F-Rated
Our programme of films featuring the work of female directors has coincided with the development of the F-rating, a new system designed to flag up the significant involvement of women in film, on either side of the camera.
The F-Rating Manifesto
The stories we see on screen influence our lives. We want to hear stories from everyone, not just from one section of society.
We want diversity in filmmaking, both on and off screen.
The F-rating was founded by Holly Tarquini at Bath Film Festival 2014 where we wanted to highlight films which feature prominent women both behind the camera and in front of it.
Every film which ticks yes to the one of the following questions receives the F-rating of approval:
- Does it have a female director?
- Is it written by a woman?
- Is/are there complex female characters on screen who exist in their own right (not simply there to support to the male lead)?
The F stands for feminist.
Feminism is: "The belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities." We believe that feminism benefits everyone.
Featuring
"She's dancing when we first see her. Wearing headphones. We can't hear the music but we can see her response to it, the energy in her movements, the passion. She's good – the best in the group, its other members will later agree. She's full of life, but by the halfway point in July Jung's incisive and devastating film, she will be dead" - so starts Jennie Kermode's review in Eye for Film.
Sohee is a bright high school pupil, studying pet care when her school work-experience teacher gets her a 'plumb' job working in a call centre. She takes the job with enthusiasm, but is soon worn down by the high pressure and lack of support, gradually crushing her spirit until she can take it no more...
Detective Oh Yoo-jin is brought in to find out what happened, but with opposition from all sides. She begins to realise that Sohee is not an isolated case, but a feature of the system...Kim Si-Eun plays Sohee, Oh is played by Bae Doona, who also played a police officer in Jung's previous film 'A Girl at My Door', which we showed in 2015; both get great reviews. Jennie Kermode finishes with "There's a real sense of fury behind this film... The problem at its core is systemic but Jung makes a strong case to the effect that it must be addressed with the same vigour as one would expect if individuals were causing equivalent harm. Sohee is broken to the point where she cannot see any hope. Oh likewise makes some bleak discoveries, but her attitude – as someone older with a stronger sense of possibility – is very different. Next Sohee speaks for people who do not have a voice, and it does so eloquently".
A marriage of convenience hits its first snag when the bride removes her clothes. A story based on the first 'bearded lady' carnival acts, this tries to bring a feminist angle when Rosalie 'comes out' in the café they run. She decides to throw off the humiliation and bets a customer she can grow a better beard than him.
"Di Gusto's finest work comes when she is celebrating her protagonist's new-found freedom. The first half of the film provides depth into an argument about how judgemental we can be in regards to how we and others look... we are all different, and that should be celebrated" - Natasha Jagger, Little White Lies.
Some of the villagers are brought round to supporting her... whilst others are not...
Josh O'Connor, who can do no wrong, stars in 'his best performance to date'; Alice Rohrwacher directs her 'best film to date'. How good can it get?
"As Arthur, a renegade British archaeologist in 1980s Tuscany, O'Connor plays his character as a man adrift and disconnected from the world. The de facto leader, thanks to his mystical gift for divining the location of long-sealed tombs, of a rowdy and disreputable band of grave robbers, or tombaroli, Arthur reluctantly inhabits the present but is continually drawn to the past: to the distant past, and the beauty of the ancient artefacts that he hawks to collectors, and to the recent past, and an elusive time of happiness with his lost love Beniamina" - Wendy Ide, Observer.
Starting in London, we meet Rona who is spiralling to the bottom of her alcoholic life, pushing her loving partner Daynin away on her way downwards. She decides to run for cover to the place of her youth, Orkney. Not out of the woods yet - her family there cause her more heartaches - but she gradually finds peace and tranquility in the remote and windswept Scottish Islands. Co-written for the screen with Amy Liptrot, based on her own memoir, the German director Nora Fingscheidt "brilliantly weaves together wildlife, sharp-edged landscapes, folkloric tales, and psychological healing across some of the most gorgeous nature shots you'll see this year" - Tomris Laffly, Harper's Bazaar.
"It's an incredibly effective portrait of a reeling mind, the visual language of intrusive thoughts and rabbit holes. There's a familiar dread to her descent, as she confuses the repetitive loop of benders with freedom. Fingscheidt stages Rona's first few months in Orkney – gray, windswept, isolated – in great contrast to the vivid nightlife of London, memories of which are increasingly blotted, piecemeal and truncated by shame. And yet, as her story unravels, Orkney opens up; Rona moves even farther north to weather the storm alone.The way Rona's life is lightly yet still definitively shaped by the internet add to a convincing portrait of a real recovery" - Adrian Horton, Guardian.
