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 ... is kicking off on 18th October with a screening of The Last King of Scotland, starring Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy and Gillian Anderson.
Apart from that, the Festival is 50 years old this year and so the 50 Screens
event is going to take place in celebration on Sunday 29th October at
8:30pm. A surprise film will be showing in 50 venues across London,
ranging from a closed showing at Holloway Prison (luckily it's free for
inmates) to 'A Living Room in London' to Heathrow Terminal 4 Departure
Lounge (free for travellers), as well as cinemas across London, from
Fulham Broadway to Surrey Quays. Tickets cost £5 and may be well worth
it to be part of a record-breaking event...
So what about the non-surprise films? Press screenings have been going
on for the past two weeks, so here's a preview of what to look out
for...
Kabul Express (dir. Kabir Khan, India, 2006)
Documentary maker Kabir Khan - who was involved in a 2006 film about the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl - has had much experience of filming in Afghanistan, which has inspired Kabul Express. It is set in Afghanistan in November 2001, post-9/11 reprisals and the fall of the Taliban. An unlikely array of characters are thrown together: two Indian journalists, a female American photojournalist, a Pakistani member of the Taliban and their Afghan driver. Khan obviously knows the terrain well, and the film conveys the complete otherness and hostility of the landscape. Yet, the bleakness is offset by some assured comic performances among the mismatched travellers. The culture clash, and the insight into a completely alien world, is fascinating.
Reprise (dir. Joachim Trier, Norway, 2006)
 A film about the great "what if...?" In this case, it is the separate, and conflicting, dreams of aspiring novelists, Philip and Erik, that lead the film in one direction, and then another. Although it is Philip alone who wins the prize of fame and fortune, this alone is not enough to make him happy, and the film teems with the 'workings out' of an artistic mind: every alternative direction is considered in this film. Sadly, the twists and turns of experience sour their youthful dreams. Director Trier admits to the influence of Francois Truffaut's Jules et Jim, but this film is a unique vision of its own.
Container (Lukas Moodysson, Sweden, 2005)
Moodysson, director of Show Me Love (1998, aka Fucking Amal in his native Denmark) which was about female teenage homosexuality, and Lilya 4-Ever (2002), the bleak tale of a young Russian girl left behind when her mother emigrates to the USA; she has to turn to prostitution to survive. Container is a very different, gentler movie, but still hard work. The black and white visuals, overlaid with Jena (Donne Darko) Malone's languid (and often frankly baffling) monologue gives the film a hypnotic, dreamy quality. Ostensibly about a young man who feels that he was born the wrong gender, the themes take in the whole spectrum of issues, from Paris Hilton's antics to the horrors of Chernobyl. A hard-going, but unforgettable experience.
More updates from the festival coming soon...
For more information, see The Times BFI London Film Festival website.
To contact the author: suchandrika@gmail.com
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