56th BFI London Film Festival: The Hunt Review

Thomas Vinterberg’s (Festen)  latest film The Hunt, starring Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, A Royal Affair), is set in a small community during the period of three months. In this town we see the full extent one lie has in destroying an innocent man’s life. Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen), a nursery teacher who is just getting back…

56th BFI London Film Festival: Zaytoun Review

After directing Lemon Tree and The Syrian Bride, Eran Riklis decided on making another film, setting its action in the Middle East again. Zaytoun is a story of an unlikely road trip and, against all odds, friendship between an Israeli pilot and a Palestinian boy. 1982 Lebanon, as the tension between Israel and Lebanon grows (6 June 1982 Israeli Defense Forces invaded, already…

56th BFI London Film Festival: West of Memphis Review

West of Memphis is a new documentary from American filmmaker Amy J. Berg and produced by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Damien Echols. The film focuses on three men – Damien Echols (sentenced to death), Jessie Misskelley, Jr. (sentenced to life imprisonment plus two 20- year sentences), and Jason Baldwin (sentenced to life imprisonment) who were wrongly…

56th BFI London Film Festival: In Conversation with Jeremy Teicher

Jeremy Teicher is a young director whose short film This Is Us was nominated for a 2011 Student Academy Award. He graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College in 2010 where he studied Film, English and Theater. He recently completed his first feature film called Tall as the Baobab Tree, which will have its European Premiere at the…

56th BFI London Film Festival: Tall as the Baobab Tree Review

After seeing some films that focus on Africa and its affairs – War/Dance, Return to Africa’s Witch Children and The Great African Scandal, I was longing to watch a film that wasn’t a documentary and one that would address a different issue than child soldiers or corruption. I was very excited when I got a…

55th BFI London Film Festival: A Dangerous Method Review

Freud and Jung undoubtedly have gone down in history for their work on psychoanalysis. Their ideas and biographies have kindled the imagination of not only the researchers from different disciplines, but also ordinary people. This is evident through David Cornenberg’s (The Fly, A History of Violence, Eastern Promises) new film  ‘A Dangerous Method’. The Swiss…

55th BFI London Film Festival: The Artist review

When I first discovered that a new silent film was being made I knew instantly that I would adore it. Having grown up watching silent cinema, namely the works of Charlie Chaplin, I had become accustomed to the soundtrack replacing an actor’s voice. This is not the case for everybody though, so of course Michel…

55th BFI London Film Festival: Carnage Review

  The God of Carnage is the only God which has ruled indivisibly since the beginning of time.  Power equals strength.  The law of the strongest is always valid, but the powerful is always right.  Due to huge tensions, many nervous cords are being touched, hoarse throats and piles of pulled out hair “the end…

55th BFI London Film Festival – Martha Marcy May Marlene Review

The directional debut of Sean Durkin tells the story of a girl trying to cope with normal life after escaping a cult family. The girl, played by Elizabeth Olsen, suffers many traumas and finds it hard to discern the difference between her present and past life. Throughout the film we are faced with the memories…