Rona is played by Saoirse Ronan in another potentially award winning performance - "When it comes to disappearing into emotionally and physically demanding roles, there are a few actors out there as gifted and committed" - Tomris Laffly again.
This thriller-cum-political drama takes place in the Green Border - the space between Belarus and Poland where hopeful refugees wait the next stage of their journey into Europe… "Except it never comes, because, as Holland shows us, the refugees are pawns in a wider political game: Belarus... is using them to destabilise the borders of the EU, and in contravention to EU law, Poland is throwing them back (sometimes literally). We see two sets of border guards outdoing each other for cruelty, as the refugees yo-yo from one side to the other, enduring life without shelter in the woods as well-meaning activists offer comfort but no way out" - Phil de Semlyen, Time Out.
"Sometimes movies about tough subjects end up being such brutal experiences you almost wish you hadn't seen them. Green Border is the opposite: it's likely to leave you feeling emboldened and galvanized, if also a little sadder and wiser. It's a quiet masterstroke" - Stephanie Zacharek, Time.
"As discouraging art-house titles go, 'About Dry Grasses' is a cracker, right up there for me with an early Ozu, 'I Was Born, But...' In almost every other way too, the Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan's ninth feature would seem to make the perfect pretentious date movie in a Woody Allen comedy" - David Sexton, New Statesman. "Hope, disappointment, self-discovery: they're all in here, along with, in the end, the dry grasses. Some will consider the film a masterpiece; others an ordeal. I'd lean towards the former but would also offer this advice: take sandwiches" - Deborah Ross, Spectator.
So, is this just a pretentious, too-long, art-house movie, or a masterpiece? Set in a small town, buried in Eastern Anatolia, Samet is a 30-something school teacher, stuck here on a four year compulsory posting. He is accused of inappropriate behaviour with a 14-year-old pupil, Sevim, whilst his pursuing of Nuray, an attractive, independent fellow-teacher, seems to be getting nowhere as she, maybe, prefers his colleague Kenan. Like all Ceylan movies, it is beautiful in the extreme and full of words; co-written with his wife, Ebru Ceylan, long conversations abound, full of the basic tenet of the film - "every truth is partial as it's tinged with the teller's perspective. Even our own conclusions on the state of the world and our role in it must be scrutinized, since neither hope nor despair should be fully believed" - Carlos Aguilar, RogerEbert.com.
This looks like a masterpiece to me, but should you believe me or not?! Hopefully you will, but either way come along and decide for yourself. Maybe, if you have doubts, you should bring sandwiches...
This film was chosen by the members last season, but it was withdrawn by the distributors; it is now available! It was the first Mongolian film to be shown at Cannes Film Festival. It follows the daily life of Ulzii, a young 15-year-old boy, who is torn between personal ambition and family loyalty.
Ulzii is a brilliant scholar at school, pushed by his teacher to go for a physics prize which could lead him to escape his life of poverty. At home, he lived with his mother and three other children; his father had lead them from the countryside to the town for a job and then 'had the audacity to die', leaving the mother to cope alone. This she has failed to do, becoming an alcoholic along the way. When she leaves to go back to the country, Ulzii is left with two siblings to keep fed...and warm: the winter can get to –35C. Eventually his loyalty makes him take a job, but how can he keep up his studies?
The film is written, directed and produced by Zoljargal Purevdash. She says she wanted to show that a lot of the high pollution in the town is caused by poverty: the people are forced to burn large amounts of coal just to survive. She also wanted to show the use of child labour, all in the hope that the people can unite to stop the pollution and the poverty. She has done this in a film which is not overtly political. - "There's a genuine tenderness between these siblings that brings moments of laughter and warmth; the only kind to be found in the freezing Mongolian winter, which soon infiltrates the yurt...this is a family home, after all, and there are photos on the wall, toys scattered on the floor and a television in the corner. Indeed, the whole film is careful to portray its characters as dynamic individuals attempting to break free of economic shackles rather than victims of circumstance" - Nikki Baughan, Screen Daily.
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Revisit 2015 Festival
16th Keswick Film Festival
Take a look back as we celebrated Dogme, told you to Get On Yer Bike and welcomed the makers of the Cumbrian-based film Radiator, plus much more...
Revisit 2011 Festival
12th Keswick Film Festival
In 2011 we were joined by Kay Mellor and Jack Gold, celebrated Film4 and Agnès Varda and had a sing along to Frankenstein.
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