Who knows where ideas come from? You or me? Or THEM? The Muses are angry and they want their ideas back! This is a story of thieving and reappropriation, staged on a mythological platform.
Joseph and Brenda have been married for fifty years and are living out their retirement in Nimes. Their daily routine, of letter writing and dinner at the same restaurant, has somewhat taken the shine off their permanent vacation. When they meet holidaying couple Mark and Suzanne, Joseph can't help the sudden, irrevocable change to his mundane world (EIFF).
Young ballad singer Ruadhan watches in distress as the traditional fabric of life in his Scottish village is inexorably eroded. With fish dying and no jobs on land, the young people are escaping to the cities. Meanwhile, the old people of the town, to whom Rhuadan feels closest and whose traditions he wants to preserve, are dying off. A rich, delicate and powerful film with superb cinematography and a stirring soundtrack filled with traditional ballad song (EIFF).
In tense detail, this riveting new documentary explores the 6 July 1988, disaster on the North Sea oil rig Piper Alpha. The film skillfully combines archival footage and audio recordings with present-day filmed interviews to recreate the suspense and horror of the disaster and to unfold the complex emotions of those who survived (EIFF).
When Neil Platt is diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease at the age of 33, he makes the unusual decision to document his final months, not just in a blog (which he painstakingly dictates via frustratingly inaccurate speech recognition software) but by inviting a film crew into the home he shares with his tireless wife Louise and toddler son Oscar. The result is a heartbreaking, funny and tender portrayal of incredible fortitude and love (EIFF).
A rich documentary inspired by the life and work of Megan Boyd, a legendary Scottish maker of salmon flies. Filled with tributes and recollections from those who knew this solitary and enigmatic woman, this elegiac film draws further inspiration from the colours and textures of Boyd’s handmade, featheradorned flies. The film also takes off into flights of expressive fantasy, courtesy of Em Cooper’s oil-painted animation.
(EIFF 2013)
The third instalment in the popular Nazi zombie saga restores the series to its WW2 origins and introduces a new hero in Dolokhov (Bryan Larkin), a member of Russia’s elite special forces. His strength and survival skills are sorely put to the test when he is captured by the Germans and taken to an underground bunker, where the most horrifying experiments are under way. Frenetic action, gory horror, and a sardonic touch make this a welcome sequel (EIFF).
An intrepid young filmmaker travels from Britain deep into the American heartland to probe the mysteries of Bigfoot and Bigfoot mania. He forms uneasy alliances with several Bigfoot trackers, including a man who believes he is part sheep, a known hoaxer, and an entrepreneur with a short fuse. Things get hairy as the filmmaker realises that his companions may not be the harmless eccentrics they seem (EIFF).
Idealistic Dixie (Jonny Owen) and his girlfriend Shell (Vicky McClure) leave their small Welsh hometown for London, where Dixie intends to let nothing stand between him and his dream of being the manager of a big-time rock band. The realities of the music business — and of London rents — would daunt many a lesser man, but not Dixie. Expanded from a YouTube cult series, this is a smart and winning comedy (EIFF).
A middle-aged art historian returns to the Irish seaside village where, as a boy, he and his family spent their holidays. His visit triggers a series of memories, some romantic, some disturbing, of a summer that saw the awakening of sexuality and an unexpected tragedy. John Banville adapted his Man Booker Prize-winning novel to provide the script for this haunting and superlatively acted film.
