Keswick Film Festival

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A beautiful, gentle film about family, identity and so much more, which won its star, Sofia Otero the Best Actress award at the Berlin Festival… not bad for an 8 year old. Sofia plays Cocó, the youngest son of Ane, who is having problems with her marriage. When Ane takes her family to visit her own mother Lita in Spain, her own identity as a sculptor is thrown into doubt by Lita. Coco meanwhile is more and more sure he is a girl in a boy's body; the only person to accept this is her great aunt Lordes, who is happy with her bees, and with calling her Lucía. So...Pretty well the whole family have identity problems of their own.

The first film by Basque director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, this is a heart-warming attempt to look at some of these huge issues with an open mind, letting Lita tell Ane that she is being too soft on her son, that he just needs putting in his place, while Ane is allowed to support Coco/Lucia without making any real decisions, leaving only Lourdes to take Lucia's side, while she gets on looking after her thousands of bees...

"And Lucía's grandmother is unlikely to be the only person who will push back against the idea of an eight-year-old questioning their gender identity. It's the most scalding of hot-button topics and a brave choice for a debut film. But with this gentle, empathic picture, Urresola joins a conversation that usually plays out as a screaming match, and tones it down to a murmur. It turns out that you hear a lot more that way" - Wendy Ide, Guardian.

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The Palme d'Or winner at Cannes this year is a whodunnit, deliberately built around uncertainty, where marriage is the prime suspect.

Sandra, a German author is married to Samuel, a French aspiring author. They live in an Alpine chalet with their visually impaired son Daniel. Their marriage is argumentative, which becomes especially important when Samuel is found dead outside in the snow. Did he fall? Did he commit suicide? ...Or was he pushed? In a world where perceptions are more important than truth, the police accuse Sandra of murder. But did she do it?

Their marriage is picked over by both sides in the court, where any given 'fact' can be seen to have different meaning - "Marriage, the film suggests, is like a mosaic. One or two highly coloured tiles might catch the eye but they can't, on their own, show the whole picture" - Wendy Ide, Guardian. Much of the film, then, is a courtroom drama, but Wendy Ide goes on to say "A genre that can be prone to stuffiness and overly waffly dialogue, the courtroom drama here is electric, restlessly dynamic and compulsively watchable".

Is she guilty? You will have to decide. "Each individual presents a starkly different vision of their shared existence - yet it's hard to say that either of them is wrong. Does the truth lie somewhere in between or does it encompass both of their realities? Or does it (gasp) simply not exist? The curse of wanting to know everything, it turns out, is the eventual realization that we know nothing" - Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine.

Can you resist coming to see for yourself..?

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Taking a Polish classic novel as a basis, the makers of 'Loving Vincent' have produced a "ravishingly beautiful visual triumph". The story is of Jamila, a striking blonde beauty who is admired by every male in the village, including both the rich Maciej and his eldest son Antek, who Jamila loves. When Maciej arranges a marriage for himself with Jamila, the affair with his son continues, with disastrous results.

BUT the reason to see this film is much more to do with its construction. "It's the sheer luminosity of the images on display that keeps you thoroughly enthralled. The filmmakers' technique involves shooting the entire film in live-action form, with real actors and sometimes real sets, and then painting tens of thousands of frames in rotoscoping fashion to produce the feeling of oil paintings come to dynamic life. The result is near hallucinatory in its effect, as if walking through an art museum filled with masterpieces that have lives of their own" - Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter.

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Shayda tells the story of the titular character's attempt to escape her abusive husband's clutches. The pair have moved to Australia for Hosain to become a doctor, though he wants to return to Iran. Frightened of his continual violence, Shayda takes her daughter Mona into a women's shelter while filing for divorce, but the courts, as often happens, take Hossain's side and give him rights to see his daughter alone. We see Shayda's fear that Hossain will take Mona out of the country in the opening scene as Shayda takes her daughter to the airport to show her places she can hide 'just in case'.

This is director Noora Niasari's confident personal debut , which won an Audience Award at Sundance for the World Dramatic Competition program. "Reportedly based on the filmmaker's own experience, this drama surges with truth, thanks in no small part to a stunning performance from Zar Amir Ebrahimi, winner of Best Actress at Cannes for 'Holy Spider.' Ebrahimi plays [Shayda], alternately processing the trauma of her past and trying to carve out a new future for her daughter. With her abusive husband in the narrative mix, 'Shayda' hums with inevitable dread.

It's a tug-of-war between hope and fear that gives Ebrahimi the platform to carve out a completely three-dimensional character. We come to care for Shayda and her daughter. And, by extension, the thousands of women in the tragically same position in the world" - Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com.

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We end our year with an appropriately named film which brings hope to a world full of troubles. Jodie Comer stars as a woman who gives birth just as terrible floods hit London; new life begins as the old life ends. The film continues to emphasise the individuals' problems rather than the bigger picture, focusing on our unnamed hero trying to survive as food gets harder to find. She first escapes from London up North with her partner, then tries to reach a commune with a new-found friend, all the while having to fend for her baby.

"The End We Start From explores more than motherhood at the end of the world, its subject is every nuance of womanhood at any stage of life. The film takes great care to convey just how wild and new that enormous new stage in life is, how deeply tied to who you were before, and always will be. It's heartening that neither of the seismic changes that occur in this story is what makes or breaks its people: the journey gets harder, but you just keep walking through. Eventually, the rain will always stop" - Ellen Kemp, Evening Standard.

"'The End We Start From'... provides us with an unusual, female powered alternative within a field of films that are usually heavier on action than words. It's carried to the finish line by Comer, an actor whose naturalism is an ideal fit for a character forced to constantly react to the ever changing situation in front of her, no time for anything but a need to survive. When she does get the briefest of pauses, to deliver a moving monologue about a deep-rooted fear of death or to finally allow herself to cry, it's all the more impactful for the restraint that's surrounding and Comer is outstanding whatever the mode. As a big screen star, she's just beginning" - Benjamin Lee, Guardian. Don't miss her big start!

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We have decided that the Festival Favourite - 'Totem' deserves to be seen by more people than got to see it at the festival. We will be showing it on TUESDAY 16 APRIL AT 7.30pm.

Mexico's entry for the 2024 Oscars

Director Lila Avilés' (The Chambermaid) latest film is set in a large house where, over a long day, family and friends meet for the birthday of 7 year old Sol's father, but as it will likely be his last, it is also a farewell ceremony.

Thanks To Verve Pictures