Forget winter – summer is coming! At least in theory, anyway. For Scottish cinephiles, that often heralds the approach of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which crash-lands in the capital on the 19th June. But EIFF-goers won’t be having all the fun, as exciting programmes from the Edinburgh Filmhouse and the Glasgow Film Theatre can testify. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s in store:
Sebastián Lelio / Chile, USA / 2018 / 102 mins
Oscar-winning director Sebastián Lelio (A Fantastic Woman) remakes his own 2013 film Gloria in this American adaptation, starring the evergreen Julianne Moore in the title role. A free-spirited divorcée, Gloria divides her time between the office water-cooler and the nightclub dancefloor, until a chance meeting with a caring (but slightly overbearing) suitor makes her question her priorities.
@ Edinburgh Filmhouse from Fri 7 Jun
@ GFT from Fri 7 Jun
Claire Denis / UK, France, Germany, USA, Poland / 2018 / 113 mins
Not your average sci-fi flick, High Flick features Robert Pattinson as Monte, a convicted criminal who swaps jailtime for a mysterious space mission. Alongside fellow felons Boyse (Mia Goth) and Tchemy (André Benjamin), Monte soon realises that he and his other space inmates are nothing more than subjects in a bizarre study of sexuality, overseen by the craft’s enigmatic doctor (Juliette Binoche).
@ Edinburgh Filmhouse from Fri 7 Jun
Tim Travers Hawkins / UK / 2019 / 92 mins
Trans woman Chelsea Manning made headlines in 2010 by releasing the largest swathe of classified documents (750,000 of the blighters, to be precise) to Wikileaks and earning herself a lifelong jail sentence in the process. But just seven years into that punishment, President Obama took the unusual and unexpected step of commuting it and releasing her prematurely. This documentary follows her life thereafter.
@ Edinburgh Filmhouse from Fri 7 Jun
Naziha Arebi / Libya, UK / 2018 / 97 mins
This arresting documentary spans five years as it follows the members of an all-female football club who harbour dreams of playing for the Libyan national team. When civil war throws the mightiest of spanners into those machinations, the women must fight harder than ever to achieve their ambitions. Truly aspirational, the film looks at the clash between historical and societal upheaval and personal life goals.
@ Edinburgh Filmhouse from Wed 12 Jun
@ GFT from Mon 3 Jun
Carl Hunter / UK / 2018 / 87 mins
Billy Nighy stars as Alan, a retired tailor and avid Scrabbler who risks the wrath of one son by spending decades trying to track down another. During an online bout of his favourite board game, Alan stumbles across an anonymous rival who plays a high-scoring word with deep significance and new life is breathed into Alan’s quest. Verbosity and familial strife abound in this engaging, life-affirming flick.
@ Edinburgh Filmhouse from Fri 14 Jun
Michael ‘Bully’ Herbig / Germany / 2018 / 125 mins
Sometimes the truth is so audacious that fiction can’t hope to hold a candle to it. This incredible true story follows two families from East Germany at the height of the country’s conflict, who went to unbelievable lengths to evade the clutches of their Stasi persecutors. As the title suggests, their escape plan involved the construction of not one but two homemade hot air balloons. Staggering, stirring stuff.
@ Edinburgh Filmhouse from Fri 14 Jun
@ GFT from Fri 14 Jun
Dominga Sotomayor Castillo / Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Qatar, Netherlands / 2018 / 110 mins
Set just after the tumultuous regime of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile, this touching film focuses on the burgeoning optimism and hesitant trepidation of a society just beginning to stretch its limbs after years of repression. With a group of rurally-based teenagers at its core, the movie is an uplifting Bildungsroman partly inspired by the director’s own childhood.
@ Edinburgh Filmhouse on Tue 18 & Wed 19 Jun
@ GFT from Tue 28 May