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London Film Festival · 2021

London Film Festival 2021

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Programme

16 films · 9 reviews

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Bantú Mama

A French-Cameroonian woman running from a drug deal gone wrong in the Dominican Republic finds shelter with three young siblings.

(Country: Dominican Republic; Year: 2021; Director: Ivan Herrera; Writer: Clarisse Albrecht, Ivan Herrera; Stars: Clarisse Albrecht, Euris Javiel, Arturo Perez, Scarlet Reyes, Donis Taveras)

Cannon Arm And The Arcade Quest

Portrait of friendship between unconventional heroes within the world of arcade gaming.

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2021; Director: Mads Hedegaard; Writer: Mads Hedegaard; Stars: Kim Cannon Arm, Walter Day, Shigeru Miyamoto)

Compartment No 6 (Hytti Nro 6)

Review preview for Compartment No 6

The everyday feel is acute – you can virtually smell the pickle jar vinegar and raw spirit and imagine a slight stickiness on the seats as Jani-Petteri Passi’s camera captures the scene with a looseness that rocks along with the rhythm of the train.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A young Finnish woman escapes an enigmatic love affair in Moscow by boarding a train to the arctic port of Murmansk, but is forced to share the long ride and a tiny sleeping car with a Russian miner.

(Country: Finland, Estonia, Germany, Russia; Year: 2021; Director: Juho Kuosmanen; Writer: Andris Feldmanis, Juho Kuosmanen and Livia Ulman, based on the book by Rosa Liksom; Stars: Yura Borisov, Dinara Drukarova, Seidi Haarla, Vladimir Lysenko, Dmitriy Belenikhin)

Full review

The Gravedigger's Wife (La Femme du fossoyeur)

Review preview for The Gravedigger's Wife

There's a straightforwardness to the telling of this tale that adds to its accessibility.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A gravedigger finds himself up against it as he tries to get the cash together to help his gravely ill wife get medical treatment.

(Country: Finland, Germany, France; Year: 2021; Director: Khadar Ahmed; Writer: Khadar Ahmed; Stars: Omar Abdi, Yasmin Warsame, Kadar Abdoul-Aziz Ibrahim, Samaleh Ali Obsieh, Hamdi Ahmed Omar, Awa Ali Nour, Amina Ayanleh)

Full review

Language Lessons

A Spanish teacher and her student develop an unexpected friendship.

(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Natalie Morales; Writer: Mark Duplass, Natalie Morales; Stars: Natalie Morales, Mark Duplass, Desean Terry, Christine Quesada)

Our Men

They come from all over the world but they have one thing in common: The Foreign Legion, their new family. This film tells their stories.

(Country: Belgium, France; Year: 2021; Director: Rachel Lang; Writer: Rachel Lang; Stars: Louis Garrel, Camille Cottin, Ina Marija Bartaité, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Naidra Ayadi, Léo Lévy, Jean Michelangeli, Vladimir Ignat, Simona Trocan, Mowei-Jeannine Leroux, Alice Coulibaly-Chateaux, Wilfried Ranaivo, Lukas De Wolf, Edwin Gaffney, Paul De Bronde)

The Outlaws

An older drifter and younger man forge a partnership.

(Country: Norway; Year: 2021; Director: Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken; Writer: Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken; Stars: Filip Berg, Lia Boysen, Samuel Fröler, Benjamin Helstad, Ingar Helge Gimle, Cecilie A. Mosli, Ingvild Holthe Bygdnes, Mattis Herman Nyquist, Kai Kolstad Rødseth, Oskar Sandven Lundevold, Åsmund Høeg, Hadrian Libell, Stein Winge, Geir Kaspersen)

Petite Maman

Review preview for Petite Maman

The autumn setting fits it perfectly, because although this is the change of the year as things die back for winter, it is also blazing with colour and hopefulness.

Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
Something magical happens to a young girl after the death of her grandma.

