Now in its 18th year, the Glasgow Film Festival is offering one of the strongest line-ups in its proud history. Among the 113 titles on display, there are 10 world premieres, 4 European premieres, 65 UK premieres and 13 Scottish premieres, with many of the films supported by the appearance of guests.
Not sure where to start in the face such an eclectic, electric menu of movies? Then let Total Film point you towards seven magnificent titles you have to see…
Nitram
OK, so his adaptation of Assassin’s Creed wasn’t up to much, but a new movie by Australian filmmaker Justin Kurzel (Macbeth, True History Of The Kelly Gang) is always an event, and Nitram is his best – and most disturbing – since debut Snowtown. That 2011 crime-drama told the true story of serial killer John Bunting, and Nitram likewise zooms in on Martin Bryant, the loner behind the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, in which 35 people were shot dead and 23 others wounded. The focus is on events leading up to that fateful day, with Kurzel and his regular screenwriter Shaun Grant searching for possible reasons as to how such a horrific thing could come to be, but never pretending to offer answers, instead leaving it to viewers to ponder. Caleb Landry Jones excels as Bryant, who is never named in the film itself.
Hive
Another upsetting true story taken from the 1990s, as Fahrije (Yllka Gashi) continues to search for her missing husband seven years after a massacre in her Kosova village of Krusha e Madhe left 240 dead or disappeared. But life must go on, and Fahrije, who now occupies the role of provider for her father-in-law and her two children, corrals a band of women into a cooperative that makes jars of pepper preserve to sell in a local supermarket. It is a scheme that is met with fierce opposition – the patriarchal order views women as immoral for so much as possessing a driving license. This composed, hopeful, quietly angry debut by Blerta Basholli won three awards at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, and is built around a mesmerising performance by Gashi.
Wild Men
Joel Coen’s austere take on Macbeth was all well and very good, but for anyone wishing he’d just reteam with his brother Ethan and crack on with making another crime movie in the (opened) vein of Blood Simple, Fargo, and No Country For Old Men, then this Danish crime drama should tide them over. At its morally murky centre is Martin (Rasmus Bjerg), who leaves behind his family and flees into the Norwegian mountains to escape his midlife crisis. He hunts and gathers like his ancestors would have done… but chances are his forefathers never fell in with a drug smuggler and found themselves having to evade cops and crims as well as a miffed wife. Expect philosophical musings, amusingly miserable characters, and a lovably infuriating hero.
Vortex
Gaspar Noé assaulted us with Irreversible, Enter the Void, and Climax, so the most shocking thing about his latest midnight movie, Vortex, is that it has more than its fair share of tender moments. Sure to draw comparisons to Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winner Amour, Vortex follows, in split-screen, an aged husband and wife (iconic horror director Dario Argento, Françoise Lebrun) as they pad circles in their Paris apartment, him suffering from a heart condition, her blighted by dementia. The spectre of death haunts every dark pocket of the frame(s), but this hushed drama takes its implacable walk towards the grave in its slippers, with moments of love to light the way.
Red Rocket
Lives on the margins interest US filmmaker Sean Baker, who here follows Tangerine, his iPhone-shot tale of transvestite sex workers hustling in Tinseltown, and The Florida Project, about a mother and young daughter living in a budget motel in the shadow of Walt Disney World, with a comedy-drama about a washed-up porn star. After his LA-based career goes limp, Mikey Saber (rapper, comedian, and real-life ex-porn star Simon Rex) sheepishly returns to his hometown in Texas, where he is soon dealing weed, falling in love, and planning to get his career up and cumming – sorry, running – once more. Baker here balances laughs and tears, hope and despair.
Bergman Island
French writer-director Mia Hansen-Løve has positioned herself among Europe’s most exciting auteurs with films such as Eden and Goodbye First Love, and her new drama dares to stand in the shadow of one of the greatest European filmmakers of them all, Ingmar Bergman. Set on Fårö, the island that Bergman made his home from 1965 until his death in 2007, it sees two filmmakers (Tim Roth and Phantom Thread’s Vicky Krieps) seek inspiration for their new screenplays by visiting the great man’s home, and the locations he immortalised in masterpieces Through A Glass Darkly, Persona, and Scenes From A Marriage. Then reality and fantasy begin to blur, and their own relationship comes under the kind of strain and scrutiny that was Bergman’s raison d’être.
Freaks Out
FrightFest, the UK’s number one horror and fantasy film festival, has been partnering with the Glasgow Film Festival for 17 years now, and this year presents a dozen nightmares in damaged brains for your viewing pleasure. The 12 movies hail from eight countries over three continents, and though there are many treasures to unearth, the title creating the most buzz is Freaks Out by Italian helmer Gabriele Mainetti, whose stunning They Call Me Jeeg Robot – the best superhero movie you’ve probably never seen – played at London FrightFest in 2016. Set in Rome, 1943, this visually rich dark fantasy has been described as “an Italian superhero Holocaust film” and compared to Schindler’s List, if it was directed by Fellini. Intrigued? You should be.
The Glasgow Film Festival runs from Wednesday, March 2 to Sunday, March 13. Tickets are available here.
