Skip to main content

London Film Festival · 2019

London Film Festival 2019

First Feature Competition

Programme

7 films · 4 reviews

Jump to a film

Atlantics (Atlantique, Atlantics: A Ghost Love Story)

Review preview for Atlantics

The difficult reality of life in Senegal dances with something much more otherworldly in Mati Diop's debut film.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Love and loss in Dakar are given a supernatural twist.

(Country: Senegal; Year: 2019; Director: Mati Diop; Writer: Mati Diop, Olivier Demangel; Stars: Mame Bineta Sane, Amadou Mbow, Traore, Nicole Sougou, Aminata Kane, Coumba Dieng, Ibrahima Mbaye, Diankou Sembene, Abdou Balde, Babacar Sylla, Arame Fall Faye, Ya Arame Mousse Sene, Babacar Samba, Astou N'Diaye, Khouda Fall)

Full review

Babyteeth

Review preview for Babyteeth

Milla might be dying but she's also, paradoxically, finding her way in the world and working out what she wants, even if time is short.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Comedy, sees a family whose seriously ill daughter falls for a drug dealer discover that it might not be such a terrible thing after all.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2019; Director: Shannon Murphy; Writer: Based on the play by Rita Kalnejais; Stars: Ben Mendelsohn, Essie Davis, Eliza Scanlen, Toby Wallace, Andrea Demetriades, Emily Barclay, Charles Grounds, Justin Smith, Arka Das, Priscilla Doueihy, Georgina Symes, Zack Grech, Eugene Gilfedder, Quentin Yung, Jack Yabsley)

Full review

Calm With Horses

Review preview for Calm With Horses

It's usually Keoghan who gets the acting plaudits, but though he is good as a wannabe bad guy, it's Jarvis who provides the heft, in more ways than one here.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Thriller about a crime enforcer for a clan of drug dealers, while also trying to be a good father to his autistic son.

(Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Nick Rowland; Writer: Joe Murtagh; Stars: Barry Keoghan, Ned Dennehy, Niamh Algar, Anthony Welsh, David Wilmot, Cosmo Jarvis, Simone Kirby, Toni O'Rourke, Ryan McParland, Hazel Doupe, Roisin O'Neill, Lee Byford, John Paul O'Driscoll, Matt Tyzack, Stephen McGowan)

Full review

House Of Hummingbird

Review preview for House Of Hummingbird

House Of Hummingbird centres on a quiet yet never passive performance from Park, who draws us into Eun-hee's world as we watch her absorbing and processing the events going on around her.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
She roams the neighbourhood with her best friend, attempts to fall in love, is sent to the hospital with an unclear diagnosis. Untethered from the wider world, 14-year-old Eun-hee floats through Seoul.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2018; Director: Bora Kim; Writer: Bora Kim; Stars: Jeong In-gi, Kim Sae-byeok, ParkJi-hu, Lee Seung-Yeon)

Full review

Instinct

A prison psychologist finds herself in a game of powerplay with a narcissistic inmate.

(Country: Netherlands; Year: 2019; Director: Halina Reijn; Writer: Esther Gerritsen, Halina Reijn; Stars: Carice van Houten, Marwan Kenzari, Marie-Mae van Zuilen, Pieter Embrechts, Ariane Schluter, Betty Schuurman, Abdelkarim El Baz, Tamar van den Dop, Robert de Hoog, Kuno Bakker, Juda Goslinga, Barry Emond, Akwasi Owusu-Ansah, Maria Kraakman, Matijs Jansen)

The Last Black Man In San Francisco

Jimmie Fails dreams of reclaiming the Victorian home his grandfather built in the heart of San Francisco. Joined on his quest by his best friend Mont, Jimmie searches for belonging in a rapidly changing city that seems to have left them behind.

(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Joe Talbot; Writer: Jimmie Fails, Joe Talbot; Stars: Thora Birch, Finn Wittrock, Danny Glover, Tichina Arnold, Mike Epps, Tonya Glanz, Rob Morgan, Jonathan Majors, John Ozuna, Cassie Hendry, Leah Shesky, Michael J Gwynn, Javier Chavarin, Mari Kearney, Jimmie Fails)

Relativity (Mein Ende. Dein Anfang.)

Thriller about a romance plays with the idea of chance.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2019; Director: Mariko Minoguchi; Writer: Mariko Minoguchi; Stars: Saskia Rosendahl, Jeanette Hain, Edin Hasanovic, Julius Feldmeier, Nathalie J. Cerny, David Baalcke, Leonard Hohm, Lilly Forgach, Andrea Sihler, Sebastian Griegel, Thomas Kress, Claudia Helene Hinterecker, Emanuela von Frankenberg, Isabell Stern, Stefan Pfau)