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New Directors/New Films · 2015

New Directors/New Films 2015

Full schedule

In addition to the film below, there will be two shorts programmes.

Programme

26 films · 10 reviews

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Christmas, Again

Review preview for Christmas, Again

Poekel keeps things natural, letting Noel's sadness slowly permeate the atmosphere along with the scent of pine needles rather than ringing it out at high volume.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A heartbroken Christmas tree salesman returns to New York, hoping to put the past year behind him.

(Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Charles Poekel; Writer: Charles Poekel; Stars: Kentucker Audley, Hannah Gross, Caitlin Mehner, Andrea Suarez Paz, Oona Roche, Jason Shelton)

Full review

Court

A folk singer is charged on dubious grounds after a man's body is found inside a manhole.

(Country: India; Year: 2014; Director: Chaitanya Tamhane; Writer: Chaitanya Tamhane; Stars: Vivek Gomber, Geetanjali Kulkarni, Pradeep Joshi, Shirish Pawar, Usha Bane, Vira Sathidar)

The Creation Of Meaning (La creazione di significato)

Review preview for The Creation Of Meaning

Sense of memory, sense of history, sense of time, envelop us like a high altitude fog.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
An ageing shepherd's livelihood is threatened by the rise of corruption.

(Country: Canada, Italy; Year: 2014; Director: Simone Rapisarda Casanova; Writer: Simone Rapisarda Casanova; Stars: Alexander Auf Der Heyde, Benjamin Auf Der Heyde, Siria Battelli, Pacifico Pieruccioni, Bartolomeo Puccetti)

Full review

The Diary Of A Teenage Girl

Minnie Goetze is a 15-year-old aspiring comic-book artist, coming of age in the haze of the 1970s in San Francisco. Insatiably curious about the world around her, Minnie is a pretty typical teenage girl. Oh, except that she's sleeping with her mother's boyfriend.

(Country: US; Year: 2015; Director: Marielle Heller; Writer: Phoebe Gloekner, Marielle Heller; Stars: Bel Powley, Alexander Skarsgård, Kristen Wiig, Christopher Meloni, Margarita Levieva, Quinn Nagle, Madeleine Waters, Austin Lyon, Miranda Bailey, Giovanni Miller, Samantha Hyde, David Fine, Natalie Stephany Aguilar, Drew Benda, Davy Clements)

Dog Lady (La Mujer De Los Perros)

Review preview for Dog Lady

Centering on a beautifully observed performance by co-director Verónica Llinás, this is a film that treats its outsider heroine with dignity and reminds the viewer what it really takes to survive in this way.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
The story of a nameless woman living in the wilds with a pack of dogs.

(Country: Argentina; Year: 2015; Director: Laura Citarella, Verónica Llinás; Writer: Laura Citarella, Verónica Llinás; Stars: Verónica Llinás)

Full review

Entertainment

Review preview for Entertainment

It is by turns sad and disturbing - with occasional bouts of highly dubious dark humour.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
En route to meeting with his estranged daughter, a broken, ageing comedian plays a string of dead-end shows in the Mojave Desert.

(Country: US; Year: 2015; Director: Rick Alverson; Writer: Rick Alverson, Rick Alverson, Tim Heidecker, Gregg Turkington, Gregg Turkington; Stars: Michael Cera, John C. Reilly, Tye Sheridan, Lotte Verbeek, Dean Stockwell, Amy Seimetz, Tim Heidecker, Mariann Gavelo, Kalia Prescott, Tonantzin Carmelo, Waymond Lee, Gregg Turkington, David Yow, Ashley Atwood, Dustin Guy Defa)

Full review

The Fool (Durak)

Review preview for The Fool

Seizes the attention from the brutal opening – and refuses to let go for an instant.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
A smalltown plumber takes on corrupt bureaucracy.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2014; Director: Yuriy Bykov; Writer: Yuriy Bykov; Stars: Natalya Surkova, Kirill Polukhin, Boris Nevzorov, Darya Moroz, Artem Bystrov)

Full review

Fort Buchanan

Tragicomedy about a man who finds himself trying to cope at an isolated military post with his adopted daughter after his husband is posted to Djibouti.

