JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
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CONTENTS
NEVER MISS OUT
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BOOKING INFORMATION PICK YOUR FILMS SCHEDULE DIRECTOR’S FOREWORD OPENING GALA: THE PRICE OF DESIRE FILM LISTINGS WORKSHOPS & EVENTS CLOSING GALA: THE SOUND OF MUSIC FILM INDEX
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JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
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Box Office Details Festival HQ 13 Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin 1 OPEN: 26 Feb - 29 Mar Mon to Sat: 10am-6pm Sun 15, 22 & 29 Mar: 12pm-6pm Cineworld Parnell Street, Dublin 1 OPEN: 14 - 18 Mar: 2pm-6pm daily 19 - 29 Mar: 12pm-8.30pm daily (closes 3pm Sun 29) Light House Market Square, Smithfield, Dublin 7 OPEN: 14 - 18 Mar: 2pm-6pm daily 19 - 29 Mar: 12pm-8.30pm daily Please note: the festival is for over 18s only. JDIFF operates as a members club. Membership is included in the ticket price. Please note: the Jameson Cult Film Club is by invitation only.
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For full details of our ticketing terms and conditions, and for additional information on the festival, check our website at jdiff.com. A €1 per cart booking fee applies to all phone and online bookings.
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Ticket Prices Afternoon Screenings €7* Evening and Weekend Screenings €11 Special Presentations €11-€15 Galas €20 *For screenings before 6pm Mon-Fri only Special Passes and Discounts Season Ticket €250 Bring a Friend Season Ticket €425 For group bookings contact the Box Office. Special Events €7-€50 (see individual event listing) Free events must be booked as advertised within the event description. Multi-Purchase Discounts* Purchase 5 tickets for €50 Purchase 10 tickets for €95 *Individual screenings only. Excludes galas and special presentations. Must be purchased in one transaction. A 10% discount for Students, OAPs, those in receipt of disability benefits and the unwaged is available by booking tickets in person. Proof of eligibility must be provided. Tickets can be collected up to one hour before the screening at the Festival HQ, or at the relevant cinema 30 minutes before the screening. You will be required to present the booking confirmation email, or the card you paid with, to receive your ticket. E-TICKETS: buy tickets online at jdiff.com and we will email them to you as a pdf. The barcode will be scanned from your print-out, or directly from your mobile to save you time.
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JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
PICK YOUR FILMS SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
OFFICIAL SELECTION: INTERNATIONAL
A Little Chaos Barry Lyndon Cinderella Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels Sensitive Skin Surprise Film The Crowd The Last Man on the Moon The Price of Desire The Sound of Music The Water Diviner What’s Up, Doc?
10,000km 99 Homes A Girl at My Door A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night A Master Builder A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence August Winds Beloved Sisters Black Coal, Thin Ice Black Souls Blind Boychoir Casa Grande Clouds of Sils Maria Court Dearest Difret Eden Far From Men Fidelio: Alice's Journey Force Majeure Free Fall Futuro Beach Gente De Bien Gett Goodbye to All That Hardkor Disko Heaven Knows What Horse Money I Can Quit Whenever I Want Kebab & Horoscope Kingdom of Dreams and Madness Life in a Fishbowl Listen Up Phillip Lost River Marshland Meet Me in Montenegro Melbourne Miss Julie Monument to Michael Jackson Move Next Time I'll Aim for the Heart Pasolini Phoenix Pressure Queens of Syria Return to Ithaca Samba Sand Dollars Second Coming She’s Lost Control Shorts Programme 1 Shorts Programme 2
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Shorts Programme 3 Silent Heart Something Must Break Sorrow & Joy Ten Years in the Sun The Connection The Dark Horse The Dead Lands The Dinner The Falling The Fool The New Girlfriend The Quiet Roar The Road Within The Salvation The Tale of the Princess Kaguya The Third Side of the River The Town that Dreaded Sundown The Tribe Theeb Tu Dors Nicole Uncertain Terms Villa Touma We Are Young, We are Strong When Animals Dream While We’re Young Who Am I - No System is Safe
OFFICIAL SELECTION: IRISH
OUT OF THE PAST
REEL TO REAL
After the Dance All About Eva Coming Home Dare to be Wild Eat Your Children From the Dark Glassland Let us Prey Talking to My Father Tana Bana The Canal The Great Wall Wheel of Fortune Yximalloo
In Cold Blood Meet Monica Velour Muriel’s Wedding Partie de Campagne Pigs Telstar The Americanisation of Emily
6 Desires Bertolucci on Bertolucci Cobain Dark Horse Dennis Rodman’s Big Bang in Pyongyang Double Play Electric Boogaloo From Scotland with Love My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn Red Army Shoulder the Lion The Breach The Decent One The Salt of the Earth The Second Game Take the Boat
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THURSDAY 19TH MARCH
FRIDAY 20TH MARCH
SATURDAY 21ST MARCH
SUNDAY 22ND MARCH
THE PRICE OF DESIRE Savoy 1 8.15pm
WHAT'S UP, DOC? Light House 1 2pm
BARRY LYNDON Savoy 1 1.30pm
THEEB Light House 1 1.30pm THE DEAD LANDS Cineworld 8 2pm
THE FOOL Cineworld 9 6pm RED ARMY Cineworld 8 6pm MY LIFEÂ DIRECTED BY NICOLAS WINDING REFN Light House 3 6pm I CAN QUIT WHENEVER I WANT Light House 1 6pm IN COLD BLOOD Screen 2 6pm THE SALVATION Screen 1 6.15pm THE WATER DIVINER Savoy 1 7.30pm DIFRET Light House 3 8pm MARSHLAND Light House 1 8.15pm 99 HOMES Cineworld 9 8.30pm THE DECENT ONE Screen 1 8.45pm
SHORTS 1 Light House 3 2pm MONUMENT TO MICHAEL JACKSON Cineworld 8 2pm PRINCESS KAGUYA Light House 1 3pm ELECTRIC BOOGALOO Cineworld 8 4pm
EAT YOUR CHILDREN Screen 1 2pm WHO AM I NO SYSTEM IS SAFE Cineworld 9 2pm
TUESDAY 24TH MARCH
WEDNESDAY 25TH MARCH
THURSDAY 26TH MARCH
FRIDAY 27TH MARCH
SATURDAY 28TH MARCH
SUNDAY 29TH MARCH
THE CROWD Light House 1 8.15pm
BLIND Screen 1 6pm
THE TRIBE Light House 1 6pm
MEET MONICA VELOUR Light House 2 6pm
HARDKOR DISKO Light House 1 6pm
DOUBLE PLAY Light House 3 4pm
FAR FROM MEN Savoy 1 11am
THE ROAD WITHIN Cineworld 9 8.45pm
FIDELIO Screen 2 6pm
HORSE MONEY Screen 2 6pm
CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA Cineworld 9 1pm
CASA GRANDE Screen 1 6pm
THE GREAT WALL IFI 6pm
SHORTS 2 Light House 3 6pm
GENTE DE BIEN Light House 3 6pm
BLACK SOULS Cineworld 9 6.15pm THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN Cineworld 8 6.15pm FREE FALL Light House 1 6.30pm
COBAIN Cineworld 9 5.15pm
SHE'S LOST CONTROL Light House 3 4pm
UNCERTAIN TERMS Light House 3 6.30pm
KINGDOM OF DREAMS AND MADNESS Light House 1 6pm
DEAREST Cineworld 8 4.15pm
THE DINNER Movies@ Dundrum 6.30pm
THE AMERICANISATION OF EMILY Light House 3 6pm COURT Cineworld 8 6.15pm CINDERELLA Savoy 1 6.30pm
SILENT HEART Cineworld 9 4.30pm
MEET ME IN MONTENEGRO Pavilion Theatre 8pm
PHOENIX Light House 1 5.30pm
WHEN ANIMALS DREAM Cineworld 8 8.15pm
THE SECOND GAME Light House 3 6.15pm
WHILE WE'RE YOUNG Cineworld 9 8pm
LISTEN UP PHILIP Cineworld 9 6.30pm
PARTIE DE CAMPAGNE Screen 1 8pm
THE CONNECTION Cineworld 8 6.45pm
FROM THE DARK Light House 1 8.30pm
10,000KM Screen 1 8.15pm THE QUIET ROAR Light House 3 8.15pm
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MONDAY 23RD MARCH
THE DINNER Light House 1 3.30pm
COMING HOME Light House 2 4pm
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
BLACK COAL, THIN ICE Light House 3 8.30pm NEXT TIME I'LL AIM FOR THE HEART Cineworld 9 8.30pm THE THIRD SIDE OF THE RIVER Screen 1 8.30pm PASOLINI Light House 1 8.30pm
LIFE IN A FISHBOWL Cineworld 8 6pm TALKING TO MY FATHER IFI 6pm SOMETHING MUST BREAK Screen 1 6.10pm MISS JULIE Cineworld 9 6.15pm THE FOOL Movies@ Dundrum 6.30pm JAMESON CULT FILM CLUB: LOCK, STOCK & TWO SMOKING BARRELS 7pm THE BREACH Light House 3 8pm GETT Screen 1 8.15pm TU DORS NICOLE Cineworld 8 8.40pm MEET ME IN MONTENGRO Light House 1 9pm AUGUST WINDS Cineworld 9 9.15pm
TELSTAR Light House 3 6pm ALL ABOUT EVA Light House 1 6pm KEBAB & HOROSCOPE Cineworld 9 6.15pm THE DARK HORSE Cineworld 8 6.15pm I CAN QUIT WHENEVER I WANT Movies@ Dundrum 6.30pm FUTURO BEACH Light House 1 8.10pm DENNIS RODMAN'S BIG BANG IN PYONGYANG Cineworld 9 8pm WE ARE YOUNG, WE ARE STRONG Riverbank Arts 8pm GOODBYE TO ALL THAT Screen 1 8.20pm 6 DESIRES Light House 3 8.45pm A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT Cineworld 8 8.45pm
SORROW & JOY Screen 1 6pm SHOULDER THE LION Cineworld 9 6pm
WE ARE YOUNG, WE ARE STRONG Cineworld 9 6pm SECOND COMING Cineworld 8 6pm
FROM SCOTLAND WITH LOVE Light House 1 1.15pm YXIMALLOO Light House 3 2pm
A PIGEON SAT ON A BRANCH... Light House 1 2pm SHORTS 3 Light House 3 2pm VILLA TOUMA Cineworld 8 2pm
MELBOURNE Screen 2 6pm
MURIEL'S WEDDING Cineworld 8 2pm
QUEENS OF SYRIA Light House 3 6pm
WHEEL OF FORTUNE Light House 1 3.30pm
GLASSLAND Light House 1 6.30pm
TAKE THE BOAT Light House 3 4pm
SENSITIVE SKIN Movies@ Dundrum 6.30pm
BERTOLUCCI ON BERTOLUCCI Screen 1 6.45pm
SAND DOLLARS Cineworld 9 4pm
THE NEW GIRLFRIEND Light House 1 4pm
AFTER THE DANCE Light House 2 8pm
SAMBA Screen 2 8pm
LOST RIVER Cineworld 8 4.15pm
SURPRISE FILM Savoy 1 5pm
THE FALLING Light House 1 6pm
THE SOUND OF MUSIC Savoy 1 7.30pm
EDEN Cineworld 8 6pm HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT Screen 2 6pm
FORCE MAJEURE Cineworld 9 8.15pm BELOVED SISTERS Screen 1 8.30pm DARE TO BE WILD Light House 1 8.30pm A GIRL AT MY DOOR Cineworld 8 8.45pm
TEN YEARS IN THE SUN Light House 3 8pm TANA BANA Light House 1 8.40pm PRESSURE Cineworld 9 9pm RETURN TO ITHACA Screen 1 9.15pm LET US PREY Light House 1 10.40pm
THE LAST MAN ON THE MOON Savoy 1 2pm JULIE ANDREWS Bord Gais Energy Theatre 3pm
A MASTER BUILDER Screen 1 6pm MOVE Screen 2 6pm A LITTLE CHAOS Cineworld 9 6.15pm BOYCHOIR Cineworld 8 6.30pm DARK HORSE Light House 3 7pm PIGS Screen 1 8.30pm THE CANAL Light House 1 8.30pm THE SALT OF THE EARTH Cineworld 9 9pm 7
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SPONSORS
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
SUPPORTERS
TITLE SPONSOR
FUNDER
INDUSTRY PARTNER
OFFICIAL MEDIA PARTNERS Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary
OFFICIAL RADIO PARTNER
OFFICIAL ONLINE PARTNER
OFFICIAL PRINT + DIGITAL MEDIA PARTNER
OFFICIAL VEHICLE PARTNER
OFFICIAL PRINT TRANSPORT PARTNER
OFFICIAL PARTNERS
OFFICIAL HOTEL PARTNER
OFFICIAL POST-PRODUCTION PARTNER
OFFICIAL FESTIVAL CLUB OFFICIAL CINEMA PARTNER
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JAMESON INTRODUCTION IRISH DISTILLERS PERNOD RICARD HAVE ALWAYS BEEN VERY PROUD SPONSORS OF JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, WHICH CONTRIBUTES TO SHOWCASING DUBLIN AS A CULTURAL HOTSPOT AROUND THE WORLD.
