Films
Films Showing at Keswick Film Festival
2012 Festival
This gentle romantic comedy tells the story of Norman, the manager of the theatre on the pier at a once grand East Coast holiday resort. Norman has worked at the theatre all his life and despite the efforts of Sandra, his long- serving and suffering assistant, he will not accept that the local council, which owns the theatre may be serious about putting it into the hands of commercial management. As the plot unfolds, Norman realises that it may be time to move on and put behind him the ghost of the fifties and sixties singing star Alma Cogan.
Starring Roger Lloyd-Pack and Niamh Cusack with John Hurt in a cameo role and with original music by Tony Britten this new film will resonate with Keswickians. The potential closure of the theatre in the film resonating with the threat to the cinema in Keswick, and the role of the RNLI in the film with our Mountain Rescue. A gentle introduction to more music to come.
Thanks to Anwen Rees and Tony Britten
UK Premiere
Kamal is a nine-year old Arab boy living in Jerusalem with his grandfather, mother, and sisters. Everyday he goes to the Old City and tries to sell postcards but he is thwarted by bullies and constantly discouraged by his strict grandfather. David is a Jewish boy, also aged nine, who is in Jerusalem to visit his father, whom he hasn’t seen in years. Thinking that he is carrying a large amount of money Kamal steals from David resulting in a chase in which Kamal escapes. But when David runs into the same bullies that have been targeting Kamal, Kamal rescues him, and another chase begins. Together, the two boys must learn the true meanings of friendship, trust and sacrifice.
Awards include: Best Children’s Film Tiburon; World Cinema Award Best Feature, Washington DC; Best of the Fest, Palm Beach
Thanks to Artificial Eye
Based on a true event which for many epitomises the faults in the Turkish legal system, Pardon tells the tragicomic story of three friends who end up in prison when they are mistaken as members of a terrorist organization.
The Writer, Ferhan Sensoy is a popular director and actor in Turkish theatre where he is well-known for his spontaneous political criticism. He generally performs on stage in his own theatre which means that not many outsiders get to see his work. "Pardon", in that sense, is reaching out to people who can not come to watch his plays.
A posting from Istanbul on the IMDB states “The story is one of the true stories of Turkey about its legal system faults. The acting and directing is superb. I have watched it three times in the same week and laughed each time.”
Thanks to Plato Films
The film tells the story of a highly intelligent former state champion bodybuilder from small town Ohio who has become obsessed with his scientific research and, consequently, has let his world-class physique go. He journeys to the mecca of bodybuilding, Los Angeles, to prove himself. Determined to reveal his new ideas to the world, the awkward yet sincere bodybuilder realizes he has no choice but to get back in supreme shape, compete in the ultimate "Mr. West Coast" bodybuilding competition and use his own body as the perfect reflection of his mind's work. Amidst the LA-freaks, Hollywood wannabes, and outrageous gym culture of Los Angeles, the now determined bodybuilder struggles to preserve an integrity of the mind, body, and spirit that is so apparently void in this strange new land.
Thanks to Sam Turcotte
Vacation is the story of Toru Hirai (Kaoru Kobayashi) a middle-aged bachelor who works as a prison guard on death row and lives with his older sister and her husband. Hirai’s sister is determined to marry him off to a divorced single mother of a 6-year-old son Tatsuya, who is suspicious of his new father. In exchange for a one-week vacation, for a proper honeymoon to get to know his new family, Hirai volunteers to ‘support’ illustrator Shinichi Kaneda (Hidetoshi Nishijima) who is about to be executed by hanging. There is little emotion in the film, apart from the fear that every character is harbouring for the future, until the trauma of Kaneda’s terrifying death. Kadoi shows the hard choices and personal sacrifices the ideal Japanese husband and father will make for his family.
Kobayashi and Nishijima won acting awards at Yokohama film festival 2009.