(Country: France, Tunisia; Year: 2014; Director: Benjamin Crotty; Writer: Benjamin Crotty, Benjamin Crotty; Stars: Andy Gillet, Iliana Zabeth, David Baiot, Mati Diop, Luc Chessel, Nancy Lane Kaplan, Pauline Jacquard, Guillaume Palin, Judith Lou Lévy)

Goodnight Mommy (Ich Seh, Ich Seh)

Review preview for Goodnight Mommy

Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’s film is one entirely about small details.

Luke Shaw · 3.5 out of 5
Twin boys suspect that their mum, who has just undergone reconstructive facial surgery, is an imposter and set out to discover the truth.

(Country: Austria; Year: 2014; Director: Severin Fiala, Veronika Franz; Writer: Severin Fiala, Veronika Franz; Stars: Susanne Wuest, Elias Schwarz, Lukas Schwarz)

Full review See: Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala in conversation on Goodnight Mommy

The Great Man

An act of heroism in a war zone leads to a foreign refugee facing a stark choice.

(Country: France; Year: 2014; Director: Sarah Petit; Writer: Emmanuelle Jacob, Sarah Petit; Stars: Jérémie Renier, Surho Sugaipov, Ramzan Idiev, Daniel Fassi, Jean-Yves Ruf, Sabine Massé, Miglen Mirtchev, Paul Massé, Laura Arsangereeva, Issita Arslanov, Michaël Klein, Daphné Dumons, Manon Gineste, Sava Lolov, Guillaume Verdier)

Haemoo (Haemu)

Review preview for Haemoo

The characters feel shallow in comparison to the impressive action sequences.

Amber Wilkinson · 2.5 out of 5
The attempt of a fishing ship’s crew to smuggle illegal migrants ends in catastrophe.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2014; Director: Shim Sung-bo; Writer: Bong Joon-ho, Shim Sung-bo; Stars: Kim Yun-seok, Park Yoo-chun, Han Ye-ri, Mun Seong-kun, Kim Sang-ho, Lee Hee-jun, Yoo Seung-mok, Jung In-gi, Jo Kyung-Sook)

Full review

K

A land surveyor finds himself trapped in administrative chaos in a remote frontier village in a modern-day adaptation of Kafka's The Castle.

(Country: China; Year: 2015; Director: Erdenibulag Darhad, Emyr ap Richard; Writer: Emyr ap Richard, based on The Castle by Franz Kafka; Stars: Bayin, Jula, Yirgui, Zandaraa, Altanochir, Urinshaa, Borgil, Baatar Sregüleng, Oyunsang, Jüdengowa, Jinba, Ayur, Erdenibulag Darhad, As, Habura)

The Kindergarten Teacher (Haganenet)

A teacher is determined to protect and support a young child with a gift for poetry.

(Country: Israel, France; Year: 2014; Director: Nadav Lapid)

Line Of Credit (Kreditis limiti)

A fortysomething woman in modern Georgia struggle to cope with mounting debt.

(Country: Japan, France, Georgia; Year: 2014; Director: Salome Alexi; Writer: Salome Aleksi; Stars: Nino Kasradze)

Los Hongos

Two graffiti artists from radically different backgrounds are inspired by the Arab Spring.

(Country: France, Germany, Argentina, Colombia; Year: 2014; Director: Oscar Ruiz Navia; Writer: César Augusto Acevedo, Oscar Ruiz Navia, Marietta von Hausswolff von Baumgarten; Stars: Jovan Alexis Marquinez, Calvin Buenaventura, Atala Estrada, Gustavo Ruiz Montoya, María Elvira Solis, Dominique Tonnelier, Ángela García)

Mercuriales

Character study of two Parisian receptionists.