Sometimes I get asked the question, ‘Why is everyone at Jameson so passionate about film?’ My answer is simple: it goes back to the heart and soul of the brand. The art of storytelling, in a pub, with friends, is still very much alive and one way for this heritage to be expressed is storytelling through film. Film as an art form has been close to the heart of the Jameson brand for a very long time with the Jameson Dublin Film Festival 2015 marking Jameson’s 13th and final year as title sponsor of Dublin’s iconic film festival. The association between Jameson and the festival has been a very successful and fruitful partnership for the Jameson brand over the years and the global success of the festival has mirrored the success of the Jameson brand worldwide. The festival moulds together the charming aspects of our home town, Dublin – the heritage, the storytelling, the creativity and the sociability. We are extremely proud to have been
a formative partner of the festival and associated with building a superb cultural celebration of film here in Ireland. As part of this year’s festival, we are delighted to be hosting a special Jameson Cult Film Club screening of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. It has proved to be a hugely popular event since its launch, delivering an unforgettable screening experience for all those who attend. We wish the festival, and all involved in its organisation, continued success as it grows into the future. But for now, to celebrate this joint success that Jameson and the festival have shared, we can think of no better time or place than to share a glass of Jameson with friends, old and new, over the next 10 days! So I hope to see you over the festival and that you’ll join me in raising a glass to the eternal art of storytelling. Sláinte! Anna Malmhake CEO & Chairman Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard
CHAIRPERSON'S WELCOME WE ARE THRILLED TO PRESENT, IN OUR THIRTEENTH YEAR, THIS WONDERFUL COLLECTION OF FILMS PROGRAMMED BY OUR FESTIVAL DIRECTOR, GRÁINNE HUMPHREYS.
Gráinne has spent the last year touring festivals, meeting filmmakers and pressing distributors to ensure we have the very best Irish and international cinema throughout our festival, which goes from strength to strength. The festival’s rude health and longevity has much to do with the unstinting support of our title sponsor, Jameson, with whom we have had the most productive partnership since the festival’s inception thirteen years ago. The board would also like to acknowledge the enduring and considered support of two key state agencies: The Arts Council/An Comhairle Ealaíon, and The Irish Film Board/Bord Scannán na hÉireann. They, together with our many commercial sponsors, ensure the festival continues as a vibrant annual celebration of cinema in our capital city. Our General Manager, Jackie Ryan, manages a skilled and dedicated staff who deliver this burgeoning festival annually. The team is ably supported by our community of volunteers, who swell the staff ranks in their
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hundreds each year. The festival is extremely fortunate to have full-time, temporary and voluntary staff of this calibre working with us on an annual basis, and enormous credit is due to all for delivering at the highest level, often in the stressful, pressurised circumstances typical of festival nights. I have to acknowledge here the dedication and commitment of our voluntary board of directors, who give selflessly of their time and considerable expertise to ensure the highest levels of governance, and guidance, is provided to the executive for such an important annual event, over such a sustained period of critical and popular success. However, it is to you, the audience, that our most sincere thanks are due – for continuing to vote for this festival with your enthusiastic attendance and support. We hope to continue to reward your invaluable loyalty, and warmly wish you a wonderful festival in 2015.
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
DIRECTOR'S FOREWORD WELCOME TO THE 2015 JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL – IRELAND’S FINEST CELEBRATION OF CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA.
The festival is 13 this year – a wide-eyed teenager compared to the grandes dames of Cannes and Venice, filled with boundless energy and sense of mischief, discovery and fun. We are, I think, justly proud to have reached a point where we confidently showcase the work of established and emerging talents from around the world, embracing both the mainstream and the niche. We hope the diversity of this year’s programme lives up to the intelligence and wit of our audience who come in such large numbers to our screenings with a similar wide-eyed wonder to our own.
individual approach to filmmaking and acclaimed pianist Stephen Horne will accompany a special presentation of King Vidor's The Crowd.
In Anne Tyler’s wonderful novel The Accidental Tourist (beautifully adapted for the screen in 1988), Macon Leary writes travel guides whose covers are emblazoned with an armchair with wings. This image popped into my head recently: over the 11 days of the festival, Irish audiences will have the opportunity to travel to over 35 countries around the world. We have expanded our South American selection and our Middle Eastern section, as well as the number of documentaries, and trebled our shorts programmes. This year you can see the world without leaving the city!
Our audiences wanted more, so this year we have expanded the number of venues and we welcome the Screen Cinema, Bord Gáis Energy Theatre and Movies@Dundrum to our festival family. 2015 marks the final year of the festival partnership with Jameson Irish Whiskey and for this year’s Jameson Cult Film Club we mark this occasion with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
As ever, we are about filmmakers and audiences and we’re delighted to welcome key auteurs such as Pedro Costa, Christian Petzold and Luca Guadagnino, whose films lead impressive new work from Europe. Home-grown titles follow the success of 2014 with new films from Gerard Barrett, Conor McMahon, Mary McGuckian, Joe Lee and a welcome return to filmmaking by Pat Murphy.
Over 70 guests will be joining us this year, including Ryan O’Neal and Jan Harlan (for the 40th anniversary of Barry Lyndon), Russell Crowe, Alan Rickman and Danny Huston. Our Volta Awards this year will go to director and actor Kenneth Branagh and to Hollywood legend Julie Andrews, who joins us for a very special anniversary screening of The Sound of Music.
A huge thanks to our core funder The Arts Council/An Comhairle Ealaíon and all our supporters and partners. I would also like to thank my colleagues, and in particular our tireless General Manager Jackie Ryan. It’s a special privilege to present this year’s festival line-up: enjoy with our compliments… Gráinne Humphreys Festival Director
Professionals will share their knowledge with Irish audiences across the length of the festival – a two-day screenwriting event, Conquering the Script (supported by The Irish Film Board/Bord Scannán na hÉireann, Dublin City Council and Screen Training Ireland), will include both Irish and international professional experts. Kim Cattrall will lead an actor’s masterclass, while filmmaker, critic, essayist and cinefile Mark Cousins will discuss his highly
Gaby Smyth, Chairperson 11
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
THURS 19
MARCH
OPENING GALA
THE PRICE OF DESIRE
H O U S E P R O U D.
Thurs 19 Mar / Savoy 1 / 8.15pm / 108 minutes Writer-Director: Mary McGuckian 2014 Ireland Cast: Orla Brady, Vincent Perez, Francesco Scianna
A t the Cellar Restaurant, our Executive Chef, Ed Cooney, is a stickler
With special guests Orla Brady, Mary McGuckian and Vincent Perez
for serving only the finest locally sourced in season ingredients. He also appreciates that diners have an appetite for value, too. That’s why he created the House Menu, with 2- course evening meals from just € 32. Allowing you to please the palate, without punishing the pocket.
RESTAURANT & BAR
Alway s Special
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Irish architect and furniture designer Eileen Gray (1878–1976) was a leading light in the modern design movement. This graceful portrayal of her later life and work in France focusses on the triangle of tension between Gray (Orla Brady), her lover Badovici (Francesco Scianna) and Le Corbusier (Vincent Perez). Alanis Morrissette also features as chanteuse Marisa Damia, Gray’s other lover, with Dominique Pinon (Delicatessen, Amélie) as artist Fernand Léger. Extensive sequences feature E-1027, the modernist villa Gray built near Roquebrune. Ransacked by the Germans during the war, E-1027 was even more disastrously occupied and vandalized by Corbusier and his murals. The boys’ club chauvinism resonates with the wider elision of women’s role in art history. Corbusier’s arrogant formalism is contrasted with Gray’s sympathetic, responsive approach to site and setting. In frequent asides, Corbusier swings between a tetchy resentment and grudging admiration for her work. Orla Brady’s exquisitely calibrated interpretation of Gray suggests her questioning yet exacting temperament, her fluid sexuality and reflective creativity. The film’s sumptuous yet restrained style evokes Gray’s elegant aesthetics and is a timely accompaniment to recent major shows. Stephanie McBride, Film Studies, NCAD
THE CELLAR RESTAURANT AT THE MERRION HOTEL UPPER MERRION STREET, DUBLIN 2
13 Merrion Cellar_180x244mm.indd 1
13/01/2015 23:23
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JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
FRI 20
MARCH
20th March
FRIDAY Highlights WHAT'S UP, DOC? 2pm, Light House 1 Page 16
I CAN QUIT WHENEVER I WANT 6pm, Light House 1 Page 17
THE FOOL 6pm, Cineworld 9 Page 18
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FRI 20
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MARCH
SPECIAL PRESENTATION
FRI 20
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
MARCH
MY LIFE DIRECTED BY NICOLAS WINDING REFN Nicolas Winding Refn burst onto the film scene in the late 1990s with the delightfully nasty Pusher trilogy, and has continued to produce some of the most thought-provoking and visually spectacular genre-benders of any modern auteur. From Tom Hardy’s career-defining Bronson to Mads Mikkelsen’s feral One Eye to Ryan Gosling’s icy cold Driver, Refn has crafted nuanced portraits of deeply conflicted but undeniably charismatic antiheroes.
Fri 20 Mar / Light House 3 / 6pm / 58 minutes Director: Liv Corfixen 2014 Denmark
'a beautifully disordered farce' The New York Times
In My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, Refn’s own deep conflict is swinging in the breeze as we witness him wrestle with the particularly challenging production of Only God Forgives. Directed and shot by his wife Liv Corfixen over the duration of the production and subsequent Cannes debut, My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn captures the very private and intimate moments to which a traditional documentary crew simply wouldn’t have access. The result is a fascinating, detailed look at a creative genius at work and also a portrait of a director torn between the general public’s desire for a Drive 2 and his own mission to explore more challenging narrative territory. Tim League Fantastic Fest
WHAT’S UP, DOC? Fri 20 Mar / Light House 1 / 2pm / 94 minutes Director: Peter Bogdanovich 1972 USA Writers: Buck Henry, David Newman, Robert Benton Cast: Barbra Streisand, Ryan O’Neal, Madeline Kahn Winner, Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen, Writers Guild of America
What’s Up, Doc? has to do with four guests who check into a hotel on the same day, with identical overnight bags. The first bag contains diamonds, the second underwear, the third prehistoric rocks and the fourth top secret papers. The bag with the underwear belongs to Barbra Streisand, a freeloader without a penny to her name, who falls in love with Ryan O’Neal, who has brought the rocks to demonstrate a theory at a musicologist’s convention. The jewels belong to a Margaret Dumont type and the state secrets are being tracked by an international spy.