Thanks to Eleven Arts
Billed as ‘Die Hard meets A Prophet’, Cell 211 takes us into a Spanish jail with Juan, a new guard who tries to impress by reporting in a day early. That sort of attitude is never a good idea and events mean that Juan needs to rely on his wits to survive.
According to Philip French, this excellent Spanish picture has all the traditional ‘Big House, Prison Movie’ ingredients: the fair but weak governor, the contrasted good and bad warders, the charismatic convict leader (a knockout performance from Luis Tosar, famously menacing in Michael Mann's Miami Vice), the old lag, the slimy informer, the destructive riot, and the familiar message that the trouble is due to overcrowding, penny-pinching and the lack of either creative work or serious attempts at rehabilitation.
Thanks to Lionsgate
The film follows the efforts of Jon Gnarr, an Icelandic comedian/TV show actor/perpetual goofball, to become Mayor of Rejkjavik. A benchmark of the excesses that lead up to the credit crunch in 2008 were the waitresses in Reykjavik who thought it was normal to afford weekend shopping trips to Milan. We all know what came next. The krona collapsed and the whole country effectively went bankrupt under the debts incurred by its over extended banks. The government took its fair share of the blame and in 2009 Gnarr launched The Best Party, a satirical political party that parodies Icelandic politics and aims to make the life of its citizens more fun. Standing in the municipal election of 2010 Gnarr promised free towels in all swimming pools, a polar bear for the Reykjavik zoo, all kinds of things for weaklings, and an incorruptible and drug-free parliament by 2020.
Originally entitled ‘Bienvenue Chez les Ch’tis’ this gem of a comedy explores the north/south divide in France. The film plays on cultural and linguistic differences as the hero, Philippe, travels from suave and comfy meridional France to take up a post-office manager's job in his country's grim north which most of the French consider to be populated with hard drinking unemployed rednecks speaking an incomprehensible local dialect – Ch’ti.
The film is brought to life for a British audience through inspired subtitling which succeeds in matching French mis-speaks with plausible English equivalents in a tour de force which, says the Guardian, merits the creation of a whole new Oscar category. Allied to ”the ingenuity of the
writing, the fluency and comic timing of the actors, in particular the assured direction of Dany Boon, who happens to be a Ch’ti himself”, the Sticks and the town of Bergues are destined to charm.
Thanks To Pathe
This highly efficient Korean thriller from the director of the ultra-violent The Chaser has an unremarkable plot: a taxi driver at the end of his tether is induced to carry out a murder in Seoul and finds himself crushed between two different branches of the mafia and goes on the run. The film does, however, in addition to moving with the speed of a bullet, have three distinctive features; it's the first Korean thriller to have attracted a major investment from a Hollywood studio; knives and axes are the gangsters' weapons of choice and they go about their work gleefully in pools of blood; and, the desperate hero comes from Yanji City in the curious Chinese enclave of Yanbian, an autonymous prefecture abutting China, Russia and North Korea largely populated by Koreans carrying Chinese identity papers.
In partnership with Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group (KP&HRG)
This film is the disturbing story of what happens to children when they seek asylum in Britain. Every year, thousands of children come from all over the world to Britain seeking refuge from persecution, terrorism and war. But many find this country is not the place of safety that they hoped. Instead they are met by a culture of disbelief and an asylum system that can cause them profound psychological and physical harm. Through the stories of a 10-year-old Iranian boy, a 16-year-old Afghan and a 22-year-old Ugandan woman, this film explores the experiences of young people who have been brutalized by the British asylum system. It's a shocking story. It was first shown on Channel Four Dispatches on Monday 29th November 2010.
With Q&A with Clare Sambrook and Rachel Seifert
Adapted from Sally Nicholls’ novel, Ways to Live Forever is a touching and inspiring film about 12 year old Sam, played by Robbie Kay. Sam is the narrator of the film, through the medium of his video diary. He reveals much about himself, when while making a list of important things about himself, the fact that he is dying of leukaemia merits only 4th place. He loves facts, he wants to know about UFOs and horror movies and airships and ghosts and how it feels to kiss a girl. He wants to know the facts about dying.Sam needs answers to the questions nobody will answer.
