Permission

Permission is about a female football captain who is denied the right to leave the country for the cup final at the last minute by her husband. He is a slick looking Nice Guy TM who has been waiting for her to fall on her face and, since that hasn’t happened, has decided now is…

Girls of the Sun

Girls of the Sun is a fictionalised account of the unit of Yazidi and Kurdish women fighting Isis who were themselves former Isis captives. It even has its own Marie Colvinesque war reporter, complete with eye patch, documenting them taking back their home town. The main character is Bahar, a lawyer whose husband is killed…

Murder Me, Monster

Murder Me, Monster is a whole pile of nothing. The only interesting scene is when they finally find the monster and it has a prehensile dick for a tail and a fanny for a face. The main character fist fucks the monster’s face while it bums him with its tail. Nothing else happens in the…

Of Fish Or Foe

Of Fish Or Foe is a documentary about one of the last coastal salmon netting fishing family businesses running in Scotland, and the pressure that is brought to bear on them over the course of a year to put them out of business. The pressure comes from 2 groups, a branch of hunt sabs called…

Girl

I’d heard some of the criticism of Girl, that it focused too much on the trans body and placed too much emphasis on medical transition. Then I saw it, and boy howdy! Does it ever. I mean, wow. Yeah, not difficult to see why folks had problem with it. This is very much a trans…

Thunder Road

Thunder Road is amazing! Funniest movie of the festival so far. Really, bleakly dark humour. It follows Jim, a buttoned-down, dorky, Texan, beat cop as he has the worst week of his life. If you ever wondered what it’d be like if a stereotypical, yes-sir, thank ya-ma’am, policeman took a total nervous breakdown, the answer…

Stop Motion: Life Between Frames

A live talk with 3 animators who have worked on films including Isle of Dogs, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Fantastic Mister Fox. It was really interesting to get a look behind the scenes and hear firsthand about all the work that goes in to every shot. Given how labour intensive it is, it’s…

The Man Who Surprised Everyone

The Man Who Surprised Everyone is a queer film out of Russian. A well-respected family man at the centre of his rural community is diagnosed with untreatable terminal cancer. He makes preparations for his family once he’s gone but his wife begs him to go for last-ditch efforts, even seeking out a traditional healer. This…

The Public

The Public is an American movie about homeless people occupying a public library one night during winter. Before the occupation starts, the depiction of what it’s like to work in a library is TOO TRUTH. Defo recognisable to anyone who’s worked in one. The occupation starts out of humanitarian need, but becomes politicised during the…