Running from 1st to 12th March here's our pick of the films showing at Glasgow Film Festival 2023
Thursday 2nd March
Composer turned director Pierre Foldes has created an elegant animated adaptation of short stories by the great Haruki Murakami. Set in Tokyo in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tidal wave, it faithfully recreates the entrancing world of Murakami
as a faltering marriage falls apart, a cat goes missing and a
mild-mannered bank teller is visited by a large, ebullient frog seeking
to prevent a catastrophe that is about to strike Japan.
Also showing on the 11th March
Based on true events, Audrey (Jena Malone) is drifting through life. She loses her
job and her boyfriend and is struggling to pay the rent. YouTube videos
of adult adoption inspire her to seek an older couple who might be
prepared to adopt her. When she meets eccentric, uptight engineer Otto
(an unforgettable Robert Hunger-Bühler) and his wife Sonny (Emily Kuroda) it is hardly a match made in heaven, but a bond gradually develops that challenges and surprises all of them.
Also showing on the 3rd March
Punch
Smalltown New Zealand boy Jim (Jordan Oosterhof)
carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. Pumped up and primed,
the 17-year-old is training for his first professional fight. It means
everything to his alcoholic father Stan (Tim Roth). Jim is also confronted by the narrow-minded prejudices of a backwater community where gay Maori teen Whetu (Conan Hayes) is bullied and ridiculed. A friendship develops between Jim and Whetu that threatens to become something more meaningful.
Also showing on the 3rd March
Friday 3rd March
Based on true events, Audrey (Jena Malone) is drifting through life. She loses her
job and her boyfriend and is struggling to pay the rent. YouTube videos
of adult adoption inspire her to seek an older couple who might be
prepared to adopt her. When she meets eccentric, uptight engineer Otto
(an unforgettable Robert Hunger-Bühler) and his wife Sonny (Emily Kuroda) it is hardly a match made in heaven, but a bond gradually develops that challenges and surprises all of them.
Also showing on the 4th March
Paris Memories
Initially inspired by the experiences of her brother, Alice Wincour’s
latest film unfolds in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on a busy
Paris brasserie. Mia (Virginie Efira) survived. After
time spent with her mother, she returns to a city and an event that
haunts her. Can she start over? Can she piece together what happened
that night? Gradually she remembers that she was not alone. A stranger
reached out to clasp her hand and offer reassurance. Discovering his
fate becomes essential in a moving story that tries to find some sense
of hope in the midst of tragedy.
Also showing on the 4th March
Prison 77
In 1976, Spain is beginning to emerge from the shadows of the Franco dictatorship. Young accountant Manuel (Miguel Herran)
is imprisoned on a fraud charge and may not even face trial for four
years. He discovers a brutal, dog-eat-dog regime that treats all
prisoners like animals. His quest for justice and reform sustains a
muscular, intensely involving drama from Marshland director Alberto Rodríguez.
Also showing on the 4th March
Saturday 4th March
Virginie Efira shines in this elegant, beguiling melodrama from director Rebecca Zolotowski. Rachel (Efira) is a caring forty something Paris teacher who is all loved up with the older Ali (Roschdy Zen). She is beginning to form a special bond with his five-year old daughter Leila (Callie Ferreira-Goncalves) and a respectful relationship with his ex-wife Alice (Chiara Mastroianni).
Rachel realises how much she wants a child of her own but she knows
that time is not on her side as she navigates all the challenges and
heartache of loving other people’s children.
Also showing on the 4th March
Sanctuary
Also showing on the 5th March
Sunday 5th March
Chevalier
Also showing on the 6th March
The second piece in his X trilogy puzzle, Ti West's Pearl provides a perilous prequel well-worthy of its slinky predecessor. Mia Goth (Suspiria, A Cure For Wellness)
reprises her role as the deeply disturbed Pearl, tending to her sickly
father under the cruel, iron fist of her religious mother. Inspired by
the cinema stylings of classic technicolor, West's origin story brings a
brand-new, blood-soaked perspective to X's infamous villain.
Also showing on the 6th March
Monday 6th March
The past leaves scars and only some of them are visible. Léa Mysius’s elegantly intriguing, finely crafted drama unfolds in gorgeous Alpine locations. Swimming instructor Joanne (Adèle Exarchopoulos) is married to fireman Jimmy (Moustapha Mbengue). Their mixed-race daughter Vicky (Sally Dramé) suffers at the hands of school bullies. When Jimmy’s sister Luisa (Swala Emati)
returns after ten years rumours start to fly. Old memories are stirred
and anxieties are heightened, especially for Vicky who can travel back
in time to observe what really happened a decade earlier.
Also showing on the 7th March
The Artifice Girl
How comfortable are you with the appliance of science? Franklin Ritch’s
smart, sinewy sci-fi thriller begins as a weary special agent asks Siri
the impossible question: 'How do you know if you’re doing the right
thing?'. It is a quandary that echoes down the decades as the use of
Artificial Intelligence changes the very nature of crime and punishment.
When special-effects technician Gareth (Ritch) comes
under investigation the twisty, unpredictable storyline starts to reveal
its true colours. A boldly original work exploring ethical dilemmas and
the price of good intentions.
Also showing on the 7th March
Tuesday 7th March
La Syndicaliste
In December 2012, Maureen Kearney (Isabelle Huppert)
was subject to a violent assault in her own home. A dedicated union
representative, Maureen had risked everything to expose secrets deals
between French nuclear energy companies and Chinese finance. Was this
her final warning? As the police investigate, the righteous victim is
slowly made to feel like she is the prime suspect.