Also starring Ben Chaplin, Emilia Fox and Greta Scacchi, Ways to Live Forever has been an official entry in the Amsterdam, Tallinn, Terra di Siena and Indianapolis Festivals.
Thanks to Gustavo Ron
A BFI National Archive restoration
A hundred years ago the British Antarctic Expedition (1910-1913) led by Captain Scott set out on its ill-fated race to the South Pole. Joining Scott on board the Terra Nova was official photographer and cinematographer Herbert Ponting, and the images that he captured have fired imaginations ever since.
Ponting filmed almost every aspect of the expedition: the scientific work, life in camp and the local wildlife. Most importantly, Ponting recorded the preparations for the assault on the Pole - from the trials of the caterpillar track sledges to clothing and cooking equipment - giving us a real sense of the challenges faced by the expedition.
Ponting used his footage in various forms over the years and in 1924 he re-edited it into this remarkable feature. The BFI National Archive has restored the film and reintroduced the film’s sophisticated use of colour along with with a new score by Simon Fisher Turner featuring the composer, the Elysian Quartet, Sarah Scutt, David Coulter and Alexander L'Estrange.
Thanks to BFI
The film takes place almost entirely on a property in the cane country of northern New South Wales, where single mother Rhea (Emily Barclay) survives by barring the door against debt collectors.To help make ends meet, she agrees to find room for Doyle (John Hurt), an old sailor with Alzheimer's disease who is the paternal grandfather of her three young daughters - an exotic figure in this setting, with his faraway eyes, English accent and sensitive, ravaged face. The oldest girl, Lou (Lily Bell-Tindley), initially resents the newcomer and the painful memories he stirs up. Doyle confuses the 11-year-old Lou with the wife who broke his heart many years ago, and Lou soon finds her own reasons to restage the past. This is a slightly dangerous coming-of-age fantasy.
This session also includes a screening of Elfar Adalsteins’ Sailcloth staring John Hurt and among the short films tipped to land an Oscar nomination.
Thanks to Matchbox Films
Our screening of Lou will be preceded by Elfar Adalsteins’ Sailcloth also staring John Hurt and among the short films tipped to land an Oscar nomination.
An elderly gentleman absconds from a nursing home by setting in motion events that veil his disappearance. He heads to the local pier, where an old companion awaits him, ready for their last great journey.
Double Bill with Sherpas, the True Heroes of Everest
Could you ski to the South Pole? That was the challenge that British Adventurer, Felicity Aston put to ‘ordinary women’ from around the Commonwealth as she set out to create the most international all-female expedition ever to the South Pole. Late in 2009, Felicity led a team from places as diverse as Jamaica, India, Singapore and Cyprus - some of whom had never even seen snow - on a 900 km skiing trek across the Antarctic, one of the toughest and most notoriously hazardous journeys on the planet. Eighty-mile-an-hour winds ripped through base camp; frostbite and injuries were an everyday occurrence; but they also shared beliefs, ideas and philosophies and broke no less than six World Records. Snowline has produced a documentary about the project mostly from over 3,500 individual clips of footage shot by members of the team.
Thanks to Snowline
Double Bill with The Call Of The White
Sherpas The True Heroes of Mount Everest focuses on the hired Sherpas of a Swiss Everest Expedition Team. Among the Sherpas is Dawa, who has accented the Everest summit thirteen times. The film heroically showcases the role of Sherpas who make it possible for the big-pocketed Western climbers to reach the summit. Made by documentary makers at Swiss Television plus Hari Thapa, film-maker in Kathmandhu the film has won prizes at a number of film festivals including Best Film at Kathmandhu
Thanks to Hari Thapa
Inspired by the real-life experiences of screenwriter Will Reiser, director Jonathan Levine's 50/50 is the story of a 27-year-old cancer patient's battle to beat the disease with the help of his friend. It has received strong reviews and – unusually for a comedy – is considered an outside bet for an Oscar nomination next year.Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the somewhat portentously named Adam Lerner, a young writer working for a National Public Radio station in Seattle, who is told out of the blue he has spinal cancer with a 50-50 chance of recovery. He gets along with a little help and hindrance from his friends, family and fellow patients, and the movie and Adam himself treat his situation with considerable humour.