I CAN QUIT WHENEVER I WANT SMETTO QUANDO VOGLIO The adage “laugh so you don’t cry” could very well have been invented for these times. I Can Quit Whenever I Want offers the chance to chuckle at the gloomy headlines. Sydney Sibilia’s first feature, a box office hit that translated into 12 Italian Academy Award nominations, assembles a rag-tag crew of graduates whose high-powered degrees aren’t worth the paper they are printed on when it comes to creating careers.
Bogdanovich proves himself a master of screwball comedy. He gives us everything we hope for: a onesided courtship, a spinsterish fiancée, a scene at a formal banquet with everybody winding up under the table, a hilarious hotel corridor sequence, a chase, remarkable coincidences, a pie fight and all the rest. What’s Up, Doc? is only about 90 minutes long, takes no time for sloppy romantic scenes, and remembers to be funny even when Miss Streisand is singing. Roger Ebert
'impressively funny' The Hollywood Reporter
Ryan O'Neal will participate in a Q&A after the screening with Festival Director Gráinne Humphreys.
Fri 20 Mar / Light House 1 / 6pm / 100 minutes Director: Sydney Sibilia 2014 Italy Writers: Valerio Attanasio, Andrea Garello, Sydney Sibilia Cast: Edoardo Leo, Valeria Solarino, Valerio Aprea
That’s when unemployed neurobiologist Pietro (Edoardo Leo) comes up with the winning idea of creating a psychotropic drug that is not illegal, because it has not yet been invented; his desperate friends are only too happy to jump on his new business model bandwagon. But while the law might not give them any trouble (yet), the local mob isn’t too pleased at having market competition. I Can Quit Whenever I Want is a terrific farce and wicked social commentary. Jaie Laplante Miami International Film Festival With the support of the Italian Cultural Institute
Winner, Golden Puffin, Reykjavik International Film Festival Winner, Best Comedy, Italy’s Golden Globe Awards
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There will be a second screening on Weds 25 March at 6.30pm at Movies@Dundrum. 17
FRI 20
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MARCH
RED ARMY
Fri 20 Mar / Cineworld 8 / 6pm / 76 minutes Director: Gabe Polsky 2013 USA/Russia Winner, Audience Award, Rome Film Festival
MARCH
IN COLD BLOOD Americans of a certain age have vivid memories of the 1980 Winter Olympics, when a bunch of college players upset a formidable Soviet team. But the Soviet squad is universally regarded as the greatest ice hockey team ever assembled. In 1991, the system that spawned it collapsed. Former Soviet players made their way to the NHL, where they did not always find a warm welcome.
'Terrifically engaging … moving and incisive' Variety
FRI 20
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
This stirring, crazy story is recounted in Red Army, Gabe Polsky’s jaunty documentary. Polsky is a tireless researcher and a dogged interviewer, sometimes to the annoyance of the great defenceman Vyacheslav Fetisov, but Fetisov’s participation is crucial. As handsome as any movie star, thoughtful and temperamental, he serves as a guide to the curious, vanished world of Communist athletics. Good sports movies are always about more than sports. Red Army touches on themes of friendship and perseverance, and provides as clear an explanation as I have seen for the appeal of Vladimir Putin, who has revived the patriotic sentiments that held the old system in place, including the emphasis on sports.
In 1959 Herbert, Bonnie, Nancy and Kenyon Clutter were brutally murdered in their Kansas farmhouse. Truman Capote was among the journalists who gathered at the scene but, unlike the others, he stuck around. In 1966, he published In Cold Blood, one of the most influential books in American history. Work immediately began to turn it into a film – parts of it shot in the very house where the murders took place.
‘fantastically powerful’ Roger Ebert
Fri 20 Mar / Screen 2 / 6pm / 134 minutes Writer-Director: Richard Brooks 1967 USA Cast: Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe Nominated for four Academy Awards®, including Best Director
Director Richard Brooks (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) does an extraordinary job in creating a work that stands out in its own right, a film that grips right from the beginning with its noirish visuals and unmistakable sense of menace. We follow the two killers as they travel toward their fateful destination, propelled by a rumour of secret riches. The film hinges on the performances of Scott Wilson as Dick and Robert Blake as Perry. It’s Blake who is the real standout and whose performance here, along with Capote’s book, would be significant in changing American attitudes to the death penalty. Jennie Kermode Eye for Film
AO Scott The New York Times
THE FOOL
THE SALVATION
DURAK In the course of a routine pipe replacement in an unnamed Russian town, honest plumber Dima (Artyom Bystrov) discovers a fissure in the foundation of an apartment building. Investigating further, he is appalled to find that the crack extends all the way to the top floor. He does some calculations about the building’s strength, only to realize that the whole thing could come down upon the 800 residents within 24 hours. Determined to get city officials to, at the very least, evacuate, he confronts Mayor Nina Galaganova (Natalya Surkova) at her 50th birthday party. She and her equally well-to-do cronies immediately begin looking for ways to shift responsibility onto other, less well-dressed, shoulders…
Dogme signatory Kristian Levring has crafted a gripping and stylish revenge western with a decidedly dark bent, taking genre staples and imbuing them with a Scandinavian sensibility to enormously entertaining effect. Set in 1871, the film stars Mads Mikkelsen (A Royal Affair – JDIFF 2013) as Jon, a Danish ex-pat and former soldier who has spent the past seven years in America, hoping to build a life for his family. However, when his wife and young son are brutally murdered, Jon exacts violent and bloody vengeance, which puts him on a collision course with vicious land baron Delarue (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Jon finds an unexpected ally in his victim’s widow (Eva Green), a scarred mute whose tongue was cut out by Indians.
'a gripping thriller' The Hollywood Reporter
Fri 20 Mar / Cineworld 9 / 6pm / 116 minutes Writer-Director: Yuriy Bykov 2014 Russia Cast: Artyom Bystrov, Natalya Surkova, Olga Samoshina Winner, Leopard for Best Actor, Locarno Film Festival Winner, Crystal Arrow Award, Best Cinematography, Les Arcs European Film Festival
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Writer-director-editor-composer Yuriy Bykov’s (The Major – JDIFF 2014) electrically paced, wonderfully written and flawlessly performed drama is both a brilliant metaphor for the state of Russian society and a crackling entertainment. Unmissable. Vancouver International Film Festival There will be a second screening on Tues 24 March at 6.30pm at Movies@Dundrum.
Fri 20 Mar / Screen 1 / 6.15pm / 91 minutes Director: Kristian Levring 2014 Denmark Writers: Anders Thomas Jensen, Kristian Levring Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Eva Green, Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Mikkelsen is on terrific form as Jon and Morgan is moustache-twirlingly despicable as Delarue, while Green steals the film without uttering a single line. Levring’s direction impresses throughout. He clearly knows his way around a shoot-out, delivering a superbly orchestrated and genuinely thrilling finale. Matthew Turner The List 19
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MARCH
SPECIAL PRESENTATION
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JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
MARCH
DIFRET The compelling Difret is a small film with a lot on its mind. Authentic and affecting, this drama about the Ethiopian tradition of abducting young girls into marriage provides a dramatic yet nuanced window into a culture we almost never see.
'powerful drama' The Hollywood Reporter
Fri 20 Mar / Light House 3 / 8pm / 99 minutes 'an old-fashioned, big-canvas, melodramatic blockbuster … a heart-warming tale of family, love and sacrifice' Screen International
Writer-Director: Zeresenay Mehari 2014 Ethiopia Cast: Meron Getnet, Tizita Hagere, Rahel Teshome Winner, Audience Award, Sundance Film Festival Winner, Audience Award, Berlin Film Festival
THE WATER DIVINER Fri 20 Mar / Savoy 1 / 7.30pm / 111 minutes Director: Russell Crowe 2014 Australia/Turkey/USA Writers: Andrew Knight, Andrew Anastasios Cast: Russell Crowe, Olga Kurylenko, Jai Courtney With special guest Russell Crowe
Attorney Meaza Ashenafi (Meron Getnet) heads an organization in Addis that advocates for the rights of women and children. Meanwhile, in a village three hours from the capital, 14-year-old Hirut (Tizita Hagere) is walking home. Suddenly, a group of mounted horsemen swoops Hirut off the ground and imprisons her in a hut. There, one of the group sexually assaults her and then announces, “you will soon be my wife”, but Hirut has other ideas. Gaining control of the man’s weapon, she shoots and kills her kidnapper. Though the local constabulary intervenes and imprisons her, the general consensus is that “she is going to pay with her life.” Meaza attempts to help the girl, but nothing about this situation proves simple. “I hope this film will go a long way toward changing thinking,” Mehari has said. It’s hard to imagine a film this persuasive doing otherwise. Kenneth Turan Los Angeles Times
Russell Crowe (Noah) stars as Joshua Connor in his directorial debut, The Water Diviner, a postcard war melodrama illuminated by beautiful colours and sunshine-through-leaves lighting. In the film, water symbolises a spiritual connection the protagonist shares with three sons lost in the Great War (missing in action and presumed dead) and a griefstricken wife. Determined to bring his boys’ bodies home, Joshua travels to Constantinople and stays at a hotel managed by a beautiful and mysterious woman named Ayshe (Olga Kurylenko) as he tries to find a way to Gallipoli. When Joshua encounters the people responsible for crimes against his sons, the film reveals its hand as a moral fable about the redemptive powers of forgiveness. Early in the film we learn of Joshua’s unusual ability to know where water is. That this sixth sense doesn’t feel clumsy or preposterous is one of the film’s subtle but significant achievements. The Water Diviner may be fable-like, but there is an emotional truth at its core that is both wholesome and compelling.
MARSHLAND LA ISLA MÍNIMA With Unit 7, Alberto Rodríguez paid homage to his native Seville whilst producing a fine urban thriller. Now he does the same for the marshlands of Andalucia. Marshland is noirishly tense, its tight focus on character, its realism, its sense of place and its social critique adding up to a grippingly intense whole – and that’s not to mention its satisfyingly twisting plotline.
'a strikingly handsome period cop drama' Screen International
Luke Buckmaster The Guardian Fri 20 Mar / Light House 1 / 8.15pm / 74 minutes With the support of the Australian Embassy Director: Alberto Rodríguez 2014 Spain Writers: Rafael Cobos, Alberto Rodríguez Cast: Javier Gutiérrez, Raúl Arévalo, Nerea Barros
It’s 1980. Juan (Javier Gutiérrez) and rookie Pedro (Raúl Arévalo) have travelled from Madrid to Spain’s south to investigate the disappearance of two sisters. Soon the sisters’ bodies are discovered and they enlist the help of isolated local Jesús (Salva Reina). When a drunken man stumbles into the hotel seeking justice for his own dead girlfriend, a pattern of deaths starts to emerge. Marshland is rooted in realism, deriving not only from research but from insider knowledge. Performances are classy across the board, though of the leads it’s Gutiérrez who stands out. The script uses the thriller format to lock together the personal, the social and the political in a portrait of an isolated community, and a whole society, in flux.
