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London Film Festival · 2019

London Film Festival 2019

Thrill

Programme

13 films · 6 reviews

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Bacurau (Nighthawk)

Review preview for Bacurau

Creates a unique and eerily grounded suspense that transcends genre.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
Villagers sold as human prey defend themselves from hunters using a psychotropic drug.

(Country: Brazil; Year: 2019; Director: Juliano Dornelles, Kleber Mendonça Filho; Writer: Juliano Dornelles, Kleber Mendonça Filho; Stars: Udo Kier, Sônia Braga, Jonny Mars, Chris Doubek, Bárbara Colen, Alli Willow, Thomas Aquino, Silvero Pereira, Márcio Fecher, Val Junior, Karine Teles, Suzy Lopes, Brian Townes, Antonio Saboia)

Full review See: Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles in conversation on Udo Kier, Alli Willow and the horses as a “marker that this is a Western” for Bacurau , Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles in conversation on futuristic settings of Mad Max and Blade Runner and a Chinatown connection to the politics of water in Bacurau , Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles in conversation on Bacurau , Sônia Braga in conversation on Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles' Bacurau and The Paris Theatre

Thrill gala

The Cave (Thailand)

Dramatisation of the rescue of a young football team from a flooded cave.

(Country: Thailand, Ireland; Year: 2019; Director: Tom Waller; Writer: Tom Waller; Stars: Jim Warny, Ekawat Niratworapanya, James Edward Holley)

Earthquake Bird

A murder suspect finds herself at centre of a love triangle.

(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Wash Westmoreland; Writer: Susanna Jones, Wash Westmoreland; Stars: Alicia Vikander, Riley Keough, Kiki Sukezane, Jack Huston, Ken Yamamura, Crystal Kay, Akiko Iwase, Yurino, Naoki Kobayashi, Yoshiko Sakuma, Kazuhiro Muroyama, Niclas Ericsson, Burger Hasegawa, Yaeko Kimura)

Guest Of Honour

Psychological drama about a father and his relationship with his daughter who is in jail, accused of having a sexual relationship with a student.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2019; Director: Atom Egoyan; Writer: Atom Egoyan; Stars: David Thewlis, Luke Wilson, Sima Fisher, Rossif Sutherland, Tennille Read, Gage Munroe, Alexandre Bourgeois, Laysla De Oliveira, Sugith Varughese, Tamara Podemski, John Bourgeois, Isabelle Franca, Juan Carlos Velis, Sochi Fried, Joyce Rivera)

Incitement

Thriller following the year leading to the assassination of Israeli premier Yitzhak Rabin, from the point of view of his assassin.

(Country: Israel; Year: 2019; Director: Yaron Zilberman; Writer: Ron Leshem, Yaron Zilberman; Stars: Yehuda Nahari Halevi, Amitai Yaish, Anat Ravnitzki, Yoav Levi, Daniella Kertesz, Sivan Mast, Dolev Ohana, Raanan Paz, Yehuda Nahari Halevi, Amitai Yaish, Anat Ravnitzki, Yoav Levi, Daniella Kertesz, Sivan Mast, Dolev Ohana)

Jallikattu

A village of people increasingly addicted to meet join a hunt for an escaped buffalo.

(Country: India; Year: 2019; Director: Lijo Jose Pellissery; Stars: Antony Varghese, Antony Varghese)

Muscle

Review preview for Muscle

This is another downward spiralling character piece with the same bruising toughness of its predecessor, but handled with a tauter, darkly playful control.

Sunil Chauhan · 4 out of 5
A directionless call centre salesman gets more than he bargained for when he joins a local gym

(Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Gerard Johnson; Writer: Gerard Johnson; Stars: Craig Fairbrass, Polly Maberly, Sinead Matthews, Lorraine Burroughs, Peter Ferdinando, Cavan Clerkin, Mark Stobbart, Niall Greig Fulton, Gordon Brown, Ali Cook, Alfie Dobson, Mark Mooney, Damian Edward Shanahan, Amanda Dryden Walker, Paul Fitzpatrick)

Full review

Only The Animals (Seules Les Betes)

Review preview for Only The Animals

An enjoyably constructed puzzle box of a genre film.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Thriller centring on the disappearance of a woman.

(Country: France, Germany; Year: 2019; Director: Dominik Moll; Writer: Gilles Marchand, Dominik Moll, Colin Niel; Stars: Damien Bonnard, Bastien Bouillon, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Laure Calamy, Denis Ménochet, Nadia Tereszkiewicz)

Full review

Piranhas (La Paranza Dei Bambini)

Review preview for Piranhas

The thing that makes Piranhas watchable is the performance of its star, Francesco Di Napoli.

Donald Munro · 2 out of 5
Criminal children seize power in a world without a future.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2019; Director: Claudio Giovannesi; Writer: Roberto Saviano, Claudio Giovannesi, Roberto Saviano, Maurizio Braucci; Stars: Francesco Di Napoli, Viviana Aprea, Ar Tem, Pasquale Marotta, Francesco Di Napoli, Viviana Aprea, Ar Tem, Pasquale Marotta)

Full review

Savage

Review preview for Savage

Although as a genre cinema, Kelly's film fits into the current wave of new gangster cinema, one cannot help but feel that the creator wanted to put a little too much into his work.

Mateusz Tarwacki · 2 out of 5
Hard-hitting drama tracks the three decades that shaped the feared leader of a biker gang.

(Country: New Zealand; Year: 2019; Director: Sam Kelly; Writer: Sam Kelly; Stars: Jake Ryan, John Tui, Chelsie Preston Crayford, Olly Presling, Erroll Shand, Dominic Ona-Ariki, Seth Flynn, Cameron Brown, Jack Parker, Creedence Phillips, Jake Ryan, John Tui, Chelsie Preston Crayford, Olly Presling, Erroll Shand)

Full review

The Traitor (Il Traditore)

The real life of Tommaso Buscetta the so called 'boss of the two worlds' and the first mafia informant in Sicily in the Eighties.

(Country: Italy, France, Brazil, Germany; Year: 2019; Director: Marco Bellocchio; Writer: Marco Bellocchio, Valia Santella; Stars: Pierfrancesco Favino, Luigi Lo Cascio, Maria Fernanda Cândido)

The Warden

When a prisoner goes missing during a whole prison transfer, the warden begins a frantic manhunt.

(Country: Iran; Year: 2019; Director: Nima Javidi; Writer: Nima Javidi; Stars: Navid Mohammadzadeh, Parinaz Izadyar, Setareh Pesyani, Mani Haghighi, Habib Rezaei, Atila Pesiani, Yadollah Shademani, Ali Mardaneh, Ismaeel Pourreza, Amir Keyvan Masoumi)

The Whistlers (La Gomera, The Passenger)

Review preview for The Whistlers

The whistling language is fun - and, if anything, disappointingly underused - but it's the language of cinema that Porumboiu is really interested in.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Film noir sees a corrupt cop learn a whistling language to beat detection while trying to double-cross the mob.

(Country: Romania, France, Germany; Year: 2019; Director: Corneliu Porumboiu; Writer: Corneliu Porumboiu; Stars: Vlad Ivanov, Catrinel Marlon, Rodica Lazar)

Full review