Thanks to Lionsgate
UK Premiere
Montreal writer/director Tara Johns, in her feature debut, takes us back to the ’70s, the dreadful fashions and interior decor drenched in a dewy nostalgic haze, to tell the simple story of 11-year-old Elizabeth, who longs to get her first period so she can be like her friends. When Elizabeth discovers she is adopted it sparks a bout of preteen rebellion and confusion. If her mom isn’t her real mom, then maybe her idol is; he’s determined to get to a Dolly Parton concert to find out. This leads to a cathartic cross-country trek by a mother searching for a daughter searching for a mother - both of them really searching for themselves. Parton’s participation, allowing a few of her songs to be re-recorded by Canadian artists and providing a voiceover finale, add much to the film’s appeal.
Thanks to Palomar Films
Actor Paddy Considine has seen his first feature garlanded at the British Independent Film Awards (Best Film, Best Actress and Best Debut Director) and at Sundance (world cinema directing award, special jury prize drama). Peter Mullan is a gambling, washed-up widower Joseph, a man plagued by violence and a rage that is driving him to self-destruction. As Joseph's life spirals into turmoil a chance of redemption appears in the form of Hannah, a Christian charity shop worker. Their relationship develops to reveal that Hannah is hiding a secret of her own with devastating results for both of their lives. The performances roar off the screen, Mullan is fantastic but the real revelation of the film is the performance of Olivia Colman; so good in fact that you forget this is a movie. While it is difficult to watch, critics have showered the film with praise.
Thanks to StudioCanal
Quentin Crisp was born Denis Pratt on Christmas Day 1908. As an openly gay man in a much less tolerant era, he suffered constant abuse and rejection in his quest to "make them understand". He may or may not have made society understand homosexuality, but he certainly raised awareness of it, and you could argue that freedom of sexual choice would not be as accepted today were it not for his courage and determination.
Thames's television adaptation of Crisp’s autobiography The Naked Civil Servant eight years after he wrote it took Britain by storm and made Crisp an overnight celebrity. John Hurt's unforgettable performance as Crisp won him a BAFTA for Best Actor, while director Jack Gold won the Academy's highest commendation, The Desmond Davies Award, for outstanding creative contribution to television. Credit for the film's success also goes to screenwriter Philip Mackie and producer Verity Lambert. Perhaps the highest praise is Crisp's christening of John Hurt as his "representative on earth."
Thanks to Freemantle Media
Quentin Crisp moved to America at age seventy-two, "when people my age rocked themselves asleep in nursing home. Not me! I want my time lived!" And live his life Quentin Crisp certainly did. Setting off on the journey of a lifetime to New York City on September 13, 1981, the out-spoken Quentin Crisp was immediately embraced by New Yorkers and before long wined and dined by celebrities in every corner of the city. Mr. Crisp’s romantic view of New York and America was coloured by wartime relationships with GIs in London and by a love of Hollywood movies. The film was nominated and won prizes at a number of festivals.
Thanks to Momentum Pictures
Bird On A Wire is Tony Palmer’s film about Leonard Cohen’s 1972 European Tour (from Dublin to Jerusalem). Having gone missing soon after completion, the film is only now receiving its first official release almost 40 years later. This version has been re-constructed by Palmer from the original soundtracks and around 3000 fragments of film cut 294 from cans of rushes discovered in Hollywood in 2009. The film interweaves live concert footage with backstage encounters. It follows a mostly bewildered band and management as they deal with exploding speakers, backstage groupies and the vagaries of an artist with an extremely delicate temperament. Tony Palmer has commented on Cohen’s power over an audience simply by his presence; “authority doesn’t really describe it; transparent goodness is probably closer, and a profound belief that it is the poet’s responsibility to address the political problems of the world.”