Winner of 10 awards (including Best Film), Goya Awards With the support of the Instituto Cervantes 20
Jonathan Holland The Hollywood Reporter 21
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JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
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99 HOMES 99 Homes is a searing, impeccably acted indictment of capitalism, especially as it functions in presentday American real estate. The film focuses on Florida construction worker Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield), who has fallen irretrievably behind on his mortgage payments. Desperate to keep the home he shares with his mother and son, his last-ditch attempt with the court system fails, and the family is tossed out by a fast-talking bank representative named Rick Carver (Michael Shannon). In a surprising turn of events, Nash finds himself accepting a job as one of Carver’s flunkies and thus enters a morass of moral ambiguity. 'a timely, terrifically acted moral nailbiter' The Daily Telegraph
Fri 20 Mar / Cineworld 9 / 8.30pm / 112 minutes Director: Ramin Bahrani 2014 USA Writers: Ramin Bahrani, Amir Naderi, Bahareh Azimi Cast: Andrew Garfield, Laura Dern, Michael Shannon
Bahrani (Goodbye Solo, Man Push Cart) creates a timely and gripping modern reimagining of the Faustian bargain, demonstrating the lengths someone will go to in order to become a “have”. Shannon is unforgettable as the slick, satanic Carver, while Garfield does the most complex work of his career as Nash, a simple man in terrible danger of losing everything he claims to be fighting for. Rod Armstrong Abu Dhabi Film Festival
21st March
SATURDAY Highlights BARRY LYNDON 1.30pm, Savoy 1 Page 25
CINDERELLA 6.30pm, Savoy 1 Page 34
WHILE WE'RE YOUNG 8pm, Cineworld 9
THE DECENT ONE DER ANSTÄNDIGE
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The private recollections, documents, journals and photographs of one of the most brutal mass murderers in world history make for perversely compulsive viewing in Vanessa Lapa’s engrossing documentary about SS commander Heinrich Himmler. The Decent One is made up of archive material found at his family home by soldiers of the 88th US Infantry Division. It traces his life from nationalistic outsider to the man who developed the strategies that led to the murder of millions of Jews, homosexuals, communists and Romany people.
'as fascinating as it is disturbing' LA Review of Books
As a biographical sketch of such a complex individual the film is darkly gripping. He appeared to be a cold but caring husband and father, romancing his wife Margarete, caring for his daughter Gudrun, and tender towards his mistress Hedwig. He even sent Christmas gifts to his family as he visited extermination camps.
Fri 20 Mar / Screen 1 / 8.45pm / 94 minutes Director: Vanessa Lapa 2014 Israel/Austria/Germany Winner, Best Documentary, Jerusalem Film Festival
The assembly of footage and the voiceovers make for gripping viewing, and while the audience is asked to read between the lines to unearth the darkness of Himmler’s real personality there are also moments of real power. Mark Adams Screen International
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BARRY LYNDON 40TH ANNIVERSARY
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SPECIAL PRESENTATION
PRODUCING WITH JAN HARLAN FOR ANY FAN FAMILIAR WITH THE WORK OF STANLEY KUBRICK, JAN HARLAN NEEDS NO INTRODUCTION. Born in Karlsruhe, Germany in 1937, Harlan has been an eloquent speaker on Kubrick and his legacy, co-editing the book Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made, and directing a 2001 documentary on the filmmaker, Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures.
Jan Harlan: Sun 22 Mar / Light House 3 / 11am
His impressive resumé results from his 30-year collaboration with Kubrick. While the Napolean project never did make it to the screen, together they did adapt many classics including Barry Lyndon, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut. With no training in film, Harlan initially came to work with Kubrick – his brother in law – on the strength of his language skills while Kubrick was preparing for Napoleon. When the studio pulled out of that production, Kubrick suggested they continue working together and Harlan’s first task was to secure the rights for Traumnovelle by Arthur Schnitzler, which, 30 years later, would become Kubrick’s last film: Eyes Wide Shut. ‘Filmmaking,’ Harlan has been quoted as saying, ‘isn’t different from many other processes which involve organising things, and that’s what I do. Getting things at the right time at the right price – basically that’s what a producer does, a line producer anyway.’ Jameson Dublin International Film Festival is proud to present this masterclass with such a prolific producer.
'one of the most beautiful films ever made' Roger Ebert
BARRY LYNDON Sat 21 Mar / Savoy 1 / 1.30pm / 184 minutes Writer-Director: Stanley Kubrick 1975 USA Cast: Ryan O’Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee
RYAN O’NEAL
Winner of four Academy Awards® including Best Cinematography, nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay
Patrick Ryan O’Neal was born into showbusiness as the son of writer Charles ‘Blackie’ O’Neal and actress Patricia O’Callaghan. Determined to make his own way, O’Neal trained to become a professional boxer, competing in two Golden Gloves championships in Los Angeles. In the late 1950s, O’Neal landed his first job in the entertainment industry as a stuntman. In 1964, his first major television role on Peyton Place led him to films, and his big break soon followed when he was chosen for the role of Oliver Barrett in Love Story. The film was a huge success and landed O’Neal both Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor.
With special guests Ryan O'Neal and Jan Harlan
After Love Story, O’Neal starred opposite Barbra Streisand in smash hit What’s Up, Doc? (which screens at JDIFF this year – see p. 16). He then starred in The Thief Who Came To Dinner (1973), and in the critically acclaimed hit Paper Moon, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe. O’Neal went on to star in Stanley Kubrick’s 1975 historical drama Barry Lyndon (see opposite), and noir hit The Driver. In 1979, O’Neal scored another box office win with The Main Event, again with Barbra Streisand. He can currently be seen on FOX’s hit crime drama Bones and will soon make an appearance in Terrence Malick’s Knight of Cups.
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In the early seventies, Stanley Kubrick was enjoying one of the most extraordinary positions the industry has ever given a director. His last three films – Dr Strangelove, 2001 and A Clockwork Orange – had been global sensations, and his next project was shrouded in secrecy. All they were allowed to know was that his new film would star Ryan O’Neal and former Vogue cover model Marisa Berenson. Kubrick had in mind to adapt Thackeray’s 1844 novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon, a satirical picaresque about the fortune-hunting of an Irish rogue. Kubrick and cinematographer John Alcott set themselves the task of shooting as many sequences as possible by candlelight, a feat difficult enough in still photography, let alone with moving images, but they managed it, and so Kubrick’s vision of recreating the huddle and glow of a pre-electrical age was miraculously put on screen. For the stunningly beautiful exteriors, in which Ireland plays itself, England, and Prussia during the Seven Years War, Kubrick and Alcott looked to the landscapes of Watteau and Gainsborough. Alcott would win an Oscar for his amazing work. Watching it now is a spellbinding experience. A glittering procession of character players subjected to many, many arduous takes, light up the film. Kubrick’s cast may have been required to sit for these for days and weeks on end, but no one could say the results weren’t worth it. Tim Robey The Daily Telegraph
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MARCH
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JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
MARCH
INTERNATIONAL SHORTS SHORTS PROGRAMME 1: TO LIVE IS THE RAREST THING
Sat 21 March / Light House 3 / 2pm / 81 minutes. Directors: Various 2014 International.
This year’s shorts programme is our most ambitious yet: a three-course feast showcasing up-and-coming filmmaking talent from all over the world, programmed by Liam Ryan.
LA MINER Writer-Director: Thomas Wood Running Time: 24:26
AN ODE TO LOVE Writer-Director: Matthew Darragh Running Time: 07:00
The story of a redneck savant and natural storyteller who started mining for gold on the outskirts of Los Angeles.
A lonely man on a desert island explores the highs and lows of romantic love when a mysterious companion is washed ashore.
THE PHONE CALL Director: Mat Kirkby Writers: Mat Kirkby, James Lucas Running Time: 20:55 A shy helpline worker receives a call from a mystery man.
PIMEÄLLÄ POLULLA Writer-Director: Paul Helin Running Time: 19:30 Sometimes the only way to safety lies on dark paths...
CÉAD GHRÁ Director: Brian Deane Writer: Matthew Roche Running Time: 11:41 A nostalgic coming-of-age story about two friends that set out in pursuit of their first crush.
SHORTS PROGRAMME 2: OPPORTUNITIES IN DISGUISE
Tues 24 March / Light House 3 / 6pm / 86 minutes. Directors: Various 2014 International
BIG BIRD Director: Jan Boon Writer: Derek O’Connor Running Time: 09:58
DAY ONE Director: Henry Hughes Writers: Dawn DeVoe, Henry Hughes Running Time: 24:55
CONTRAPELO Director: Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer Writers: Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, Liska Ostojic Running Time: 19:58
An Irishman in Belgium has an internet date to remember in a romcom that isn't afraid to put the boot in.
In Afghanistan, an interpreter for the US Army is forced to deliver the child of an enemy bomb-maker.
JORDANNE Writer-Director: Zak Razvi Running Time: 05:04 Jordanne follows Jordanne Whiley, a 22-year-old tennis player born with brittle bone disease, in the lead-up to the US Open.
SHORTS PROGRAMME 3: EXIT, PURSUED BY A BEAR
CATCHING FIREFLIES Writer-Director: Lee Whittaker Running Time: 19:58
SCRABBLE Writer-Director: Cristian Sulser Running Time: 11:25
A little Latina girl attempts to escape the rigours and misfortunes of living on skid row, Los Angeles, through the power of her imagination.
Scrabble addresses the secret desire to break out of the routine of a loveless relationship.
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A Mexican barber is forced to shave the leader of a drug cartel.
HARP Director: Thomas Beug Running Time: 06:40
ROCKMOUNT Writer-Director: Dave Tynan Running Time: 13:20
Two octogenarians muse on life and death as they restore old aircraft in a forgotten hangar.
A diminutive eleven-year-old called Roy tries to make it onto the starting eleven of his football team.
Sun 29 March / Light House 3 / 2pm / 82 minutes. Directors: Various 2014 International.
HOW I DIDN’T BECOME A PIANO PLAYER Writer-Director: Tommaso Pitta Running Time: 17:40
I AM HERE Director: David Holmes Writer: Lisa Barros D’Sa Running Time: 16:20
BOOGALOO & GRAHAM Director: Michael Lennox Writer: Ronan Blaney Running Time: 14:00
Ted cannot find anything he is good at. Then his father comes home with an old piano and Ted has a revelation...
Michael wakes to find himself stranded in a strange new world.
Two brothers are over the moon when their dad presents them with baby chicks to care for. 27
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MARCH
MONUMENT TO MICHAEL JACKSON SPOMENIK MAJKLU DŽEKSONU
'reminiscent of classic Ealing comedies. Like the best of them, the film has serious things to say' The Flaneur
Sat 21 Mar / Cineworld 8 / 2pm / 95 minutes Writer-Director: Darko Lungulov 2014 Serbia/Germany/ Macedonia/Croatia Cast: Boris Milivojević, Nataša Tapušković, Dragan Bjelogrlić
Producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus were famous (or infamous) for many things, but a stringent approach to quality filmmaking was hardly one of them. At the height of their success in the 1980s, the Israeli cousins, and their company Cannon Films, were synonymous with B-movies of just about every kind: Chuck Norris action flicks, sex comedies and tawdry slasher horrors. The company was eventually brought down by its fast-and-loose approach to film production, but left behind a colossal back catalogue and, as Electric Boogaloo proves, extraordinary anecdotes. 'The year’s most deliriously entertaining documentary' Flickering Myth
Sat 21 Mar / Cineworld 8 / 4pm / 107 minutes This quirky setup serves as a platform for Lungulov to deal with difficult contemporary issues in a subtle, humorous way. Lungulov’s crack cast of local names supplies comic verve as well as touching melancholy.
