Film Festival
Celluloid Screams Review: Mayhem
If you’ve ever had the dubious privilege of working in an office, you’ll be aware of all the niggles, pent-up frustrations and internal anger synonymous with that kind of environment. The pettiness. The back-stabbing. The nepotism. The higher the stakes, the higher the tensions. When salaries start hitting 6 or 7 figures, the rivalry, underhand …
Celluloid Screams Review: The Endless
As a genre film fan, one of the biggest frustrations is the limited access we have to the full array of films being (often) lovingly created. Cinemas are often full of forgettable and confusing franchise sequels which tend to merge into one big lump of nothing. Occasionally, the likes of The Babadook, The Witch, Get …
Celluloid Screams Review: Tag
There are few, if any, Asian film directors with a vision as distinctive and unique as Sion Sono. Unfortunately, this leads to a varying quality of output. For every Love Exposure, Cold Fish, Suicide Club or Noriko’s Dinner Table there’s a Tokyo Tribe, Shinjuku Swan or Bad Film. His latest film to hit the UK …
LFF Review: Cargo
To say the European fishing industry had been decimated over the past few decades, is a huge understatement. Fisherman, whose families have been eking-out a living from the sea for decades, have been almost completely wiped out by large industrial operations. However, the sea isn’t simply a way of making money for many, it’s more …
LFF Review: Wajib
There are few places in the world where ancient traditions are still so prevalent as Israel. On both sides of the conflict, young people struggle to escape severe religious prescripts of their parents and grandparents and enjoy the same freedoms they see in the Western world. In the shadow of oppression and infringements on personal …
LFF Review: A Mother Brings Her Son To Be Shot
Although the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland officially ended with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, it doesn’t mean life suddenly improved overnight. Whilst Belfast is trying to re-brand itself as a tourist destination, much of the province has fared far worse. Derry, a city in the heart of the violence, is still …
LFF Review: The Nile Hilton Incident
To put it lightly, Egypt as a country is a complete and utter mess. There’s repression of free speech, media witch-hunts and the complete eradication of certain civil liberties. It’s not quite the paradise many hoped for after the uprising against Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Indeed, many are questioning whether they’re really better off now. …
LFF Review: The Ballad of Shirley Collins
There has been folk music in England since the Middle Ages. Whilst its popularity has ebbed and flowed over the decades and centuries, it underwent a revival after the end of World War II; with a network of folk clubs springing up across the country. This in turn brought a new generation of performers through. …
LFF Review: Araby
The global financial crisis destroyed lives, wrecked families and impacted on billions of people around the world. However, there is not group, as is always the case, that were harder hit than the poor. Whilst much of the media focus was on banks and multi-national corporations, scant regard was paid to the working-classes around the …
LFF Review: Rift
If you’re looking to build up atmosphere, suspense, a sense of terror and a general creepiness, then setting and backdrop is key. When choosing the location for a thriller, you’ll be hard-pressed to find somewhere more appropriate for spine-tingling thrills than the Nordic countries. Their sinister, eerie and sparse landscapes have added an essential touch …