The film will be introduced by Tony Palmer
In partnership with Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group (KP&HRG)
Gulistan (Senay Orak) and her younger brother, Firat (Muhammed Al), have a normal childhood with their mom (Fahriye Celik) and dad (Alisan Onlu) and new baby brother. Dad is a Kurdish journalist; on their way back from a wedding, the family is stopped by three gunmen, who shoot the parents dead in front of the kids. The kids' aunt Yekbun (Berivan Eminoglu), an underground Kurdish activist, moves in to care for them, but as she tries to get a visa to take them to their grandpa in Sweden, she's kidnapped by the paramilitary police and the children are left completely alone. As the weeks pass, they start selling everything in the apartment just to have food to eat, but it's not enough for medicine for the baby. Their life gets harder as they struggle to survive.
In the days that follow, the paths of the two children, along with those of Dilara and Nuri, will all intersect in ways that have surprising impact due to the unexpected restraint with which their roles are played.
The film has won awards at 10 international festivals
Tony Palmer's epic film was made in 1982/3 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Wagner's death. Filmed in 200 locations throughout Europe, many where the actual historical events took place, it is only now released on DVD as Palmer wishes it to be viewed. The film portrays Wagner's life and work, from before the 1848 Revolution, through his exile in Switzerland, his rescue by King Ludwig II of Bavaria to the final triumph at Bayreuth, and sets his radical musical and political ideas in the context of his life and times. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir George Solti with singers including Dame Gwyneth Jones and Peter Hofmann performs the music, which is illustrated with images by cameramen Vittorio Storaro and Nic Knowland. The stellar cast includes Richard Burton, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Vanessa Redgrave and László Gállfi.
The film will be screened in three parts with a one hour interval and introduced by Tony Palmer
Thanks to Tony Palmer
UK Premiere
Luo Jiang and Guihua, a poor, middle-aged couple with few prospects, decide to buy an 11- year-old girl, Xiao Ezi (aka "Little Moth"), for $140 in rural China. Xiao Ezi's life is in peril, as she is forced to earn money for her new parents as a beggar while suffering from a blood disease that leaves her unable to walk. Her greedy adoptive father refuses to buy her medicine, while Guihua’s growing maternal affection wracks her with guilt. With virtually no budget, a hand-held digital camera and a cast of non-professionals, Peng Tao turns the sordid street life of small town China into a chain-reaction tale of human cruelty and unforgettable suspense.
Thanks to the director
In this comedy from Spain, a young girl in her twenties, Marina, and her teenage brother, Samuel, have lost their parents in an accident three years ago. Samuel has taken it hard. He hasn't left their apartment in these last three years and has created a bizarre world for himself and his once-famous literary grandfather. His eccentricity and cleverness scares off the tutors hired to educate him. Marina has no life as she is consumed with taking care of Samuel and working across the street as a waitress.
Marina accidentally meets up with a psychologist, Gabriel, and asks him to be her brother's tutor. Almost immediately, Gabriel has a powerful positive effect on Samuel. And Gabriel becomes smitten with Marina. The student Samuel reverses roles and begins to teach the shy Gabriel how to attract women.
Thanks to Gustavo Ron
Tony Palmer's epic film was made in 1982/3 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Wagner's death. Filmed in 200 locations throughout Europe, many where the actual historical events took place, it is only now released on DVD as Palmer wishes it to be viewed. The film portrays Wagner's life and work, from before the 1848 Revolution, through his exile in Switzerland, his rescue by King Ludwig II of Bavaria to the final triumph at Bayreuth, and sets his radical musical and political ideas in the context of his life and times. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir George Solti with singers including Dame Gwyneth Jones and Peter Hofmann performs the music, which is illustrated with images by cameramen Vittorio Storaro and Nic Knowland. The stellar cast includes Richard Burton, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Vanessa Redgrave and László Gállfi.
