March is upon us! In theory, it’s the month that heralds the demise of winter and the start of spring – though from this week’s weather forecast, you wouldn’t believe it. Why not continue the long hibernation away from record cold temperatures by indulging in a new release or 11 at the Edinburgh Filmhouse? Here’s what’s in store over the next 31 days:
Sebastián Lelio / Chile / 2017 / 104 mins
Nominated in the Best Foreign Film category at this year’s Oscars, Una mujer fantástica sees Daniela Vega play a trans woman (Marina) struggling to cope with the sudden death of her older boyfriend. As if that trauma wasn’t enough, she also must deal with the narrow-minded abuse of his family and wider society.
@ Filmhouse from Fri 2 to Thu 15 Mar
Greta Gerwig / USA / 2017 / 94 mins
Saoirse Ronan stars as the eponymous “Lady Bird” (aka Christine), a misfit teen who struggles with studies, boyfriends and family… so all the normal worries of adolescent life. Gerwig’s script and Ronan’s performance, along with a great supporting cast, make for a quirky and compelling Bildungsroman of the first order.
@ Filmhouse from Fri 2 to Thu 22 Mar
Petra Volpe / Switzerland / 2016 / 96 mins
Scheduled to coincide with International Woman’s Day (Thursday 8th March), this preview screening details the struggle of Swiss women to gain suffrage… almost half a century after the same rights were granted to females in the UK. Affecting and relevant.
Warwick Thornton / Australia / 2017 / 113 mins
The classic Western is given a race-relations twist in the Australian outback, when an Aboriginal farmhand kills a white landowner in self-defence. Based on a true story, this gritty but beautiful drama brings a unique perspective to a much-trodden genre.
@ Filmhouse from Fri 9 to Thu 22 Mar
Ruben Östlund / Sweden, Germany, France, Denmark / 2017 / 151 mins
A Swedish rival to A Fantastic Woman for Best Foreign Film, The Square is a biting satire on the state of modern society. The life of a modern art museum curator begins to unravel after he is mugged and becomes distracted in his duties, leading to a major PR gaffe and unforeseen consequences in his private life.
@ Filmhouse from Fri 16 to Thu 29 Mar
James Erskine / UK / 2018 / 89 mins
Hot on the heels of Oscar candidate I, Tonya comes another ice skating biopic, this time concerning British legend of the sport John Curry. But whereas the former is a light-hearted romp, The Ice King is a far more touching affair, dealing as it does with the first openly gay athlete in the 1976 Olympic Games.
@ Filmhouse from Fri 16 to Mon 19 Mar
Lynne Ramsay / UK, USA, France / 2017 / 85 mins
Seven long years after Lynne Ramsay’s last film We Need to Talk About Kevin, the director is back with another dark tale of violence and intrigue. This time, Joaquin Phoenix plays a contract killer who’s tasked with the difficult job of rescuing a Senator’s daughter from the hands of kidnappers.
@ Filmhouse from Fri 23 Mar to Thu 5 Apr
Clio Barnard / UK / 2017 / 89 mins
The prodigal daughter returns to the family farm after the death of her dear old dad, only to find a barely recognisable and heavily hostile family waiting for her. As tensions rise, memories that have been long buried come to the fore.
@ Filmhouse from Fri 23 to Thu 29 Mar
Tarik Saleh / Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France / 2017 / 106 mins
No one does gritty crime dramas quite like the Nordics, and here the directorial team give that treatment to the subject of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. Featuring a typically amoral anti-hero and lashings of noir stylisation, it’s no surprise this scooped the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance film festival last year.
@ Filmhouse from Fri 30 Mar to Tue 3 Apr
Wes Anderson / USA, Germany / 2018 / 105 mins
Everyone’s favourite indie director returns to the stop-motion animation that proved so popular in 2009 with Fantastic Mr. Fox. Again, animals are the focus, as determined youth Atari (Koyu Rankin) travels to an offshore island to try and search for his own pooch among a multitude of exiled dogs.
Here to Be Heard: The Story of the Slits
William E. Badgley / UK / 2017 / 86 mins
Knocking about at the same time as Sex Pistols and The Clash, The Slits were the first all-girl punk band. This documentary charts their remarkable but underappreciated careers, from their punky-reggae beginnings in the 70s to their tragic end over thirty years later.