Glasgow Film Festival’s eclectic 2025 line-up platforms previews of imminent attractions. Out later this year, Chinese film Brief History Of A Family (★★★★☆) marks an auspicious debut for writer/director Lin Jianjie, an accomplished domestic drama that maintains a subtle ambiguity right to the final frame. Wei (Lin Muran) is a wealthy schoolboy who strikes up a friendship with the reserved Shuo (Sun Xilun), but when Shuo’s father dies in unknown circumstances, his abrupt arrival in Wei’s household causes displacement issues. This is a Saltburn-adjacent narrative of a bad seed in a posh family, but far less sensational than Emerald Fennell’s movie due to Jianjie’s methodical, calm delivery. 

Four Mothers (★★★☆☆) is an Irish-set adaptation of Gianni Di Gregorio’s 2008 Italian film Mid-August Lunch. James McArdle plays Edward, a gay novelist living in Dublin and struggling with the pressures of promoting his new book, specifically the commitment he’s made to do an American tour which threatens to disrupt his continuity of care to his ageing mother Alma (Fionnula Flanagan). While recovering from a stroke, she can only communicate through a tablet, but Edward’s problems are only multiplied when his friends head off on holiday and collectively dump their own mothers on his doorstep.

Four Mothers offers strong roles not just for Flanagan, but for Dearbhla Molloy, Stella McCusker and Paddy Glynn, plus there’s a pivotal part for Niamh Cusack as Maura, a psychic the mothers seek advice from. Edward’s truncated social life and publishing deal aren’t explored with much depth, but Four Mothers does give articulate voice to the four female characters, highlighting the importance of age inclusiveness. These old ladies might seem rude, but they understand exactly what’s happening to them. 

A rather more brutally immediate family crisis is brought to shocking life in Red Path (★★★★☆), a Tunisian drama from Lotfi Achour that’s short of on-screen violence but is still deeply traumatic to behold. Ashraf (Ali Helali) is a 13-year-old goat-herder whose older cousin Nizar (Yassine Samouni) is murdered by jihadist terrorists. Fortunately, the bloody act itself isn’t shown, but Ashraf returns to his family carrying his cousin’s head in a bag as a warning. Achour’s poignant film is based on real events, with a specific focus on how the young man works through his grief. It’s a powerful, unsparing film which paints an involving picture of individual trauma. 

Julian Glander’s quirky animation Boys Go To Jupiter (★★☆☆☆) is rendered in crude lo-fi style and depicts Florida teenager Billy 5000 (Jack Corbett) on a mission to save up $5000 by completing various deliveries to his neighbours over a winter break. The loophole he’s hoping to exploit turns out to be a scam, but the intervention of a kindly alien blob leads him to a happy ending. The other-worldly creature is connected to the research into hybrid fruits conducted by Dr Dolphin (Janeane Garofalo), but that’s about all that is clear in this rather obscure space oddity.

Glasgow Film Festival runs until Sunday 9 March.