Director: Mark Hartley 2014 Australia
Alissa Simon Variety
THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAGUYA
MARCH
ELECTRIC BOOGALOO: THE WILD, UNTOLD STORY OF CANNON FILMS
A mild-mannered dreamer’s absurd plan to spur tourism in his dying village goes spectacularly awry in Darko Lungulov’s Monument to Michael Jackson, an endearing tragicomedy that mixes caustic Eastern European humour with sharp social commentary. In a dusty village in rural Serbia, circa 2009, the local council finally gets around to removing a communistera statue from the central square. Across the square works local barber Marko (Boris Milivojevic), a poetic dreamer whose flights of fancy once earned him the love of Ljubinka (Nataša Tapuškovic). But Marko’s perpetual optimism led Ljubinka to leave him. More than anything, Marko longs to win her back. When Marko hears that Michael Jackson is preparing a farewell tour, he hits upon a harebrained scheme that could bring his home town back to life and elevate his stature in his wife’s eyes…
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JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
Director Mark Hartley’s love of B-movies fuelled the feature-length documentaries Not Quite Hollywood and Machete Maidens Unleashed!, and Electric Boogaloo offers a similarly colourful, frequently hilarious oral history of two highly unorthodox producers. Molly Ringwald, Richard Chamberlain and Dolph Lundgren are among the starry contributors, but the best anecdotes come from the directors and technicians who had to deal with Cannon’s chaotic methods. Electric Boogaloo is a relentlessly absorbing, lovingly crafted document from the era that taste forgot. Ryan Lambie Den of Geek
COMING HOME
KAGUYAHIME NO MONOGATARI Following the meticulous grandeur of Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises, here is an equally extraordinary, but very different, farewell film from another master of Japanese animation. The Tale of Princess Kaguya, from Isao Takahata, co-founder of beloved Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli, is an eerie and plaintive folk tale, alive with sadness and drawn with an ecstatic freeness that recalls the animated adaptations of Raymond Briggs.
'a visionary tour de force' Variety
Sat 21 Mar / Light House 1 / 3pm / 137 minutes Director: Isao Takahata 2013 Japan Writers: Isao Takahata, Riko Sakaguchi Cast: Chloë Grace Moretz, James Caan, Mary Steenburgen
The plot is based on a 10th-century Japanese legend about a poor woodcutter who finds a tiny, doll-like girl. He brings her home and suddenly she transforms into a human baby. The woodcutter and his wife raise the child as best they can – they call her Princess. When a cache of gold is discovered in the same bamboo grove, the woodcutter and his wife decide the gods must want their girl to be raised as a noblewoman, so they start a new life in the city. Various princes try their best to woo the princess, who has been given the name Kaguya. But Kaguya pines for her simpler, country life. Robbie Collin The Daily Telegraph
'a truly powerful work' Film Ireland
Sat 21 Mar / Light House 2 / 4pm / 86 minutes Director: Viko Nikci 2014 Ireland/USA Winner, Best Irish Feature Documentary & Best Human Rights Documentary, Galway Film Fleadh
Coming Home follows Angel Cordero as he is released from prison after serving 13 years. We are welcomed into Angel’s life as if we are a trusted friend. This is assured filmmaking by Viko Nikci that trusts and follows the heart of the story, as if it went looking for a portrait of a man but found something much more. When I first saw clips I thought it was a scripted fiction feature drama. I could not believe what was captured, that I was witnessing a man’s journey back to himself in the most intimate of ways. Angel is at times searingly honest, at times broken, but always hopeful, always profoundly human. You realise that coming ‘home’ is all-encompassing and undefinable. It’s a place, it’s a time, it’s a daughter, it’s a Polaroid picture, it’s a never-ending search. The heart that beats in this story is the heart that sustained an innocent man through 13 years of wrongful incarceration. It is the heart that puts freedom on the line to cross state lines to give his estranged daughter a birthday present. It is the heart that looks the true perpetrator of the crime in the eye and manages to surprise us all. Kirsten Sheridan Writer-director The filmmakers will attend the screening
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MARCH
COBAIN: MONTAGE OF HECK
Montage of Heck takes its title from one of the mix tapes Cobain would fill with miscellaneous voices, noise, taped snippets and the occasional demo, and Morgen (The Kid Stays in the Picture, Crossfire Hurricane) borrows that odds-and-ends format in order to get at something much more personal. We get a disjointed, disorienting look at fame through his eyes, and an uncomfortably intimate look at his life with Courtney Love. This is not a spokesman for a generation. This is a human being, and a husband and a father.
Sat 21 Mar / Cineworld 9 / 5.15pm / 132 minutes Director: Brett Morgen 2014 USA
MARCH
THE AMERICANISATION OF EMILY Nothing should deter you from going to see The Americanisation of Emily. Here is a film that not only gives the charming Miss Andrews a chance to prove herself irresistible in a straight romantic comedy, but also gets off some of the wildest, brashest and funniest cracks at the lunacy of warfare that have popped from the screen in quite some time.
A multimedia mix of the singer-songwriter’s home movies, journal entries, drawings, notebook scrawlings and audio recordings (buffered, naturally, by vintage interview excerpts and concert clips), Brett Morgen’s documentary is more than just a must-see for Nirvana fans. It’s an eight-years-in-the-making labour of love that offers a private peek into the artist’s mind.
'a revelatory glimpse into the tormented soul behind Nirvana … the most holistic portrait of a rock icon ever created' NME
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'a decidedly black comedy' Time Out
Sat 21 Mar / Light House 3 / 6pm / 115 minutes Anyone could have crafted a documentary about a band. Morgen’s experimental, road-less-travelled approach does something much deeper: letting you feel as if you’ve pored through someone’s scrapbook. You get the sense that Kurt would have liked this.
Director: Arthur Hiller 1964 USA Writer: Paddy Chayefsky Cast: James Garner, Julie Andrews, Melvyn Douglas
In addition to the splendid performances that Mr Garner and Miss Andrews give, there are dandy jobs by James Coburn, Melvyn Douglas and Edward Binns. The Americanisation of Emily says more for pacifism than a fistful of intellectual tracts. It also is highly entertaining. Bosley Crowther The New York Times, 1964
David Fear Rolling Stone
THE KINGDOM OF DREAMS AND MADNESS
It is James Garner as the expert ‘dog robber’ – or aide – of an American admiral who moves at the head of a deadly satiric thrust. What Garner is expressing is that wars will be abolished only when people stop thinking it is noble to fight. This, of course, initially repels the charming young English widow with whom he has an affair. But it even more startles his superiors.
COURT
YUME TO KYÔKI NO ÔKOKU Chaitanya Tamhane’s quietly brilliant Court takes an individual court case and creates a damning j'accuse of wider Indian society.
This engrossing documentary takes us inside Studio Ghibli, the renowned Japanese animation studio. Located in a Tokyo suburb, Studio Ghibli looks like a modest office building. But behind its doors some of the greatest creative talents in cinema work. These are the imaginations behind Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro and Ponyo. Mami Sunada’s documentary takes us inside the studio, offering unprecedented access to the work of world-renowned filmmakers Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata.
'essential viewing' AV Club
Sat 21 Mar / Light House 1 / 6pm / 118 minutes Director: Mami Sunada 2013 Japan
Shooting Miyazaki at work on The Wind Rises and Takahata making The Tale of The Princess Kaguya, Sunada establishes Ghibli as an enchantingly oldfashioned workshop. Wearing a craftsman’s apron, Miyazaki toils on meticulous drawings that he times with an analogue stopwatch. To watch Miyazaki, Takahata and Suzuki in conversation with their teams is to understand the success of Studio Ghibli. No detail escapes their attention. Whether it’s the toughminded Suzuki negotiating marketing elements or Takahata investigating how to adapt a tenth-century folktale for Princess Kaguya, the team exhibits a patient, truly inspiring dedication to excellence.
Narayan Kambal (Vira Sathidar) boards a bus which takes him to a rally. Here this unassuming gentleman is transformed into the ’people’s poet’, singing songs denouncing racism, nationalism, the caste system and corruption. However, the performance is interrupted and Narayan is arrested. What follows is a series of hearings which can be interrupted at any moment as witnesses fail to show up and the police wish to gather more evidence. All the while Narayan remains in jail. The judicial system effectively swallows him whole. 'an intelligent, superbly understated script' Variety
Writer-Director: Chaitanya Tamhane 2014 India Cast: Usha Bane, Vivek Gomber, Pradeep Joshi
The court is no longer a place where truth is discovered, but rather a form of punishment in itself. Although Tamhane’s film recalls Franz Kafka in its nightmarish vision of bureaucracy, Court is neither faceless nor surreal. Rather, the absurdity and numbness are all too human and as such even more frightening.
Winner, Orrizonti Award for Best Film, Venice Film Festival Winner, Best Film & Best Director, Mumbai Film Festival
John Bleasdale CineVue
Sat 21 Mar / Cineworld 8 / 6.15pm / 116 minutes
Cameron Bailey Toronto International Film Festival 32
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SPECIAL PRESENTATION
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MARCH
WHILE WE’RE YOUNG Noah Baumbach’s sparkling comedy is about the desire of every generation to usurp the position of another. Josh (Ben Stiller) and Cornelia (Naomi Watts) are a childless couple whose friends are all boarding the baby train. Josh is a onceacclaimed documentarian whose current project is a dauntingly impenetrable think-piece. Into their lives bounce another couple: a pair of young hipsters played by Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried. Driver’s Jamie, himself an aspiring filmmaker, claims to be a fan of Josh’s work.
'very funny …. blisteringly of-the-moment and classically zany' Variety
Sat 21 Mar / Cineworld 9 / 8pm / 94 minutes Writer-Director: Noah Baumbach 2014 USA Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts
CINDERELLA Sat 21 Mar / Savoy 1 / 6.30pm / 105 minutes Director: Kenneth Branagh 2015 USA Writer: Chris Weitz Cast: Cate Blanchett, Lily James, Richard Madden
Josh and Cornelia find themselves turning down the usual baby-centred invites to hang out with their new BFFs. When Josh and Jamie start sabotaging their respective projects, Baumbach resurrects the rivalry between Woody Allen and Alan Alda in Crimes and Misdemeanors, adding the intergenerational twist that gives his film such a giddy freshness. Baumbach (Frances Ha) packs his film with the wit and vigour of a one-act play. This is intellectually supercharged entertainment, with a laugh-lineper-minute count it would be grouchy to undersell. Tim Robey The Daily Telegraph
A live-action feature inspired by the classic fairy tale, Cinderella brings to life the timeless images from Disney’s 1950 animated masterpiece as fullyrealized characters in a visually dazzling spectacle for a whole new generation.
PARTIE DE CAMPAGNE
Cinderella follows the fortunes of young Ella (Lily James) whose merchant father remarries following the death of her mother. Eager to support her loving father, Ella welcomes her new stepmother (Cate Blanchett) and her daughters Anastasia (Holliday Grainger) and Drisella (Sophie McShera) into the family home. But, when Ella’s father unexpectedly passes away, she finds herself at the mercy of a jealous and cruel new family. Finally relegated to nothing more than a servant girl covered in ashes, and spitefully renamed ‘Cinderella’, Ella could easily begin to lose hope. Yet, despite the cruelty inflicted upon her, Ella is determined to honour her mother’s dying words and to ‘have courage and be kind.’ It appears her fortunes may be about to change when the palace sends out an open invitation for all maidens to attend a ball, raising Ella’s hopes of once again encountering the charming Kit (Richard Madden). Alas, her stepmother forbids her to attend and callously rips apart her dress. But, as in all good fairy tales, help is at hand, and a kindly beggar woman (Helena Bonham Carter) steps forward and – armed with a pumpkin and a few mice – changes Cinderella’s life forever.
Jean Renoir is arguably the greatest artist that the cinema has ever known. Shot in 1936, Partie de campagne was never completed; yet Renoir decided that the film had enough substance to stand on its own. And he was right: the film’s charm and warmth shine through.
