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Northern Lights Film Festival · 2008

Northern Lights Film Festival 2008

Features

A selection of feature-length films from around the world, showcasing up and coming talent.

Programme

22 films · 10 reviews

Jump to a film

Año Uña (Year Of The Nail)

Review preview for Año Uña

Feels like one long trawl through the photo album of somebody else's holiday.

Ben Sillis · 2 out of 5
Personal photograph album becomes the basis for an unconventionally told romance.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2007; Director: Jonás Cuarón; Writer: Jonás Cuarón; Stars: Eireann Harper, Diego Cataño, Michele Alban, Cristina Orozco, Mariana Elizondo, Pia Elizondo, Emilia Garcia)

Full review

Better Things

Review preview for Better Things

Hopkins marks himself out as a man of unique vision who isn't afraid to try something different to encourage an audience to think.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Award-winning short filmmaker makes his feature debut with a story of fractured relationships.

(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Duane Hopkins; Writer: Duane Hopkins; Stars: Liam McIlfatrick, Che Corr, Tara Ballard, Megan Palmer, Kurt Taylor, Rachel McIntyre, Patricia Loveland)

Full review See: Interview with Duane Hopkins about Better Things

Blood Car

Review preview for Blood Car

For the first hour, I was spellbound by its audacity, the thumbing at convention, and never knowing where it was going next.

Chris · 3 out of 5
Troma-esque weirdness as a vegan invents a vehicle more reminiscent of Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors. Minus the crap Broadway songs, of course.

(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: Alex Orr; Writer: Hugh Braselton, Alex Orr, Adam Pinney; Stars: Mike Brune, Anna Chlumsky, Katie Rowlett, Matt Hutchinson, Marla Malcolm, Mr. Malt, Matthew Stanton, Bill Szymanski, Hawmi Guillebeaux, Vince Canlas, Roudie Augustin) , Official site

Full review See: Diary article about the Edinburgh International Film Festival

Captain Abu Raed

Review preview for Captain Abu Raed

Sawalha excels as the mouse who at least contemplates a roar as he tries to make a difference in the lives of his young audience.

Tony Sullivan · 4 out of 5
Uplifting tale about an airport janitor who spins stories for street kids after being mistaken by them for a pilot.

(Country: Jordan; Year: 2007; Director: Amin Matalq; Writer: Amin Matalq; Stars: Nadim Sawalha, Hussein Al-Sous, Rana Sultan, Uday Al-Qiddissi, Ghandi Saber)

Full review See: Sundance Film Festival 2008: Day Eight

Cochochi

Mexican brothers go on errand to deliver medicine but find the journey is more difficult than they anticipated.

(Country: Mexico, UK, Canada; Year: 2007; Director: Israel Cárdenas, Laura Amelia Guzmán; Writer: Israel Cárdenas, Laura Amelia Guzmán; Stars: Antonio Lerma Batista, Evaristo Lerma Batista)

Comeback

Roland, a theatre director, returns home to Copenhagen after many years of living in The film illustrates the attempt to bridge the communication gap between generations, through Roland’s efforts, as he seeks to reconcile with his somewhat indifferent grown-up son, Jacob.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2007; Director: Max Plettau; Writer: Max Plettau; Stars: Jürgen Hartenstein)

Cook County

A hard-hitting fictional look at crystal meth addiction.

(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: David Pomes; Writer: David Pomes; Stars: Anson Mount, Xander Berkeley, Ryan Donowho, Polly Cole, Rutherford Cravens, Makenna Fitzsimmons, Brandon Smith, John McClain, Yankie Grant, J.D. Hawkins)

Deficit (Déficit)

Review preview for Deficit

Bernal proves to be a vibrant director, his swooping steadicam and queasy close-ups placing the viewer right in the middle of the party.

Anton Bitel · 3.5 out of 5
After a spoiled, rich kid hosts a party, unexpected guests bring tensions to boiling point.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2007; Director: Gael García Bernal; Writer: Kyzza Terrazas; Stars: Gael García Bernal, Tenoch Huerta, Luz Cipriota, Camila Sodi, Ana Serrdilla, Jorge Luis Moreno, Pamela Reiter) , Official site

Full review

Go With Peace Jamil (Gå med fred Jamil - Ma salama Jamil)

Action drama sees a Dane with an Arab background caught up in an ancient feud of religious hatred.

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2008; Director: Omar Shargawi; Writer: Mogens Rukov, Omar Shargawi; Stars: Elias Samir Al-Sobehi, Khalid Alssubeihi, Salah El Koussa, Diab El Masri, Hassan El Sayed, Fouad Ghazali, Nehmedo Ibrahim, Amira Helene Larsen, Dar Salim, Munir Shargawi)

Helen

Review preview for Helen

The film resembles a portrait in stillness, as the fate of the alleged victim is replaced in the mind of the audience by the reality of this other girl’s life.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 4 out of 5
A missing girl's police reconstruction prompts her proxy to fill in the psychological gaps in herself.