The film will be screened in three parts with a one hour interval and introduced by Tony Palmer
Thanks to Tony Palmer
In this multi-award winning film (including Golden Berlin Bear, 2011) Nader and Simin argue about living abroad. Simin prefers to live abroad to provide better opportunities for their only daughter, Termeh. However, Nader refuses to go because he thinks he must stay in Iran and take care of his father who suffers from Alzheimer's. However, Simin is determined to get a divorce and leave the country with her daughter. Their argument has escalated into a demand for divorce. The film shows a middle-class household under siege; there are semi-unsolved mysteries, angry confrontations and family burdens: an ageing parent and two children from warring camps appearing to make friends.
Thanks to Artificial Eye
The narrative revolves around two sisters during and shortly after the wedding party of one of them, while Earth is about to collide with an approaching rogue planet. The film prominently features music from Richard Wagner's prelude to his opera Tristan und Isolde. Trier's initial inspiration for the film came from a depressive episode he suffered and the insight that depressed people remain calm in stressful situations. The film was much feted at Festivals and the lead actresses gave prize-winning performances. Lars von Trier ‘ has made one of the most unforgettable, unshakably unique films of this year.’ Jim Tudor.
Once again we welcome Jan Faull from the BFI who brings a curated selection of old film, this time Tales from the Shipyard. Those who came last year to her collection King Coal will have enjoyed local film from Cumbria amnd the North West. Tales from the Shipyard is the second in the BFI collection This Working Life a three-part celebration of Britain's industrial heritage as seen through the eyes of filmmakers from the Victorian era to the present day. The remaining part which will be compiled for next year by the BFI will be on the steel industry
Barrow-In-Furness shipbuilders Vickers are featured adding local interest. Paul Rotha’s modernist classic Shipyard (1935, 24min) filmed at Barrow in Furness, captures the building of a liner with the eye of a painter. A rare opportunity that should not be missed.
Thanks to BFI
Single mother Anna (Noomi Rapace) is moved with her 8 year old son Anders (Vetle Qvenild Werring) to a secret address outside Oslo, fleeing as they are from her abusive husband. Fearing for their lives, Anna is perpetually terrified that she and her vulnerable son will be found at any moment. So that Anders can sleep in his own bed, and to allay the suspicions of her supposed protectors, Anna invests in a babycall monitor. However, sequestered in the symmetrical monotone concrete of the flat, a legacy of short-sighted 1960s Oslo architecture, Anna hears the babycall pick up the
distressed voice of another troubled child.
When no trace of this child can be found, Anna’s fragile psychological state is called into question.
Thanks to Soda Pictures.
Rooted in real life – injury and death from car accidents are now alarmingly common in Argentina – Trapero’s film feels almost like a documentary in its early scenes outlining the mostly nocturnal work of ambulance medic Luján (Gusman), on the one hand, and ambulance-chasing lawyer Sosa (Darin), on the other.
"The film turns steadily into a taut, suspenseful noir thriller, alert to the psychological needs and doubts of its clearly star-cross'd lovers and to the visceral physicality of both hospital work and criminal violence alike. Darin and Gusman, each of them excellent, receive sterling support from the rest of the cast, while superb camerawork and editing create a mood of tense immediacy from the attention-catching start to the spiralling chaos of the extraordinarily gripping finale." Geoff Andrews, Time Out
Thanks to Axiom Films
On general release from 2nd March 2012
For more information see axiomfilms.co.uk
Showing at KFF
Sailcloth
Our screening of Lou will be preceded by Elfar Adalsteins’ Sailcloth also staring John Hurt and...
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