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| Norway's first film noir Death Is A Caress will screen as part of the Edith Carlmar retrospective |
The festival, which will run in hybrid format, will screen a programme of African Stories - a collection of contemporary films celebrating the rich diversity of life in countries across the continent. The films range from Casablanca Beats, a joyous salute to the power of music to transform lives in Morocco and Khadar Ayderus Ahmed’s multi award-winning Djibouti-set The Gravedigger’s Wife, to documentaries including Once Upon A Time in Uganda, about one man’s mission to create an action movie industry in the country. GFF is working with Scotland’s Africa in Motion film festival on events around some key titles. This programme of films will combine to provide a taste of a vital and booming filmmaking continent.
GFF will also host a retrospective dedicated to Norway’s first female film director Edith Carlmar. Films will include Death Is A Caress (1949), the first Norwegian film noir, madcap comedy caper Fools In The Mountains (1957), portrait of addiction Young Woman Missing (1953) and her candid final feature The Wayward Girl (1959) which marked the screen debut of Liv Ullmann - all screened on 35mm.
For the first time, the festival's gala premieres will screen simultaneously at the Glasgow Film Theatre and at cinemas across the UK, including London, Manchester, Sheffield, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Stornoway.
Alongside its big screen outings, the festival will build on the huge success of its 2021 digital edition, which took place during lockdown, and a selection of films will be accessible online to audiences across the UK with a specially curated programme available to watch on GFF’s digital platform, Glasgow Film At Home.
Allan Hunter, GFF co-director said: "Over the past year, we have seen so many outstanding films from countries all across Africa that we have been spoilt for choice in collating African Stories. This is a showcase for the films that have impressed us most, ranging across dramas and documentaries and including Khadar Ayderus Ahmed’s award-winning The Gravedigger’s Wife, which is Somali’s Oscar candidate. I think this will be a real voyage of discovery for audiences filled with exciting discoveries."
Allison Gardner, co-director GFF added: "As audiences know, we love to screen and champion films by women, from our Ida Lupino screenings in 2018, Elaine May in 2019 and our selection of great films by women around Mark Cousins’ documentary Women Make Film in 2020. For GFF22 we are screening four films by Norway’s first female director Edith Carlmar. Born into a poor family in the working-class districts of East Oslo she became an actress and turned her hand to directing in 1949. We are honoured to be screening four of her features, including Death is a Caress which is considered to be Norway's first film noir. This is a wonderful opportunity for audiences to discover her remarkable talent."
The full programme for GFF will be announced on 26 January.