'pure magic' Time Out
Sat 21 Mar / Screen 1 / 8pm / 40 minutes Writer-Director: Jean Renoir 1936 France Cast: Sylvia Bataille, Jeanne Marken, Georges D’Arnoux With special guest Jean Francois Rauger
Based on a short story by Maupassant, Partie de campagne is a seemingly simple story of a Parisian shopkeeper, Monsieur Dufour, who spends a day in the country with his family. During the outing, the Dufour family meet two young men, Rodolphe and Henri (Georges D’Arnoux). Monsieur Dufour is content to spend the day fishing with Anatolé, the fiancé of his daughter, Henriette (Sylvia Bataille). Henriette and Madame Dufour (Jeanne Marken), however, have their own idea of how to pass the day... As always, Renoir does not judge his characters, but rather observes their foibles with affectionate regard. Partie de campagne is one of Renoir’s most accessible works, and a joyous celebration of life, love, and the human condition. Wheeler Winston-Dixon Senses of Cinema
With special guest Kenneth Branagh Please note: JDIFF is an over-18 festival. 34
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JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
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FROM THE DARK Mark and Sarah are travelling into the Irish countryside on holiday. When Mark’s overconfident navigation turns them down a muddy road, they become stranded. Inside the closest house, Mark finds a disoriented farmer alone in the darkness and promises to get help. After the farmer attacks Mark and jumps out the window of his own home, the two realise that the countryside isn’t exactly their cup of tea. However, this is just the beginning of their ordeal. As night approaches, they’re stuck in the unfamiliar house with an inexplicable lighting problem, and outside is a creature that revels in the dark. 'a taut, coiled piece of dread-infused cinema' Fangoria
Sat 21 Mar / Light House 1 / 8.30pm / 120 minutes Writer-Director: Conor McMahon 2014 Ireland Cast: Niamh Algar, Stephen Cromwell The filmmakers will attend the screening
From the Dark is the latest film from Irish director Conor McMahon. Here, he trades in the comedy of Stitches for an exercise in economic horror. Mark and Sarah are average people thrown into a relentlessly horrific situation, and they must struggle to survive. McMahon continuously surprises with his creative situations, constantly taking salvation away from Mark and Sarah just when they need it most. Brian Kelley Fantastic Fest
22nd March
SUNDAY Highlights THEEB 1.30pm, Light House 1 Page 38
PHOENIX 5.30pm, Light House 1 Page 43
THE SECOND GAME 6.15pm, Light House 3 Page 43
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THEEB
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WHO AM I – NO SYSTEM IS SAFE WHO AM I - KEIN SYSTEM IST SICHER Director Baran bo Odar’s 2010 film The Silence was an international hit and landed him a coveted spot on Variety’s list of ‘10 Directors to Watch.’ With his follow-up, the fast-paced techno-thriller Who Am I, that designation proves accurate indeed.
A beautifully simple and stunningly elegant film, Naji Abu Nowar’s delightful Theeb is the story of a young Bedouin boy caught up in violence when stranded in the Arabian Desert in 1916.
’a classic adventure film of the best kind’ Variety
Sun 22 Mar / Light House 1 / 1.30pm / 100 minutes Director: Naji Abu Nowar 2014 UAE/Qatar/Jordan/UK Writers: Naji Abu Nowar, Bassel Ghandour Cast: Jacir Eid, Hussein Salameh, Hassan Mutlag Winner, Orrizonti Award for Best Director, Venice Film Festival
The film is a confident debut from the Jordanbased filmmaker and makes great use of the Wadi Rum. Theeb is played with infectious enthusiasm by Jacir Eid. His character is the son of a sheik who has recently died. Close to his grown-up brother Hussein (Hussein Salameh), he refuses to stay in camp when Hussein agrees to help guide an English soldier (Jack Fox) and his guide (Marji Audeh) to a waterhole. The three men are forced to take him with them, but what starts as a genial adventure heads into dark territory as the group are attacked. Young Jacir Eid is thoroughly engaging as Theeb, while Hassan Mutlag makes a fine impact as a dubious traveller who stumbles to the well. Beautifully shot by Wolfgang Thaler (cinematographer on Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise trilogy), the film makes the most of majestic backdrops.
'a slick and stylish German cyber-thriller' Screen International
Sun 22 Mar / Cineworld 9 / 2pm / 105 minutes Director: Baran bo Odar 2014 Germany Writers: Jantje Friese, Baran bo Odar Cast: Tom Schilling, Elyas M’Barek, Wotan Wilke Möhring
Benjamin (Tom Schilling) is the prototypical computer geek: no fashion sense, no friends and no girlfriend. What he does have is a talent for all things digital. His online activity catches the eye of Max (Elyas M’Barek), a would-be revolutionary who yearns to ‘hack the world’ but needs Benjamin’s skills. The duo teams up with fellow wunderkinds to form the hacker collective CLAY, infiltrating international security systems and hacking for social justice. And they’re good at it – so good that they come to the attention of the German Secret Service, Europol and, most frighteningly, a sinister rival hacker. Hemmed in on all sides, Benjamin finds his expertise put to a life-or-death test. Fusing high-stakes intrigue, crackling tension and stylish action sequences, Who Am I is a suspensefilled meditation on the search for identity in the information age.
Presented in co-operation with the Goethe-Institut Irland Mark Adams Screen International
THE DEAD LANDS
With special guest Frank Rieger
Jane Schoettle Toronto International Film Festival
EAT YOUR CHILDREN
HAUTOA Set in pre-colonial New Zealand, Toa Fraser’s dazzling action-adventure is an imaginative voyage through a time of violent emotions. Shot entirely in the Maori language, it creates a primal world populated by the living and the dead.
Friends and filmmakers Treasa O’Brien and Mary Jane O’Leary were among the many Irish who emigrated following the catastrophic financial crash of 2008. Now they’re home – and curious to know why as a nation the Irish have an apathy, or even an antipathy, towards protest.
Posing as a great warrior, Wirepa (Te Kohe Tuhaka) strides into the hero’s village and uses his unburied ancestors as an excuse to declare war. That night, the good chieftain is beheaded and the entire tribe murdered. The lone survivor is the chief’s son Hongi (James Rolleston). To the women who mourn he declares his intention to kill Wirepa. He’s only 15, but he will seek the help of the monster who lives in the Dead Lands, a fearsome creature (Lawrence Makaore) who slays anyone on his property.
Sun 22 Mar / Cineworld 8 / 2pm / 109 minutes Director: Toa Fraser 2014 New Zealand/UK Writer: Glenn Standring Cast: James Rolleston, Lawrence Makaore, Te Kohe Tuhaka
The cinematography is nothing short of sumptuous, the characters are well drawn and the acting is tough, iconic and credible. Rolleston makes a noble Everyboy, gaining in maturity scene by scene until his final showdown with Wirepa. As that villain, Tuhaka is superbly fearless and irreverent. Deborah Young The Hollywood Reporter
Sun 22 Mar / Screen 1 / 2pm / 78 minutes
O’Brien and O’Leary take their cameras on a road trip across Ireland, confidently blending archival footage, stylish visual essay and interviews in a bid to unravel why, compared to our European neighbours, we seem so accepting of debt and austerity. There are strong insights from sociologists, from protesters, but from everyday people too, as the filmmakers hear the views of concertgoers and GAA fans. The title is inspired, a reference to Jonathan Swift’s satire, A Modest Proposal, in which poor families sell their youngest children to wealthy landlords. The implication? By acquiescing to the banks, the bondholders and the bean-counters, the Irish are selling out generations to come.
Director: Treasa O’Brien, Mary Jane O’Leary 2014 Ireland With special guests Treasa O'Brien and Mary Jane O'Leary
It’s a smart, rousing film about the public right to express righteous anger. And in a year where the power of dissent has come to the fore, it is absolutely timely. Esther McCarthy
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THE DINNER I NOSTRI RAGAZZI A violent video could cause the implosion of two families in The Dinner, an Italian take on the bestseller by Herman Koch. Paolo (Luigi Lo Cascio) is a paediatrician. His wife, Clara (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), is a guide and they have a 16-year-old son, Michele. Paolo’s brother, Massimo (Alessandro Gassman), has a teenage daughter, Benny. On the surface, these brothers and their families have it all. But sources of tension can be spotted from the start. After an (entirely invented) prologue, De Matteo can throw in Koch’s narrative bomb: a video of a homeless woman being kicked to death by two youngsters who look like Benny and Michele.
Sun 22 Mar / Light House 1 / 3.30pm / 92 minutes Director: Ivano De Matteo 2014 Italy Writers: Valentina Ferlan, Ivano De Matteo Cast: Alessandro Gassman, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Luigi Lo Cascio Winner, Best European Film, Venice Days, Venice Film Festival
The film isn’t necessarily interested in whether the kids are guilty or not. What matters is how everyone deals with the accusations. The entire ensemble tears into this screenplay with relish, and the way in which the film keeps suggesting new grey areas is remarkable. Boyd van Hoeij The Hollywood Reporter With the support of the Italian Cultural Institute There will be a second screening on Mon 23 March at 6.30pm at Movies@Dundrum.
SHE’S LOST CONTROL From the opening minutes of She’s Lost Control, it’s clear that Anja Marquardt’s portrait of a sex surrogate in New York City will take its subject seriously. With Brooke Bloom’s performance giving the movie its dramatic anchor, She’s Lost Control strikes a fascinating mood between slow-building angst and cold remove.
The excitement starts before the film does Wide Eye Media is proud to support The Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 'an astutely cold and compelling psychological drama' Screen International
Sun 22 Mar / Light House 3 / 4pm / 90 minutes Writer-Director: Anja Marquardt 2014 USA Cast: Brooke Bloom, Marc Menchaca, Dennis Boutsikaris
See it. Hear it. Feel it. www.wideeyemedia.com
Winner, CICAE Award, Berlin Film Festival
As single Manhattanite Ronah, Bloom initially projects an unsettling degree of confidence about her profession, going through the motions with various clients. However, bit by bit the problems add up: glimmers of family issues in upstate New York, concerns about her future, and a client (Marc Menchaca) for whom she might be developing feelings all bear down on her, setting the stage for an alarming climax. She’s Lost Control shrewdly avoids judgement of its character except to insinuate that she hasn’t fully considered the ramifications of her actions until it’s too late. Having established that her version of sex therapy exists in “a safe place” early on, She’s Lost Control ends with the haunting suggestion that such a sanctuary doesn’t exist. Eric Kohn IndieWire 41
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DEAREST
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JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
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PHOENIX
QIN AI DE Celebrated director and producer Peter Ho-sun Chan follows last year’s Chinese smash American Dreams in China with a distinct change of tone in this scaled-back, deeply moving drama about child abduction.
Both a powerful allegory for post-war regeneration and a rich Hitchcockian tale of mistaken identity, Phoenix once again proves that German filmmaker Christian Petzold and his favourite star, Nina Hoss, are one of the best director-actor duos working in movies today. Like their last collaboration, Barbara, this pared-down piece uses one woman’s harrowing story to explore Germany’s troubled past.
The lives of Tian Wen-jun (Bo Huang) and his exwife Lu Xiao-juan (Lei Hao) are thrown into turmoil when their young son goes missing. Wracked with guilt because it happened on his watch, Wen-jun embarks on a quest to find him. Enduring several years of false sightings, they finally find their son living with a foster mother (Wei Zhao), but their troubles are far from over. 'deliver[s] an emotional punch capable of knocking the viewer back in their chair' Empire
Sun 22 Mar / Cineworld 8 / 4.15pm / 130 minutes Director: Peter Ho-sun Chan 2014 China/Hong Kong Writer: Ji Zhang Cast: Wei Zhao, Bo Huang, Dawei Tong
Drawing on true stories from the parents of kidnapped children, Chan and writer Zhang Ji explore three distinct experiences: the guilt of having ‘lost’ a child; the difficulty of reintegrating a child who is subsequently found; and the discovery that an adopted child has been abducted. The storytelling is inflected with subtle observations about class, contemporary values and the difference between city and rural life. Featuring excellent performances from its stellar Chinese cast.
