London Film Festival
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Amador’
★★★☆☆ Spanish director Fernando León de Aranoa writes and directs well-meaning drama Amador, focusing upon the lives of Bolivian immigrants in Madrid – an under-represented group in cinematic terms – specifically Marcela (Magaly Solier) and her flower-selling partner Nelson (Pietro Sibille).After discovering that she is pregnant (and in order to make ends meet due to…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Stopped on Track’
★★★★☆ Jonathan Levine’s ‘cancer comedy’ 50/50 (2011) may have grabbed a significant slice of BFI London Film Festival press attention this week, but it is Andreas Dresen’s deeply honest, darkly comic family drama Stopped on Track (Halt auf freier Strecke, 2011) that deserves to win the majority of plaudits thanks to some stellar performances, most…
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LFF 2011: ‘Terraferma’
★★☆☆☆ Every European country seems convinced that it is an especial victim of illegal immigration. The UK sees itself as a soft touch, as do Germany and France. For Italy, the geographical proximity to Northern Africa and a long coastline has led to some extremely draconian legislation to deal with the perceived crisis. This is…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Abu, Son of Adam’
★★☆☆☆ The yearly Muslim Hajj (the holy pilgrimage to Mecca) remains one of the most incredible feats of faith and endurance in human history, which makes it all the more baffling that Salim Ahamed’s directorial debut Abu, Son of Adam (Adaminte Makan Abu, 2011) – starring Salim Kumar, M.R. Gopakumar and Jaffer Idukki – is…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Asshole’ (‘Gandu’)
★★★☆☆ Described by its director Kaushik Mukherjee (Q) as a ‘rap musical’ and starring Anubrata Basu and Joyraj Bhattacharjee, Bengali film Asshole (Gandu, 2011) is perhaps the most controversial – and arguably the bravest – selection made by this year’s BFI London Film Festival committee due to its explicit language, graphic drug abuse and scenes…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘360’
★★☆☆☆ Messy, disorganised and far from an ideal way to start a film festival – this statement could as easily be applied to the scenes of furious construction currently taking place in London’s Leicester square as it can to the 55th BFI London Film Festival’s Opening Night Gala film, Fernando Meirelles’ 360 (2011), which stars…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: Our top 20 programme picks
The 55th BFI London Film Festival 2011 is nearly upon us (make sure you visit our coverage section here from the 12th onwards), so to celebrate this impending cinematic feat, the CineVue team have put our collective heads together and produced a list of our top 20 picks from this year’s extremely strong LFF programme.…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: Preview
The BFI today announced the full programme for this year’s 55th BFI London Film Festival, which takes place between 12-27 October. The undoubted highlights of the 300-strong list of features and shorts were the world premieres of Fernando Meirelles’ 360, Terence Davies’ The Deep Blue Sea, as well as UK premieres for George Clooney’s The…