(Country: UK/Ireland; Year: 2008; Director: Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor; Writer: Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor; Stars: Annie Townsend, Sandie Malia, Dennis Jobling, Sonia Saville, Danny Groenland)

Full review

Mum And Dad (Mum & Dad)

Review preview for Mum And Dad

A savage deconstruction of Thatcherite beliefs in family.

Scott Macdonald · 3 out of 5
Brit horror, sees an airport worker face the perils of a close-knit family. In cinemas and on DVD this Boxing Day. Plus read our with Perry Benson.

(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Steven Sheil; Writer: Steven Sheil; Stars: Perry Benson, Dido Miles, Olga Fedori, Ainsley Howard, Toby Alexander, Toby Cooper) , Official site , Trailer

Full review See: Perry Benson interview about Mum & Dad and Somers Town

Patti Smith: Dream Of Life

Review preview for Patti Smith: Dream Of Life

Some sections of the film feel like a soapbox for her to stand on, to proselytize her personal politics; to bolster her image as a radical poet.

George Williamson · 3 out of 5
Intimate portrait of the icon.

(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Steven Sebring; Writer: Steven Sebring; Stars: Patti Smith) , Official site

Full review

Recycle (E'adat Khalq)

A Jordanian family man living in the hometown of Muslim leader Al-Zarqawi struggles to support his family and define his identity in a tense political climate.

(Country: Jordan, Netherlands; Year: 2008; Director: Mahmoud Al Massad; Writer: Al Massad) , Official site

Sita Sings The Blues

Using a variety of colorful animation techniques, writer-director Nina Paley wittily interweaves the story of Sita, the leading lady of the ancient Sanskrit epic Ramayana, with the story of a modern American woman struggling to keep her marriage afloat.

(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Nina Paley; Writer: Nina Paley; Stars: Annette Hanshaw, Reena Shah, Sanjiv Jhaveri, Aseem Chhabra, Bhavana Nagulapally, Manish Acharya) , Official site

sleep furiously

Review preview for sleep furiously

The farmers are not in good condition. They look tired and their equipment looks exhausted.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 2 out of 5
Rural Wales faces change from all sides as the population ages.

(Country: UK; Year: 2007; Director: Gideon Koppel)

Full review

Slingshot Hip Hop

The voice of a new generation rocks and rhymes as Palestinian rappers form alternative voices of resistance within the Israeli-Palestinian struggle.

(Director: Jackie Reem Salloum)

See: Sundance Film Festival 2008: Day One Diary

Tsietsi My Hero (Senzeni-Na)

A celebration of and tribute to Tsietsi Mashinini, the leader of the Soweto student uprising, who became the apartheid regime's most wanted man in 1976 and was forced into exile, later dying in mysterious circumstances.

(Country: South Africa; Year: 2006; Director: Portia Rankoane)

The Unforeseen

When a west Texas farm boy develops pristine hill country into large-scale subdivisions, threatening a fragile limestone aquifer, an environmental movement rises up and fights back. This documentary takes a hard look at the American dream and asks, "what does it mean to grow?"

(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: Laura Dunn; Stars: Gary Bradley, Judah Folkman, William Greider, Willie Nelson, Robert Redford, Ann Richards, , , , ,)

Welcome To Hebron

Filmed during more than three years on location in Hebron, West Bank this documentary shows how the occupation affects everyday life in Palestine.

(Country: Sweden; Year: 2008; Director: Terje Carlssson)

Were The World Mine

The organisers say: "If High School Musical indulged in flights of homoerotic fancy, it might look something like Tom Gustafson’s dazzling debut feature."

(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Tom Gustafson; Writer: Tom Gustafson, Cory James Krueckeberg; Stars: Tanner Cohen, Wendy Robie, Judy McLane, Nathaniel David Becker, Zelda Williams, Christian Stolte, Ricky Goldman, Jill Larson, David Darlow, Brad Bukauskas)

Where Are Their Stories?

A young man tries to save his grandma's land from her greedy children, who arrive, like vultures, upon news of her illness.

(Country: Mexico, Canada; Director: Nicolas Pereda)

The Wrecking Crew

Review preview for The Wrecking Crew

This is clearly a labour of love.

Andrew Robertson · 3 out of 5
Examination of the influential group of LA-based session musicians who worked alongside many of the greats, including Elvis Presley and The Byrds.

(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Denny Tedesco) , Official site

Full review