'effortless storytelling skill' The Guardian
Sun 22 Mar / Light House 1 / 5.30pm / 98 minutes Director: Christian Petzold 2014 Germany Writers: Christian Petzold, Harun Farocki Cast: Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, Nina Kunzendorf Winner, Special Jury Award, Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival
Clare Stewart BFI London Film Festival
With special guest Christian Petzold
SILENT HEART
THE SECOND GAME
STILLE HJERTE
AL DOILEA JOC Family members gather round a matriarch to powerful effect in Silent Heart, an intimate family drama that explores the issue of assisted dying. Oscar-winner Bille August (Pelle the Conqueror) explores the dynamics of an ordinarily family in an extraordinary situation. Played to perfection by a superbly directed cast, Silent Heart is set in a country pad on an isolated island. Esther (Ghita Nørby, a grand dame of Danish cinema) is ill and, having chosen New Year to say goodbye, she and doctor husband (Morten Grunwald) have gathered her family around her. They are daughters Heidi and Sanne; their partners Michael and Dennis; and Heidi’s son Jonathan. Heidi (Paprika Steen) has decided to stop making judgments (she will fail miserably), Sanne (Danica Curcic) is popping pills, while Dennis (Pilou Asbæk – A Hijacking) repeatedly puts his foot in it.
Sun 22 Mar / Cineworld 9 / 4.30pm / 97 minutes Director: Bille August 2014 Denmark Writer: Christian Thorpe Cast: Ghita Nørby, Morten Grunwald, Paprika Steen Winner, Best Actress (Paprika Steen), San Sebastián Film Festival
Jonathan Holland The Hollywood Reporter
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Jordan Mintzer The Hollywood Reporter Presented in co-operation with the GoetheInstitut Irland
Corneliu Porumboiu’s wicked sense of humour is always hidden under a heavy coat of earnest discussion. For The Second Game he has done away with sets, actors, scripts and any other production value. All his film features is the tape of a soccer game, which took place in Bucharest during the winter of 1988, and the voice of two commentators today.
‘[Porumboiu’s] droll vision of what film can be reaches an amusing new level‘ The Hollywood Reporter
Sun 22 Mar / Light House 3 / 6.15pm / 97 minutes Brought to life by a cast alert to every nuance, Silent Heart skewers and sympathises with each of its characters as their preoccupations threaten to spoil Esther’s final party.
Severely disfigured by a gunshot wound, former nightclub singer, Nelly (Hoss), arrives back in Berlin. The only survivor of a Jewish family, Nelly has inherited enough to pay for expensive plastic surgery, after which she plans to quit Germany for good. The film’s title refers to a cabaret where Nelly starts showing up in search of her husband, the pianist Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld). That she finds him right away, and that he doesn’t recognise her, is one of several twists that Petzold has in store as the story subtly moves into thriller territory. As Nelly comes into her own, Hoss literally finds a new voice – culminating in an explosive final scene that’s as perfect as they come.
Director: Corneliu Porumboiu 2014 Romania Winner, Romanian Days Award for Best Film, Transylvania International Film Festival With the support of the Romanian Cultural Institute
The referee was Adrian Porumboiu, the director’s father. The game took place under terrible conditions but the enmity between Steaua (the army team) and Dinamo (identified with the secret service) made every encounter too intriguing to cancel. Twenty-five years later, Porumboiu managed to obtain a tape of it, to watch it again in the company of his father and listen to his comments. Viewers who don’t care about soccer might be put off by the idea of having to watch a full game. But the accompanying dialogue is the thing. At one moment Porumboiu compares the game with his own films, quoting critics who claim “they are too slow and nothing is happening”. Not if you know where to look. Dan Fainaru Screen International
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LISTEN UP PHILIP
The paradox of recent technology – why do devices meant to enable human communication wind up hindering it? – is sensitively and movingly explored in 10,000 km. This beautifully acted love story is mediated through video-chat sessions, text messages and the occasional phone call, offering a resonant angle on the age-old dilemma of lovers separated by geography.
Jason Schwartzman, in his best role since Rushmore, stars as Philip Lewis Friedman, a selfabsorbed author who lives his life solely focused on himself, much to the dismay of his long-suffering girlfriend, played by a spot-on Elisabeth Moss. The only person whom Philip grants a modicum of attention is his literary hero, Ike Zimmerman, played by Jonathan Pryce as an obvious surrogate for author Philip Roth.
Sun 22 Mar / Cineworld 9 / 6.30pm / 108 minutes Writer-Director: Alex Ross Perry 2014 USA Cast: Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Jonathan Pryce
MARCH
10,000 KM Independent provocateur Alex Ross Perry casts a jaundiced eye on New York artists and intellectuals in this comedy about a narcissistic, self-righteous author and the people he alienates.
’[a] biliously, often hilariously funny tragicomedy … exhilarating’ The New York Times
SUN 22
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
Perry has crafted an extremely literate film, not just by setting his tale in the world of book tours, celebrity interviews and writers’ retreats, but also in how he approaches his narrative. Breaking up his story into segments, shifting the focus from one character to another and utilizing a wry narration by Eric Bogosian, Perry directs with a unique vision that makes Listen Up Philip one of the most acerbically funny films in recent memory. Philadelphia Film Festival
THE CONNECTION
’a warm, romantic drama with real emotional punch’ Eye for Film
The sense of a filmmaker who knows what he’s doing is evident from the first frame: thirtysomethings Alex (Natalia Tena) and Sergi (David Verdaguer), making love in their Barcelona apartment. That intimacy soon slips away as Alex finds she’s been offered a year-long artist’s residency in Los Angeles. Within a few weeks she’s making new friends. The world seems full of possibility, but not for Sergi, who finds himself increasingly marginal in his girlfriend’s life.
Sun 22 Mar / Screen 1 / 8.15pm / 99 minutes Director: Carlos Marques-Marcet 2014 Spain/USA Writers: Carlos Marques-Marcet, Clara Roquet Cast: Natalia Tena, David Verdaguer Winner, Grand Jury Prize & Best New Director, Seattle International Film Festival
Verdaguer breaks down the Latin lover stereotype, while Tena makes a virtue of her character’s indecision. In a film so perceptive about the difficulties of human interaction, this is acting that never fails to hold the viewer close. Justin Chang Variety
THE QUIET ROAR
LA FRENCH Academy Award®-winning actor Jean Dujardin (The Artist) stars in this high-octane crime epic chronicling a violent campaign to bring down the kingpin of a major narcotics ring. Director Cédric Jimenez hurls us back to the 1970s for a bold twist on William Friedkin’s action classic The French Connection.
'a tense, multi-layered drama’ French Cinema Review
Newly transferred to Marseille to assist with a crackdown on organized crime, energetic young magistrate Pierre Michel (Dujardin) is given a rapid-fire tutorial on the drug trade. Pierre’s mission is to take on the ‘French Connection’, a highly organized operation that controls the city’s underground heroin economy and is overseen by the reputedly untouchable Gaetan Zampa (Gilles Lellouche). Fearless, determined and willing to go the distance, Pierre plunges into an underworld world of ruthless criminals.
Sun 22 Mar / Cineworld 8 / 6.45pm / 135 minutes Director: Cédric Jimenez 2014 French Writers: Audrey Diwan, Cédric Jimenez Cast: Jean Dujardin, Gilles Lellouche, Céline Sallette Nominated, Best Screenplay, Lumière Awards
Sun 22 Mar / Light House 3 / 8.15pm / 77 minutes With his frenetic montages, kinetic camerawork and keen ear for musical juxtapositions, Jimenez invokes the best of Scorsese while bringing a slick sense of style to his feature. Based on a true story, The Connection is a restlessly inventive, immaculately crafted big-screen entertainment. Toronto International Film Festival
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Disappointed in life, and with only weeks left to live, 68-year-old divorcee Marianne (Evabritt Strandberg) signs a contract with a German company offering an advanced hallucinatory drug that enables patients to revisit key moments in their past. Under the influence of the drug, Marianne travels back forty years to a holiday she took with her husband and two young children in a cabin overlooking a vast, glacial valley, and tries to understand what went wrong.
Director: Henrik Hellström 2014 Sweden Writers: Henrik Hellström, Fredrik Wenzel Cast: Evabritt Strandberg, Hanna Schygulla, Joni Francéen Winner, Best Cinematographer, Black Nights Film Festival
The premise of Henrik Hellström’s third feature may contain touches of science fiction, but as Marianne watches, appalled, as her younger self slowly loses touch with her husband, her children and herself, what emerges is an unsettling study of isolation. Evabritt Strandberg gives a touching performance as the older Marianne, full of hard-earned wisdom and regret, while Joni Francéen is quietly impressive as the younger woman, struggling with loneliness and fear. Set against the haunting backdrop of the mountains, The Quiet Roar is a beautifully shot meditation on identity, at once elusive and profound. Alistair Daniel Jameson Dublin International Film Festival With special guest Henrik Hellström 45
SUN 22
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MARCH
SPECIAL PRESENTATION
SUN 22
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
MARCH
THE ROAD WITHIN Vincent (Robert Sheehan), a young man with Tourette’s syndrome, faces drastic changes after his mother dies. Because his politician father is too ashamed of the disorder to have Vincent accompany him on the campaign, Vincent is shuttled off to an unconventional clinic. There he finds unexpected community with an obsessivecompulsive roommate and an anorexic young woman, and romance eventually – and uneasily – follows.
'Sheehan … does an amazing job' The Hollywood Reporter
Sun 22 Mar / Cineworld 9 / 8.45pm / 100 minutes Writer-Director: Gren Wells 2014 USA Cast: Zoë Kravitz, Robert Sheehan, Dev Patel
'[a] silent masterpiece’ Slant Magazine
One of Variety’s “10 Directors to Watch,” screenwriter Gren Wells makes her directorial debut with this ambitious yet light-hearted comingof-age tale about the potent medicine we all carry within ourselves. The film is packed with a talented ensemble, from emerging talents Zoë Kravitz (Divergent, X-Men: First Class), Dev Patel (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – JDIFF 2012) and Robert Sheehan (Love/Hate, Killing Bono) to beloved veterans Kyra Sedgwick and Robert Patrick. Los Angeles Film Festival With special guest Robert Sheehan
THE CROWD Sun 22 Mar / Light House 1 / 8.15pm / 104 minutes Director: King Vidor 1928 USA Writers: King Vidor, John VA Weaver Cast: Eleanor Boardman, James Murray, Bert Roach
The Crowd is that rarest of all Hollywood productions – a studio-made film that was never intended to make money. Released by MGM in 1928, this magnificent cinematic treatise on the pitfalls of American Dreaming is perhaps even more timely today than it was 85 years ago, and has lost none of its capacity to dazzle and unsettle viewers, in equal measure. King Vidor’s film derives much of its power from its focus upon the fundamental contradiction at the heart of American culture – America’s business always has been the assembly-line manufacture of consenting consumers, each one of whom believes that he or she is a one-of-a-kind work of art. The story of John Sims (James Murray) and his wife Mary (Eleanor Boardman) dramatizes that fundamental insight with pitiless (but poignant) precision.
Stephen Horne has long been considered one of the leading silent film accompanists. Based at London's BFI Southbank, but playing at all the major UK venues, he has recorded music for DVD releases, BBC TV screenings and museum installations of silent films. Although principally a pianist, he often incorporates flute, accordion and keyboards into his performances, sometimes simultaneously.
MOVIES & MUSICALS
With Aedín Gormley, Saturday at 1pm 96-99fm | On Digital Radio | On the RTÉ Radio Player
The secret of the film’s enduring power is its unconditional acceptance of its characters as human beings worth caring about. The little triumphs and tragedies of their lives, as maudlin or mundane as they might seem on paper, become so much more in the hands of Vidor and his actors. David Fiore Sound on Sight With accompaniment from pianist Stephen Horne
Twitter@lyricmoviemusic | Facebook/lyricfmmoviesandmusicals | www.rte.ie/lyricfm/movies
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ESCAPE TO THE MOVIES...
