#gff23

“Is it possible for a body to be inherently happier or unhappier than another body?” asks one of the characters within writer-director Alex Schaad’s feature-length debut, Skin Deep (Aus Meiner Haut). What is it that defines our human experience? Is it the mind? Or the body we inhabit? What limits us, traumatises us, frees us? These are just some of the questions that have clearly been swirling…

The Glasgow Film Festival – which closed on Sunday 12 March 2023 – has reported a fantastic increase in attendees this year. Cinema admissions increased by 25% on last year, with all three special event screenings (the first special events since 2020) selling out.  In total, 33,667 people attended 295 film screenings and events over 12 days at Glasgow Film Theatre, plus CCA, Cineworld, Glee Club,…

Writer-director Emanuele Crialese hasn’t made a feature-film since 2011’s Terrafirma. In fact, he only has four films to his name. So, what could have got his creative juices flowing once more? Perhaps the big song and dance numbers in L’Immensità, the lure of working with Penelope Cruz (often referred to as this generation’s Loren, despite being Spanish), or could it be the presentation of a…

Depictions of mental health on screen can so often feel like nothing more than mere tropes; a plot device to give the “hero” the chance to demonstrate their power. It’s very rare that you see a writer or director make bold choices for the sole purpose of raising awareness. For those going through it themselves or for those who find themselves as bystanders, the invisible prison of one’s own mind…

Portrayals of motherhood tend to fall into two camps, cinematically speaking. There’s the frazzled mum with sick down her shirt and a messy bun. Or there’s the superwoman, for whom having a child has done nothing to alter her sense of achievement and personal excellence. (Occasionally, your newborn turns out to be a literal demon, but that’s only in a certain kind of film.) Very little is said…

“No approval need from your doctor or family,” a Plan 75 representative smiles at his elderly customer. In fact, the entire conversation about whether or not you should choose to end your own life in order to stop being an ‘economic burden’ is over in thirty minutes or less. How is that for service? Director Chie Hayawaka makes her feature-length debut with Plan 75, a film set in a financially…

There have been many attempts, on film, at unpicking the industry itself. Whether it’s a classic like Singin’ in the Rain, a biopic like Ed Wood, or artistic meditations on how damn hard it is to produce a piece of cinema (a la 8½), cinema has always found a way to hold up the mirror to itself. And so Andrea Bagney’s feature-length debut, Ramona, joins an illustrious list of film titles. Her…

Road trip movies are so very rarely about the destination. Rather, they are about the emotional journey the character(s) will undertake whilst going about their route. In the case of Hilmar Oddsson’s offbeat comedy drama, Driving Mum, it just so happens that one of the passengers on this road trip is dead. The imaginatively named Jón Jónsson (Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson) has been living with his…