7 must-watch films at Glasgow Film Festival
Another strong Glasgow Film Festival programme is upon us with top-notch retrospectives, thrilling new movies and inventive animations. Here’s a septet of highlights from opening night to the closing gala
Everybody To Kenmure Street
Chilean-Belgian director Felipe Bustos Sierra made his name on these shores with Nae Pasaran in 2018 and he’s back with a documentary which focuses on the Pollokshields community who came to the aid of two Sikh men who were removed from their homes by immigration officers. A fitting film with which to open this festival.
GFT, Wednesday 25 & Thursday 26 February.
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Late Fame
A former video archivist for Scorsese, Kent Jones made the 2015 documentary Hitchcock/Truffaut and here he adapts a posthumous novella by Arthur Schnitzler. Greta Lee and Willem Dafoe star in this tale of a poet who receives a dose of recognition at the tail end of his career.
GFT, Saturday 28 February; Odeon Glasgow Quay, Tuesday 3 March.
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Kokuho
Directly translated as Living National Treasure, this drama directed by Lee Sang-il centres on a renowned kabuki actor who finds himself mixed up in tensions and violence between rival yakuza groups. Based on a 2018 novel which stretched to 800 pages, the original cut of this film was four hours long before being successfully trimmed to a mere 175 minutes.
Odeon Glasgow Quay, Sunday 1 March; GFT, Monday 2 March.
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No Ordinary Heist
Starring the always wonderful Eddie Marsan and Éanna Hardwicke (Roy Keane in Saipan), this thriller tells the true story of the 2004 multi-million pound robbery of the Northern Bank in Belfast. It was a case that had repercussions for the peace process in Northern Ireland and was, as the title says, no ordinary heist.
GFT, Sunday 1, Thursday 5 March.
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Duck Soup
The Marx Brothers tore up the rule book once again with their anti-war (or pro-war, it’s hard to tell) take on two daft nations at loggerheads. This 1933 movie also features the iconic and much copied ‘mirror’ sequence. While the current US president claims that Citizen Kane is his favourite movie, you have to wonder if he was inspired more by the maddening chaos of Duck Soup.
GFT, Monday 2 March.
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Allah Is Not Obliged
Based on Ahmadou Kourouma’s award-winning novel, this animation follows the story of a ten-year-old orphan from Guinea who tries to track his aunt down in Liberia before being thrust into tribal warfare.
GFT, Thursday 5 March.
California Schemin’
James McAvoy’s directorial debut revolves around the bizarre true story of two Dundonians who pretended to be an American rap duo in order to have some fun in LA until it all got a bit out of hand. This closing gala event should be a riot.
GFT, Sunday 8 March.