- Apparently disparate sequences of a real estate trade show, a street market and masterpieces of world art cohere into a razor sharp critique of commercialism and spirituality in Mercedes Alvarez’s Futures Market. With a superb sense of composition, the film follows different stages in the lives of objects from the sales pitches of realtors for [...]Click to read more about this film »
- The Film Festival’s collaboration with top homegrown record label Yadig continues with a folk film showcase featuring our favourite singer songwriter Serious Sam Barrett, performing alongside an exclusive new documentary about him, Hardeep Pandhal’s stunning Sam at 30, the first of a proposed series of films. Sam has also selected three extraordinary, rarely seen American [...]Click to read more about this film »
- Three stunning short films from Korean genre master Park Chan Wook, director of Old Boy and Thirst. Park’s new short film Night Fishing (co-directed with his brother and shot on an Iphone 4) is the story of a woman reeled in from the water who turns out to be a shaman acting as a medium [...]Click to read more about this film »
- Based on the graphic novels of Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis is the poignant and hilarious biographical story of Marji: from a rebellious, heavy metal loving tomboy experiencing the turmoil of adolescence during the tyrannical Iranian revolution to a teenage exile in Vienna, Austria, where she discovers the benefits of freedom can also cause deep conflict. Returning [...]Click to read more about this film »
- Spearheading the recent trend of intelligent, political animation, Waltz with Bashir cleverly manipulates its unique style to interrogate the process of memory through traumatic experiences. One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari Folman about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs. They conclude that there’s a [...]Click to read more about this film »
- Uncompromising Hungarian master Bela Tarr has threatened that A Turin Horse will be his last ever film. If so, it would make a magnificent swansong, but it would be a real loss for cinema. The film is set in Turin in 1889, using the famous anecdote of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s mental breakdown as its starting [...]Click to read more about this film »
- An audience favourite in LIFF 2008, DMC returns this year for our Planet Japan celebration. The world’s first death metal romantic musical comedy, DMC brings a hit Japanese manga to hilarious life. Witness songs about cheese tarts and sex on the River Styx and guest cameos from Gene Simmons and the Power Rangers. Death Note [...]Click to read more about this film »
- The incredible rise of Jon Gnarr, iconoclastic comedian turned Reykjavik mayoral candidate and his controversial Best Party, which began as a parody and turned into a spectacular if controversial success story. No country epitomizes the boom and bust absurdities of capitalism better than Iceland since its sudden crash from economic success story to national bankrupcy. [...]Click to read more about this film »
- Symbol is a sublime feat of surreal comic fantasy from cult Japanese filmmaker Hitoshi Matsumoto, whose debut Big Man Japan is also showing at LIFF25. A man wakes up and finds himself mysteriously trapped in an empty, white rectangular room, wearing clownish bright yellow polka dot pyjamas. His attempts to solve the puzzle and escape [...]Click to read more about this film »
- A subtle, intimate documentary portraying family life, Daughters of Malakeh transcends its gentle subject to create an insightful expose of gender politics in Iranian life. In public, Maryam wears a headscarf and obeys the rules of the state. But in the privacy of her own home, she’s the breadwinner who runs the show, along with [...]Click to read more about this film »