Also showing on the 8th March
Mother and Son
Begins in the Paris of the late 1980s, where Rose and her two sons
have arrived from the Ivory Coast to start a new life. Annabelle
Lengronne’s firecracker central performance makes the independent,
impulsive Rose an unforgettable character. What follows is a sensitive
coming-of-age story following the lives of her sons Jean (Stéphane Bak) and Ernest (Ahmed Sylla),
marked by the tensions between the family’s African roots and French
nationality, and by what is lost and gained in their quest for
happiness. French
nationality, and by what is lost and gained in their quest for
happiness.
Also showing on the 8th March
Wednesday 8th March
Typist Artist Pirate King
The film follows Audrey and her mental health carer Sandra (Kelly Macdonald)
on a road trip to Sunderland. Revisiting key places from her life, it
becomes a funny, poignant journey of sweet liberation, feisty
confrontation and a reckoning with the past.
Also showing on the 9th March
Inspired by the death of her father, Mia Hansen-Løve’s deeply personal film is a touching reflection on love and loss and features a luminous Léa Seydoux
as interpreter Sandra. A single mother, Sandra is faced with the twin
responsibilities of a growing daughter and an ailing father in Georg (Pascal Greggory) a former philosophy professor. The one thing she didn’t anticipate is a growing fondness for old friend Clément (Melvil Poupaud).
Also showing on the 9th March
Thursday 9th March
Sisu
From Jalmari Helander, director of Rare Exports and Big Game,
a bloody World War II action epic that pits one hard-to-kill Finn
against Nazi soldiers in Lapland. After a solitary prospector strikes
gold in the wilderness, he runs afoul a retreating detachment of Nazi
soliders who set their sights on claiming the bounty. Unfortunately for
the stormtroopers, this is no ordinary miner, but a mythic one-man army
epitomizing the quintessential Finnish concept of ‘sisu’ -
white-knuckled courage and unimaginable determination in the face of
overwhelming odds.
RMN
The latest film from Cristian Mungiu (Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days) urgently confronts the rise of nationalism and xenophobia. A few days before Christmas, Matthias (Marin Grigore)
leaves Germany and returns to his multi-ethnic village in Transylvania.
He is keen to play a bigger part in his son’s life and worried about
his elderly father. Life in this well-knit community seems to unfurl in
harmony and understanding, until a group of Sri Lankans arrive to work
at a local bakery. The thin veneer of tolerance is ripped away amidst
escalating tension and bitter resentments..
Also showing on the 10th March
Friday 10th March
Winnie-The-Pooh:Blood Honey
During childhood, Christopher Robin befriended Winnie the Pooh, Piglet
and their friends, played games and fed them. But as he grew older, the
visits stopped, leaving them increasingly hungry and desperate, eyeing
Eeyore as food. Now Christopher has returned to the forest with his new
wife hoping to introduce her to his old friends. But it sends Pooh and
Piglet on a murderous scavenger hunt for human flesh when they
antagonize a group of college girls on a rural cabin vacation. Will
Christopher still get Pooh back on the right track?
Our Father, The Devil
Marie lives a quiet life working as head chef at a retirement home in a
small sleepy, village in France. When the arrival of a new priest to the
village stirs up terrifying memories of home, Marie is convinced that
he is indeed the face from the past that has haunted her for years. As
he begins to ingratiate himself with the staff and residents, Marie
finds herself backed into a corner and must decide whether to make the
first move. Ellie Foumbi’s debut feature is a raw and intense revenge-driven story dissecting the lasting scars of past traumas.
Also showing on the 11th March
Saturday 11th March
Consecration
“There is but one God. And his Shadow...” Grace is summoned to the Mount
Saviour convent deep in the Scottish Highlands following the mysterious
death of her priest brother. Refusing to believe he committed suicide,
and determined to discover what really happened, Grace starts her own
investigation as the nuns prepare a consecration ceremony to purify the
holy site. Soon she inadvertently shines a light on murder, sacrilege,
and a disturbing truth relating to the forgotten years of her own
childhood, intertwined with that of the convent’s holy order and the
secret it’s charged with protecting.
13 Exorcisms
Inspired by recent events in Spain, relentless suspense and
skin-crawling horror unfolds when shy, sensitive teenager Laura is
tricked into taking part in a Halloween séance to contact the spirit of a
mad doctor who murdered his family. Dark presences, terrifying visions,
ominous voices, painful marks on her skin, and other paranormal
phenomena haunt her. Laura's religious parents decide to call the local
priest for advice, who claims she’s possessed. To set her free, he will
have to perform a series of exorcisms - each more violent than the last.
Sunday 12th March
Two 20-something Londoners embrace their impulsive side and embark on a day of joyous mayhem in director Raine Allen Miller’s
debut feature that is a vibrant and playful rom-com for the new
generation. When Yas finds Dom ugly-crying in a bathroom stall at a
local art exhibition, she decides to accompany him on his way to an
awkward meal with his ex and her new man who just so happens to be his
best friend. From there, the pair navigate London via some familiar and
not-so familiar haunts whilst slowly beginning to realise that maybe
their hearts aren’t destined to be closed off forever.
British Pakistani schoolgirl Ria (Priya Kansara) is an expert martial arts fighter and dreams of a career as a stuntwoman. Her big sister Lena (Ritu Arya)
has dropped out of art school and is drifting in limbo until a
whirlwind romance threatens to carry her off. What is the possible
appeal of handsome, sensitive, wealthy, geneticist Salim (Akshay Khanna)?
Now Lena is abandoning all her dreams to become his wife and move to
Singapore. Something doesn’t add up and a distraught Ria is determined
to uncover the truth. Is plotting to kidnap Lena from her own wedding a
step too far?
Polite Society closes Glasgow Film Festival 2023