(Country: France; Year: 2021; Director: Céline Sciamma; Writer: Céline Sciamma; Stars: Gabrielle Sanz, Joséphine Sanz, Nina Meurisse, Stéphane Varupenne, Margot Abascal,)

Full review

A Tale Of Love And Desire (Une histoire d'amour et de désir)

Review preview for A Tale Of Love And Desire

A film that celebrates the joy and fears associated with youthful lust, while exploring ideas of internal cultural conflict, without making it feel tacky or like a diatribe.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Ahmed’s world is thrown off-balance when he encounters Farah, newly-arrived from Tunis, who challenges everything he thought he knew.

(Country: France, Tunisia; Year: 2021; Director: Leyla Bouzid; Writer: Leyla Bouzid; Stars: Sami Outalbali, Zbeida Belhajamor, Diong-Kéba Tacu, Aurélia Petit, Mahia Zrouki, Bellamine Abdelmalek, Mathilde Lamusse, Samir El Hakim, Khemissa Zarouel, Sofia Lesaffre, Baptiste Carrion-Weiss, Charles Poitevin, Omar Khasb, Zaineb Bouzid, Céline Rotard)

Full review

The Tender Bar

Review preview for The Tender Bar

As Jackson Browne’s My Opening Farewell delivers a lyric about standing before a window, we get a shot of the boy standing before a window. Did Clooney make this in his sleep?

Jennie Kermode · 2 out of 5
A young man gets taken under the wing of his bar-owning uncle.

(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: George Clooney; Writer: J.R. Moehringer, William Monahan; Stars: Ben Affleck, Christopher Lloyd, Lily Rabe, Tye Sheridan, Max Casella, Max Martini, Sondra James, Rhenzy Feliz, Kimberly Howe, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Caroline Bergwall, Shannon Collis, Michael Braun, Briana Middleton, Daniel Washington)

Full review

Two Friends (Dostojee)

Two eight-year-old boys navigate a growing religious divide.

(Country: India; Year: 2021; Director: Prasun Chatterjee; Writer: Prasun Chatterjee; Stars: Jayati Chakraborty, Asik Shaikh, Swatilekha Kundu, Arif Shaikh, Anujoy Chattopadhyay)

What Do We See When We Look At The Sky? (Ras vkhedavt, rodesac cas vukurebt?)

Review preview for What Do We See When We Look At The Sky?

Digression builds upon detour, which piles charmingly onto excursion, sometimes lifted, sometimes pushed and always shaped by a score that also roams freely in its influences.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A couple who fall in love at first sight, wake the next day with different appearances and struggle to find one another.

(Country: Germany, Georgia; Year: 2021; Director: Alexandre Koberidze; Stars: Irina Chelidze, Giorgi Bochorishvili, Ani Karseladze, Giorgi Ambroladze)

Full review See: Alexandre Koberidze in conversation on What Do We See When We Look At The Sky? and folktales

Wheel Of Fortune And Fantasy (Guzen to sozo)

Review preview for Wheel Of Fortune And Fantasy

The Japanese filmmaker guides his actors as if they were just learning emotions, creating an impression of awkwardness.

Mateusz Tarwacki · 4 out of 5
An unexpected love triangle, a failed honey trap and an encounter that results from a misunderstanding are the three episodes, told in three movements to depict three female characters and trace the trajectories between their choices and regrets.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2021; Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi; Writer: Ryusuke Hamaguchi; Stars: Kotone Furukawa, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Fusako Urabe)

Full review

When A Farm Goes Aflame

Documentary about his family's history between Nigeria and Denmark.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2021; Director: Jide Tom Akinleminu; Writer: Jide Tom Akinleminu)

The Worst Person In The World (Verdens Verste Menneske)

Review preview for The Worst Person In The World

There is a lingering, half blossomed melancholy that lies underneath the often very funny, fast-paced moments of quotidian chaos.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
Four years in the life of Julie, a young woman who navigates the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path, leading her to take a realistic look at who she really is.

(Country: Norway, France, Sweden; Year: 2021; Director: Joachim Trier; Writer: Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt; Stars: Anders Danielsen Lie, Renate Reinsve, Herbert Nordrum)

Full review