My Brother The Devil (2012)
★★★★☆
A London La Haine, Sally El-Hosaini’s mesmerising debut My Brother The Devil looks at brotherhood, homosexuality and turf wars in post-riot Hackney.
London Film Festival
Argo (2012)
★★★☆☆
On a mission to retrieve six Americans in hiding from Iran, Ben Affleck’s Argo is a taut thriller and a hilarious Hollywood caper. Just don’t talk politics.
Rust And Bone / De Rouille Et D’Os (2012)
★★★★☆
A tour-de-force of violence and casual love, Jacques Audiard’s Rust And Bone sees the human spirit triumph over the body’s all-too-vulnerable fragility.
Keep The Lights On (2012)
★★★★★
A fictional retelling of a boy’s own story, Ira Sachs’ Keep The Lights On charts a nine-year relationship from love’s first highs to its bitterest lows.
Beasts Of The Southern Wild (2012)
★★★☆☆
Mixing magical realism and environmental disaster, Benh Zeitlin’s debut Beasts Of The Southern Wild is a cajun gumbo of childhood, community and imagination.
Film Festival: The 56th London Film Festival 2012
In the year of London 2012, the 56th London Film Festival is exploring the capital, from Dickensian Smithfield via the brutalist Barbican to modern-day Hackney.
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Silent Souls / Ovsyanki (2010)
★★★☆☆
A ritualised mourning for a lost civilisation, Aleksei Fedorchenko’s Silent Souls is a poetic stream of images and ideas.
Sing Your Song (2011)
★★★☆☆
Charting fifty years of prejudice and injustice, Susanne Rostock’s biopic documentary Sing Your Song is a serenade to Harry Belafonte and the philanthropy of celebrity.
This Must Be The Place (2011)
★★★★☆
His first English language feature, Paolo Sorrentino’s This Must Be The Place turns the U-turn into a narrative art as a has-been popstar turns Nazi-hunter.
Headhunter / Hodejegerne
★★★★☆
Based on the bestselling novel by Jo Nesbø, Headhunters is a taut Norwegian thriller of slick art thefts, aggressive male rivalry and big inferiority complexes.
Wild Bill (2011)
★★★☆☆
Set in Stratford’s badlands, Dexter Fletcher’s debut feature Wild Bill has Olympian dreams of turning a wayward father into a family hero. So very London 2012.
The Kid With A Bike / Le Gamin Au Vélo (2011)
★★★★☆
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne return to heartbreaking form with The Kid With A Bike with a little boy lost looking for love with all the kinetic anxiety he can muster.
Once Upon A Time In Anatolia / Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da (2011)
★★★★☆
An epic night-time police investigation, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Once Upon A Time In Anatolia exhumes an inconvenient truth from the soul’s darkest recesses.
How To Re-establish A Vodka Empire (2012)
★★★☆☆
How To Re-establish A Vodka Empire is a creative look at Dan Edelstyn’s attempt to retrace his lost Ukrainian heritage and relaunch the family vodka brand.