, White Day

A White, White Day mingles some very dark dramatic moments with the comedy of the absurd.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
An off-duty police chief begins to suspect a local man to have had an affair with his wife, who has recently died in a car accident. Gradually his obsession for finding out the truth accumulates and inevitably begins to endanger himself and his loved ones.

(Country: Iceland, Denmark; Year: 2019; Director: Hlynur Palmason; Writer: Hlynur Palmason; Stars: Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson, Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir, Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Sara Dögg Ásgeirsdóttir, Björn Ingi Hilmarsson, Elma Stefania Agustsdottir, Haraldur Stefansson, Laufey Elíasdóttir, Sigurður Sigurjónsson, Arnmundur Ernst Björnsson, Þór Hrafnsson Tulinius, Sverrir Þór Sverrisson)

Full review See: Interview with Ingvar Sigurdsson about A White, White Day (Hvitur, Hvitur Dagur)

Zombi Child

Haiti, 1962. A man is brought back from the dead only to be sent to the living hell of the sugarcane fields. In Paris, 55 years later, at a boarding school, a Haitian girl confesses an old family secret to a group of new friends – never imagining that this strange tale will convince a heartbroken classmate to do the unthinkable.

(Country: France; Year: 2019; Director: Bertrand Bonello; Writer: Bertrand Bonello)