Festival Review: Gold Coast / Guldkysten (2015)
★★★☆☆
Plunging the sorry history of Danish colonialism, Daniel Dencik’s Gold Coast brings a wealth of image and colour to a dark time.
★★★☆☆
Plunging the sorry history of Danish colonialism, Daniel Dencik’s Gold Coast brings a wealth of image and colour to a dark time.
★★★☆☆
Revisiting history through the descendants of two high-serving Nazis and a Holocaust survivor, David Evans’My Nazi Legacy bites off more than it can chew.
★★★★☆
A sensitive study of imprisonment and the painfulness of freedom, Lenny Abrahamson’s Room is an emotional, cinematic tour-de-force.
★★★★☆
A devastating portrait of life in Auschwitz’ Sonderkommando, László Nemes’ Son Of Saul is a powerful testament of faith.
★★★☆☆
With an outstanding performance from Ben Foster, Stephen Frears’ The Program gets bogged down in intricately retelling the rise and fall of Lance Armstrong.
★★★☆☆
Adapting JG Ballard’s dystopian novel for the silver screen, Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise is a glamorous reproduction of the Seventies high life.
★★★★☆
Beautifully paced and scripted, Dagur Kári’s Virgin Mountain is the deft tale of an ageing mummy’s boy who finds both love and himself.
★★★☆☆
Staging a battle of the sexes in Algiers, Merzak Allouache’s Madame Courage reveals a desperate injustice pervading male and female relationships.
★★☆☆☆
A German horror film of Berlin clubs and imaginary creatures, Akiz’s Der Nachtmahr is a pulsating delirium of colourful and haunting images.
★★★☆☆
Celebrating nearly a century of women’s right to vote, Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette is an important and inspirational film on democracy in action.
★★★★☆
A very personal film, Nanni Moretti’s Mia Madre sees a film director cope with the death of her mother whilst shooting a film with an uncontrollable star.
★★★☆☆
Just Jim by Welsh actor, writer and director Craig Roberts, is a dark, offbeat coming-of-age story set in South Wales.
★★☆☆☆
Highlighting one teenage girl’s struggle to manage life as the only hearing member of her deaf family, Eric Lartigau’s La Famille Bélier is riddled with clichés.
★★★★☆
Evoking the last days of Pier Paolo Pasolini, Abel Ferrara’s Pasolini lets the controversial Italian filmmaker’s thoughts and ideas do the scandalising.