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The British Film Institute’s annual festival is usually held over two weeks in October, with films and events going on in cinemas all over central London. The 2020 edition moved to a home streaming format due to pandemic restrictions, which made it so much easier to watch the films I wanted without worrying about scheduling clashes, taking time off work, or whether I could travel to the right cinema in time.
This is a record for myself of what I watched but perhaps you might find something that interests you. Also, I am writing this in April 2021 so my memory might be a little fuzzy âśż
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Four friends, all teachers at various stages of middle age, are stuck in a rut. Unable to share their passions either at school or at home, they embark on an audacious experiment: to see if a constant level of alcohol in their blood will help them find greater freedom and happiness.
As a big fan of Mads Mikkelsen, this was a must-watch film for me. It’s the most honest and open depiction of drunkenness I’ve seen on film, taking in the broad spectrum of its effects, both positive and negative, on the drinkers and the people around them. Mikkelsen’s performance is wonderful – usually cast in quite charismatic roles, here he absolutely convinces as an extremely boring teacher – and his incredible dance scene ends the film on a joyful and cathartic note.
Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Playing a fictional version of herself, actor Kasumi Arimura enjoys a day off in this charming example of Hirokazu Koreeda’s rarely seen television work.
Another must-watch for me as a fan of Kore-eda. I just really love the quality of light on Japanese TV shows like this and the slower, naturalistic pace that Kore-eda brings to his dramas. I wish I could watch the whole series.
Director: Natalia Meta
Natalia Meta’s sophomore feature is a brilliant adaptation of C.E. Feiling’s cult novel El Mal Menor, delivering an unsettling and tongue-in-cheek genre-bender of paranoia and possession. An eerie sound design and darkly textured cinematography complement Rivas’ exuberantly unhinged portrayal of a woman fighting her inner demons.
This is the one film of the festival that I was sad not to see on the big screen. It’s a film about sound and I know the experience would have been so much more immersive and creepy in a dark cinema where you can really appreciate the sound design. I feel like this would’ve been a conventional horror film about a woman going mad if it had been made by a man – instead the female perspective is deeply embedded into every part of El Prófugo and it’s so much more interesting, fun, playful and romantic because of it. I enjoyed this film a lot.
Director: Josephine Decker
Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf is clearly a touchstone, but Josephine Decker’s psychodrama goes further, blurring the boundaries of biopic and fiction in exploring the cruel forces that can feed creativity.
I was kind of expecting this to be a straightforward fictionalised biopic but it is definitely not that. The film has a very deliberate atmosphere of haziness – like hypnosis or dreaming or intoxication – that draws you in to its own world.
Director: Benjamin Ree
The sheer audacity of the theft of artist Barbora Kysilkova’s enormous paintings from the windows of an Oslo gallery immediately piqued documentarian Benjamin Ree’s interest. Neither he, Kysilkova nor the perpetrators could have predicted what happened next.
I’d read about this critically-acclaimed documentary quite a while ago so jumped on the chance to see it. It’s an incredible story and a great piece of documentary filmmaking, showing the complexity of trust between two people, of intent, of intimacy, and the nature of art. The events unfold, then shift perspectives and timeframes leaving the viewer on unsteady moral ground.
Director: Wei Shujun
In his final year at film school, talented yet frivolous sound recordist Kun would rather be anywhere than in class. Instead he drives around Beijing in his old Jeep – an embodiment of shabby free-spiritedness – goofing-off and dreaming of visiting Inner Mongolia. From the opening scene, where Kun abandons his driving test in a fit of rage, we embark on a journey marked by restlessness and absurdity, calamity and joy.
It seems like all the Chinese films that make it across to Western cinemas and that are praised by Western critics depict life in modern China as a brutal struggle with people crushed by the State preying on each other to survive. Is that because great Chinese filmmakers want to tell stories about people marginalised by society or because those stories fit Western narratives about China? Anyway, Striding Into The Wind is not that! It’s a refreshing, hilarious, beautifully-shot, thoughtful film about a slacker and his dreams. My festival highlight!
Director: Rob Lemkin
When British-Nigerian poet and activist Femi Nylander discovered Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the novel that Barack Obama claims helped him understand why “white people are afraid”, he was immediately drawn to understanding this distorted vision of Africa. Embarking on a spiritual journey to Niger, Femi uncovers the violent legacy of the real-life counterpart to Conrad’s novel, French Captain Paul Voulet, whose genocidal mission in 1898 can still be felt today, through subsequent generations of his victims.
A disturbing and illuminating documentary that explores both the lasting impact of Voulet’s mission on the communities he massacred and the spiritual journey taken by Nylander as a Black British Oxford-educated man in Africa. I hope that this film will get a wider release.
Director: Mohammad-Reza Aslani
Sabotaged, suppressed and banned, with its negatives lost for decades, Chess of the Wind almost disappeared from the face of world cinema. With this new restoration, our perception of Iranian film will never be the same again.
Haunting and fairytale-like, with beautiful sets and cinematography, Chess of the Wind is a gothic story with intriguing lesbian undertones. I loved how it ended with the camera finally leaving the house, panning up and away to reveal the modern city surrounding it. Fun fact: The film stars Shohreh Aghdashloo in a very early (perhaps first) screen performance.