(Country: France; Year: 2014; Director: Virgil Vernier; Writer: Mariette Désert, Virgil Vernier; Stars: Ana Neborac, Philippine Stindel, Jad Solesme, Annabelle Lengronne, Sadio Nakaté, Damien Bonnard, Sarah Loko, Franck Babot, Isaïe Théodore Korenfeld, Benjamin Klintoe, Pierre Joab, Fathi Ibrahim Elnour, Moussa Ibrahim, Maryne Cayon, Nicolas Sagot)

Ow (Maru)

After people are left catatonic by a mysterious orb, a journalist sets out to investigate.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2014; Director: Yohei Suzuki; Writer: Yukiko Koyama, Yohei Suzuki; Stars: Kaoru Iida, Masatoshi Kihara, Shu Ikeda, Sari Kaneko, Hitomi Karube, Murakami Rock, Shoji Omiya, Shigeko Tanaka)

Parabellum

Apocalypse tourists take a vacation to prepare for the end of the world.

(Country: Argentina, Austria, Uruguay; Year: 2015; Director: Lukas Valenta Rinner; Writer: Ana Godoy, Esteban Prado, Lukas Valenta Rinner; Stars: Eva Bianco, Pablo Seijo, Martín Shanly)

Theeb

Review preview for Theeb

This is a well structured and affecting piece of film-making.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
A Bedouin boy experiences a desert adventure when he joins a British officer searching for a well on the eve of the 1916 Arab Revolt.

(Country: United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, UK; Year: 2014; Director: Naji Abu Nowar; Writer: Naji Abu Nowar, Bassel Ghandour; Stars: Jacir Eid Al-Hwietat, Hussein Salameh Al-Sweilhiyeen, Hassan Mutlag Al-Maraiyeh, Jack Fox)

Full review

Tired Moonlight

Drama focusing on a middle-aged woman in Montana.

(Country: US; Year: 2015; Director: Britni West; Writer: Britni West; Stars: Alex Karpovsky, Paul Dickinson, Beck DeRobertis, Hillary Berg, Liz Randall, Rainleigh Vick, Charles Smith)

The Tribe (Plemya)

Review preview for The Tribe

Slaboshpytskiy goes to show, first through Anna and then the actions of Sergey that some transactions can hold a lot more - and worse - than we have bargained for.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A deaf teenager runs into gang trouble at a boarding school.

(Country: Ukraine, Netherlands; Year: 2014; Director: Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy; Writer: Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy; Stars: Grigoriy Fesenko, Yana Novikova, Rosa Babiy, Alexander Dsiadevich, Yaroslav Biletskiy)

Full review

Tu Dors Nicole

A young woman is enjoying the summer in her parents' house whilst they are away, but when her brother arrives with his band, events take a different turn.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2014; Director: Stéphane Lafleur; Writer: Valérie Beaugrand-Champagne, Stéphane Lafleur; Stars: Marc-André Grondin, Julianne Côté, Fanny Mallette)

Violet

In a shopping mall, Jesse’s best friend is stabbed to death right before his eyes.

(Country: Belgium; Year: 2013; Director: Bas Devos; Writer: Bas Devos)

Western

For generations, all that distinguished Eagle Pass, Texas, from Piedras Negras, Mexico, was the Rio Grande. But when darkness descends upon these harmonious border towns, a cowboy and lawman face a new reality that threatens their way of life. Western portrays timeless American figures in the grip of unforgiving change.

(Country: US, Mexico; Year: 2014; Director: Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross)

White God (Fehér isten)

A girl goes in search of her pet dog.

(Country: Hungary, Germany, Sweden; Year: 2014; Director: Kornél Mundruczó; Writer: Kornél Mundruczó, Viktória Petrányi, Kata Wéber; Stars: Zsófia Psotta, Sándor Zsótér, Lili Horváth, Szabolcs Thuróczy, Lili Monori, Gergely Bánki, Tamás Polgár, Orsolya Tóth, Kornél Mundruczó, Natasa Stork, János Derzsi, Péter Gothár, Ervin Nagy, Alexandra Gallusz, László Gálffi)