Writer: Gianluca Santoni and Michela Straniero Director: Gianluca Santoni An unusual mixture of Whistle Down the Wind and Leon makes My Killer Buddy an off-centre family comedy/drama. A coastal town in north-eastern Italy between Porto Corsini and Cesenatico conceals secrets. The part of town known as the ‘concrete eyesore’ houses bottom-feeding criminals. In the more prosperous area industrialist Fabio (Andrea Sartoretti) habitually beats his wife Maria (Barbara Ronchi) knowing she will never report him to the authorities. The abuse is affecting their son Denni (Francesco Lombardo). As is often the case with children made helpless by abuse, he fantasies about…
Author: Reviewer Upload
Writer and Director : Sofia Exarchou Animal, a new feature by Greek writer and director, Sofia Exarchou, opens at the Raindance Festival. The Greek island where it takes place is not, however, a paradise of white houses, family tavernas and clear blue sea. The setting rather is a distinctly scuzzy holiday resort, cut off from a marshy beach by chicken wire. Here holiday makers are endlessly plied with alcohol and offered round-the-clock adult entertainment by a group of ‘animateurs’ or entertainers. Their role is to keep up the party mood, schmoozing the guests and teaching them to dance sexily. Exarchou…
Writer and Director: Joshua Trigg Satu: Year of the Rabbit, opening at the Raindance Festival, is Joshua Trigg’s debut feature. It is a well-intentioned, if clunkily narrated and overly sentimental story set in Laos, following the journey of two young people, 17-year-old Bo, and Satu, a “temple orphan” of 7 or so. In an opening flashback. Satu’s mother (a very sympathic performance by Sonedala Sihayong) weeps as she abandons her baby outside a temple. In the way of fairy stories, she gives him a red woven bracelet and a letter explaining why she has left him. Meanwhile Bo, a feisty…
Writer and Director: Aylin Tezel Showing as part of the annual Raindance Festival of independent films in London’s West End, this romantic drama is a sometimes sentimental, sometimes bleak odyssey that divides screen time between the Isle of Skye, where our protagonists meet, and London, where they spend much of the movie apart. There are some interesting elements here, if you can get past the opening scenes, which feature the kind of cutesy putative relationship that only happens in the movies, complete with silly games, cod philosophy and noisy friends who only exist to provide an unconvincing social backdrop. It’s…
Writer and Director: Isabelle Caps-Kuhn Gwen (Sina Genschel) and Adam (Julius Nitschkoff) are a mismatched couple. Gwen is studious and her work of such a calibre she is employed as a teaching assistant while awaiting a place at a prestigious university to continue her studies. Adam has just returned from a three-year ’journey of discovery’ and although he speaks vaguely of studying photography no-one thinks he is serious. Adam is the life and soul of the party while Gwen hides in the kitchen. An acquaintance in a polygamous relationship explains to Gwen having an open relationship offers a different perspective…
Writers: Richard Baron and Ellie Zeegen Director: Richard Baron Sometimes, particularly when covering a piece so entuned with the life of one of Scotland’s most celebrated writers of prose and verse, there’s a temptation to go toe-to-toe with the quality of their vocab and reputation. But the truth is that Richard Baron and Ellie Zeeghen’s Nan Shepherd: Naked and Unashamed is quite simply put, lovely. Time is a breeze here, flowing rapidly through the Pitlochry studio, catching the audience as rustles, carrying them along the journey of Aberdeenshire-born Nan Shepherd, who would quite possibly be immensely puzzled at the prospect…
Book: Douglas McGrath Words and Music: Gerry Goffin & Carole King, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil Director: Sam Hardie The soundtrack of one generation to the next, and striding forth even further, singer and songwriter Carole King forged her path from an early age and away from the expectations laid upon her and in the face of obstacles. Laid bare for the Pitlochry audience, their Scottish staging of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical steps into the sunlight with a breathtakingly sincere leading performance, crafting a touching production of the biopic and leading it away from the tropes associated with jukebox musicals. Quite rightly at the…
Directors Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck Grief is an intensely personal experience and the ways in which we come to terms with loss are equally subjective. Such loss may be eased by mementos such as photographs, and some people even construct shrines to the departed – leaving their rooms unaltered. There are also those willing to exploit the situation- spiritualists offering, for a fee, to provide a link to the afterlife. Technological developments already throw up a range of unexpected challenges – concern about if it is disrespectful to delete voice recordings of the deceased. Eternal You, a documentary from…