Women in Pictish garb! Tri-partite geometry! Psychedelic sitars! Heavy Magick!
The Return from Annwn is a mytho-ecological short film and digital project by Annwn Collective, depicting a trans-dimensional quest to restore cosmic equilibrium through female alignment. Borrowing from Celtic mythology, Pictish symbolism, Japanese butoh dancing and the Western hermetic magic tradition, The Return from Annwn chronicles an atmospheric journey by six summoned spectres through the landscapes of England. Paying equal homage to the filmic rituals of Kenneth Anger and Maya Deren and the aesthetics of 80s fantasy epics, the film performs a form of spiritual archaeology on a world where objects have the power of change and lasers emanate from pineal eyes.
The sword must be drawn and the stars realigned! Come forth Guardians of Annwn, come forth!
200 years after the 'Great Fail'. The world is divided. The Northern Zone led by Fergus and tightly ruled. Everywhere else is The Wilderness. Fergus is accused of a murder he didn't commit and sentenced to exile from The Northern Zone. Bound by familial duty, Cathal and his brothers Cet and Cormac, accompany their exiled father into a bleak and strange wilderness in search of redemption and a new beginning. But They quickly become lost. Cathal becomes increasingly more angry by the choices Fergus makes. Fergus's time is over and Cathal is ready to make his mark on the world.
Sophie is on the brink of womanhood, in love for the first time, and fighting for her life. She’s anorexic, the result of a battle for control with her overbearing father Ilyas. He’s a chef; when she doesn’t eat, she hits him where it hurts.
Stuck in a West Midlands village far from her old friends, in a family that refuses to let her grow up and find her own way, refusing food is her only weapon, and her secret boyfriend Liam her only relief. When Sophie starts having nocturnal visits from a horrifying ghost, everyone she loves dismisses it, believing she’s having anorexic hallucinations. Her credibility lost, Sophie leans on Liam and they become ever more intimate. Suspicious Ilyas cracks down harder, while Sophie’s possessive mother is disturbed, sensing she may lose her virginity. Pressure builds, the anorexia and the attacks increase. Sophie’s life is on the line and a dark family secret surfaces as the battle of wills becomes a battle for survival.
Set in a former Cold War era civil defence bunker turned data centre buried 30 metres underground in Stockholm. Part Bond villain lair, part retro-futuristic spaceship, the film explores the temporal nature of data space and geology. Once housing servers for WikiLeaks, issues of privacy, surveillance and digital sovereignty emanate.
Opposites attract when Vida, a middle class cellist from London falls in love with Arthur, a working class animation student from Wales. But, their relationship is put to the test when they meet each others families and are forced to confront class and cultural differences.
A sensitive, touching, quirky, tragic and fresh look at how conflicting family ties alonside cultural and class divides challenge love in this modern day Romeo & Juliet story.
East End Film Festival (London) 2016 - World premiere
Malcolm Fetcher is a neurotic, middle-aged teacher lost in a dull marriage with his wife of twenty years, Beverly. As he faces an all-consuming identity crisis, their marriage disintegrates and he is forced to express a deep, hidden desire.
Tasha, 16, is a strong-willed young girl who learns that her mother’s partner, Charlie, is not her real father. When her older sister, Jenny, tells Tasha of a man only referred to as ‘The Viking’ who appeared when Tasha was a baby, she becomes convinced this mysterious ‘Viking’ is her long-lost father and resolves to track him down.
As Tasha begins her quest to find her father on the ferry to Norway, life takes unexpected turns back home. Jenny has moved into her own flat, and the only son in the family, Danny, struggles with the prospect of becoming a father. Landing in Norway Tasha befriends Marta, a local girl who agrees to help her find her father. But will she find him and what will happen to her family while she is away?
Edinburgh International Film Festival 2016 - World premiere
"If you knew where it would end, would you ever begin?"
A raw, dark comedy about endings and beginnings. A failed relationship is rarely predicted but always reviewed, and the film adopts this reverse narrative.
Split into two halves, the film follows the tumultuous stories of nine couples. It plunges straight into the brutal and absurd endings of their relationships, and travels back in time to the moment when the spark of love between them first emerged. Using London as their match maker, each of their stories is unique, yet familiar to us all.
Edinburgh International Film Festival 2016 - World premiere
Djata is a carefree 12-year-old growing up in the dystopian Homeland. When he finds out that his father Peter has been imprisoned by the authorities and he and his mother are labeled traitors, Djata vows he will not rest until he sees his father again.
Based on György Dragomán's multiple award winning novel that has been published in 28 languages.
Edinburgh International Film Festival 2016 - World premiere
Documentary focusing on the work, both on screen and off, of director Ken Loach. Revolving around the 'battles' linked to his long filmography- ranging from the campaign to combat homelessness prompted by the 1966 film 'Cathy Come Home', to a right-wing press backlash over the Palme d’Or win for 'The Wind That Shakes The Barley' in 2006, to a fight with the censors over the language in 'Sweet Sixteen'.
A provocative and revealing account of the life and career of one of Britain’s foremost filmmakers, produced as he turns eighty, looking back at over fifty years of filmmaking.
An animated narrative about narcissism in modern romance. Rooster meets Owl and they fall in love. Rooster's fear of becoming all-consumed grows and grows and turns their relationship dysfunctional.
Sensitive wallflower Cara exists in her humdrum life until the appearance of charismatic Jay unlocks powerful desires within her. When Jay's beautiful French lover arrives, Cara's journey to self-discovery takes a dark and unexpected turn, with tragic consequences.
