In review: Glasgow Film Festival
Glasgow’s film lover flashbang bounced back to pre-pandemic levels as the festival continues to be the confluence of Scottish filmmaking.
Over 12 days, figures from every level of the filmmaking industry descended upon venues across the city where cinema admissions increased by 25% from last year.
The Special Events Programme, absent from the festival since 2020, returned in emphatic fashion with showings of Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin being soundtracked live by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
The sold-out sci-fi spectacle left no seat full, each performance saw rapturous applause lap the Queen Margaret Union – a clever venue for the intimate showing which Glasgow Film Theatre CEO, Allison Gardner, said was “all about immersion”.
Despite the symphonic showings the festival’s crescendo was found in it’s closing gala.
Nida Manzoor’s Polite Society is a vigorous action-comedy which pushes the genre’s stereotypes up against the wall, squeezing comedy from a wholly dramatic story.
In her debut feature, Manzoor poses the vitality of today’s generation against the traditional values of a British-Pakistani family.
Schoolgirl Ria (Priya Kansara) dreams of a career as a stuntwoman and when big sister Lena (Ritu Arya) is carried away into a spontaneous romance, she is determined to uncover the truth.
The result is wild fight scenes, kicking up dust of Crouching Tiger’s trailblazing style.
The action isn’t elaborately choreographed but with head-gowns and vibrant dresses flailing around fists and elbow-drops, viewers would struggle not to be gleeful.
When they’re not flying kicks, the feature’s feet are kept firmly on the ground by incredibly engaging, charming characters, for which Kansara and Arya are more than ample translators.
Manzoor’s debut, for all of its eastern influence is a truly gallus showing.
The festival opened with the UK premiere of Adura Onashile’s Girl, bookending the programme with female directors, but be sure this was no display of virtue signalling.
The Glasgow-shot Girl is a stunning portrayal of a mother and daughter’s anxiety in a new city.
Onashile bathes Glasgow in colour; regal purple and yellows bounce off sickly reds to inform the dysfunctional lifestyle Ama (Le’Shantey Bonsu) and her mother Grace (Déborah Lukumuena) lead.
In a story riddled with wince-inducing toxicity and a barrage on childhood innocence, Lukumuena succeeds in making the mother bleed with sympathetic struggle – in no small part helped by Bonsu’s ability to choke audiences with a subtle look or ardent expressions.
The gentle introduction of the pair soon creeps up your neck to a firm grip with dizzying consequences, resolving in beautifully explored acts of courage sure to leave you breathless.
Kelly Macdonald joined James Cosmo, Joely Richardson and Alistair McGowan among other famous faces on the red-carpet.
Macdonald was in attendance for the International Women’s day UK Gala premiere of Carol Morley’s likeable ode to forgotten English artist Audrey Amiss, Typist Artist Pirate King, in which she plays an imagined social worker.
Among the 295 screenings were a few gems you and your favourite film critic might have missed.
Dear Memories follows acclaimed photographer Thomas Hoepker, after his Alzheimer’s diagnosis. And his wife on a road trip across the United States.
The man who put a camera on the 9/11 attacks and captured Muhammad Ali at his peak recounts what he can of his most famous photographs and rekindles with old friends at the peak of the Covid pandemic and presidential election.
The time-capsule of a truly unique time is framed by Nahuel Lopez, weaving seven decades of photography with gorgeous cinematography to compose a touching, retrospective feature.
In total, 33,667 bums hit red seats over the dozen days not only enjoying the eclectic mix of cinema but voting on the prestigious Glasgow Film Festival Audience Award.
Anthony Shim pipped 9 other first time directors to the award with Riceboy Sleeps, a moving drama about a Korean single mother raising her son in 1990s Canada.
Allison Gardner spoke of what’s required for a film festival success like this year:
“There’s a real hunger for truly unique events like the live orchestra at our Special Events Programme.
“With it being moved online in 2021, unattainable in 2022, we were dipping our toe in this year.
“Clearly it’s been a success but the outlays for such things is expensive and it’s important we balance costs.”
Looking forward to next year, Gardner said:
“We want to make cinema as accessible and affordable as possible but we need a serious investment to keep such a high quality.
“GFF is the second biggest film festival in the UK and it continues to show why so we’re asking BFI (British Film Institute) to invest in success, and we’ll all reap the rewards.”
The city now looks forward to hosting the Glasgow Short Film Festival from 22nd to 26th of March