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MON 23
MARCH
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MON 23
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
MARCH
BLIND There is something about using a visual medium to explore blindness that makes Eskil Vogt’s directorial debut intriguing. But it’s where he and actor Ellen Dorrit Petersen take that premise, and how stylishly and wittily they do so, that makes the film compelling, clever and surprisingly warm.
23rd March
MONDAY Highlights 'an effortlessly beautiful and touching film’ Film School Rejects
THE GREAT WALL 6pm, IFI Page 50
BLACK SOULS 6.15pm, Cineworld 9
Mon 23 Mar / Screen 1 / 6pm / 91 minutes Writer-Director: Eskil Vogt 2014 Norway Cast: Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Henrik Rafaelsen, Vera Vitali
Since losing her sight, Ingrid (Ellen Dorrit Petersen) has become reclusive, never leaving the apartment. We cut to another story, focusing on Einar (Marius Kolbenstvedt), a chronic consumer of pornography whose loneliness leads him to spy on a pretty neighbour, Elin. At first the shifts from story to story are a puzzle but soon we realize that Einar and Elin are figments of a story Ingrid is writing. But Ingrid starts writing her husband into the story, and Elin starts taking on more and more of Ingrid herself. This is a peculiarly beautiful film, with the kind of hard-won optimism that feels truthful as well as hopeful. Stylish and engaging, and laying out a fine manifesto for the power of the imagination, Blind is a magnificently clear-sighted film.
Winner, Screenwriting Award, Sundance Film Festival
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With the support of the Norwegian Embassy
Jessica Kiang The Playlist
FREE FALL 6.30pm, Light House 1 Page 52
FIDELIO, ALICE’S JOURNEY FIDELIO, L’ODYSSÉE D’ALICE ‘I’ll never be a normal girl’, Alice warns her boyfriend, Felix, halfway through Lucie Borleteau’s striking debut feature. Certainly, Alice is a woman in a man’s world: a tough, single-minded and sexually confident ship’s engineer. Joining the crew of a container ship (the ironically named Fidelio) full of libidinous young men doesn’t faze her in the least, but when she discovers that the captain is the ex-boyfriend she jilted years ago, Alice is forced to decide to what – or who – she should be faithful.
Mon 23 Mar / Screen 2 / 6pm / 95 minutes Writer-Director: Lucie Borleteau 2014 France Cast: Ariane Labed, Melvil Poupaud, Anders Danielsen Lie Winner, Best Actress, Locarno Film Festival Winner, Press Prize, Les Arcs European Film Festival Special Mention, Palm Springs International Film Festival
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It’s not hard to see why Ariane Labed’s committed performance has been showered with acclaim. As Alice, Labed (Alps, Attenberg) is never less than convincing, and ably supported by Melvil Poupaud (Laurence Anyways) as the ship’s captain, and Anders Danielsen Lie as her landlocked boyfriend Felix. Borleteau directs her own screenplay with pace and confidence, capturing the unique atmosphere of life aboard ship, a hothouse of sexual frustration where everyone is leading double lives and ‘what happens at sea stays at sea’. Alistair Daniel Jameson Dublin International Film Festival With the support of the Alliance Français With special guest Lucie Borleteau 49
MON 23
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MARCH
THE GREAT WALL ‘The Great Wall has been completed at its most southerly point.’ So begins Kafka’s short story ‘At the Building of the Great Wall of China’, and so, at Europe’s heavily militarised south-eastern frontier, begins this film. In the shadow of its own narratives of freedom, Europe has been quietly building its own great wall. Like its famous Chinese precursor, this wall has been piecemeal in construction, diverse in form and dubious in utility. Gradually cohering across the continent, this system of enclosure and exclusion is urged upon a populace seemingly willing to accept its necessity and to contribute to its building.
Mon 23 Mar / IFI / 6pm / 75 minutes Director: Tadhg O’Sullivan 2014 Ireland Reel Art is an Arts Council scheme designed to provide film artists with a unique opportunity to make highly creative, imaginative and experimental documentaries on an artistic theme.
DESIGN
INNOVATE CONNECT
From Europe’s edges, The Great Wall moves across various unidentified fortified landscapes, pausing with those whose lives are framed by borders and walls. Moving inward toward the seat of power, the film holds the European project up to a dazzling cinematic light, refracted through Kafka’s mysterious text, ultimately questioning the nature of power within Europe and beyond.
CUSTOMISE
Filmmaker’s statement In association with the Irish Film Institute. The filmmakers will attend the screening
THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN
’a fresh and ambitious project' Filmoria
Drawing inspiration from the 1976 classic of the same name, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s striking debut is not so much a remake as it is a shrewd reinvention, resulting in a genuinely innovative and unexpected meta-horror experience. Set in a world in which the original film exists and is very much part of popular consciousness, this update sees the quiet streets of Texerkana plagued by a maniac who bears striking resemblance to the same ‘Phantom Killer’ who wreaked havoc on the town decades before. Is history repeating itself? Or has somebody just seen the original film too many times? Perhaps the key to the mystery lies with a young high school girl Jami (Addison Timlin), who must uncover the truth if she wants to survive the carnage. Meticulously styled with an unmistakable 1970s genre vibe, but with an ultra-modern twist, this is that rare beast: a horror reboot that actually feels like it has been made with horror fans in mind.
Mon 23 Mar / Cineworld 8 / 6.15pm / 82 minutes Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon 2014 USA Writer: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa Cast: Addison Timlin, Gary Cole, Denis O’Hare
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MON 23
BOOK ONLINE AT JDIFF.COM
MARCH
BLACK SOULS ANIME NERE
Mon 23 Mar / Cineworld 9 / 6.15pm / 103 minutes Director: Francesco Munzi 2014 Italy/France Writers: Francesco Munzi, Maurizio Braucci, Fabrizio Ruggirello Cast: Marco Leonardi, Peppino Mazzotta, Fabrizio Ferracane With the support of the Italian Cultural Institute
MARCH
UNCERTAIN TERMS The mountains of southern Italy are the eerie setting for Black Souls, a slow-burning crime drama from Francesco Munzi. The film centres on three brothers from the ‘Ndrangheta crime syndicate in Calabria, and though it begins in Amsterdam as Luigi (Marco Leonardi) brokers a drug deal, fate sucks him back to the mountains, where a tragedy is about to unfold.
'rich, dark and impeccably staged' The Guardian
MON 23
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
In Milan, the middle brother, Rocco (Peppino Mazzotta), looks after the family accounts, while back in Calabria the eldest, Luciano (Fabrizio Ferracane), has withdrawn from the syndicate. Leo (Giuseppe Fumo), Luciano’s disenchanted son, pitches up in Milan and demands Rocco and Luigi induct him into the family business. But Leo’s temper reawakens a feud with another family, and soon the crisis swells. There’s an almost theatrical grandeur to the plot, but it zings with realism. Fans of Gomorrah might find this equally thrilling and, in its exploration of the supremacy of family, there are comparisons to be drawn with The Godfather.
A rural group home for pregnant teenagers is the setting for this intimately detailed, sharply observed modernist melodrama, directed by Nathan Silver (Exit Elena). The director’s mother, Cindy Silver, plays Carla Gottlieb, the residence’s founder and leader. The troubles ramp up with the arrival of Carla’s grown nephew, Robbie (David Dahlbom), newly separated from his wife, who volunteers for a two-week stint as a handyman. While there, Robbie falls in love with Nina (India Menuez – Something in the Air), one of the pregnant women, sparking conflict with her boyfriend, Chase (Casey Drogin). 'heartbreaking, funny and truthful' The Skinny
Mon 23 Mar / Light House 3 / 6.30pm / 75 minutes Director: Nathan Silver 2014 USA Writers: Chloe Domont, Nathan Silver, Cody Stokes Cast: David Dahlbom, India Menuez, Casey Drogin
Robbie Collin The Daily Telegraph
FREE FALL
Silver’s incisive direction blends discernment and expressive angularity; he develops his characters in deft and rapid strokes and builds tension with an almost imperceptible heightening of tone and darkening of mood. The acting and the freestyle cinematography, intensely sensitive to the flickers of the moment, yield sensual and emotional wonders. With a superbly poised, experienced independent-film cast that includes Gina Piersanti (It Felt Like Love), Hannah Gross (I Used to Be Darker), and Tallie Medel (The Unspeakable Act). Richard Brody The New Yorker
MEET ME IN MONTENEGRO
SZABADESÉS The apartment building in György Pálfi’s Free Fall boasts seven floors, but not quite seven stories. In the opening scene, an unhappy woman (Piroska Molnár) steps off the roof but doesn’t die when she hits the pavement. As she limps her way back upstairs, Pálfi (Taxidermia) takes us into each of her neighbours’ apartments, revealing darkly comic and surreal glimpses into modern life. There is the gynaecologist’s office where a patient braces herself for a sort of reverse childbirth; the dinner party at which a wealthy socialite presents his young (and naked) fiancée; and the household where only the family’s young son can see the metaphorical elephant in the room. 'an inflammatory anthology of satirical vignettes' CineVue
Mon 23 Mar / Light House 1 / 6.30pm / 80 minutes Director: György Pálfi 2014 Hungary/South Korea/France Writers: György Pálfi, Zsófia Ruttkay 2014 Hungary/South Korea/France Cast: Piroska Molnár, Miklós Benedek, Tamás Jordán
It’s thrilling to see a director in such clear command of the cinematic medium operating in such a playfully stylized way. And though the individual episodes don’t appear to be making an especially profound statement, the project calls for an enormous ensemble which packs a damning collective attack on Pálfi’s countrymen. Peter Debruge Variety
In Alex Holdridge’s In Search of a Midnight Kiss, the writer-director explored the connection between two people over a New Year’s Eve. Now, Holdridge and co-director Linnea Saasen set their focus on the maintenance of love. Anderson (Holdridge) is a writer-filmmaker whose career and life have stalled. Anderson finds himself waxing nostalgic about a brief tryst he had with Lina (Saasen), a beautiful Norwegian dancer, years ago in Montenegro. Seeking distraction, he visits friends in Berlin and unexpectedly runs into Lina. Their attraction at first fills them with joy. But things are not so simple, and the question of what’s more important, their love or their careers, will have to be resolved.
Mon 23 Mar / Pavilion Theatre / 8pm / 88 minutes Writer-Directors: Alex Holdridge, Linnea Saasen 2014 USA/ Germany/Norway Cast: Alex Holdridge, Linnea Saasen, Rupert Friend With special guests Alex Holdridge and Linnea Saasen
Winner, Special Jury Prize, Karlovy Vary IFF With special guest Reka Lemhenyi 52
With the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary
The film’s themes may seem lofty, but Holdridge and Saasen wrap them in a down-to-earth package of charm, wit and observation. Movie characters are often concerned with finding love; the couples in Meet Me in Montenegro wrestle with the challenge of keeping it alive. Jane Schoettle Toronto International Film Festival There will be a second screening on Tues 24 March at 9pm in Light House 1. 53
MON 23
BOOK ONLINE AT JDIFF.COM
MARCH
WHEN ANIMALS DREAM
BLACK COAL, THIN ICE
NÅR DYRENE DRØMMER
BAI RI YAN HUO
'classy, smart stuff' Electric Sheep
Mon 23 Mar / Cineworld 8 / 8.15pm / 84 minutes Director: Jonas Alexander Arnby 2014 Denmark Writer: Rasmus Birch Cast: Sonia Suhl, Lars Mikkelsen, Sonja Richter
Marie (Sonia Suhl) has never felt comfortable in her secluded fishing village, where secrets seem to stifle the air like the damp fog that rolls in off the cold sea. Few people will look her in the eye, not even her overprotective father or her overly medicated mother. When she gets a job at a local fish processing plant, the usual hazings seem uncomfortably antagonistic. At the same time, Marie feels herself undergoing some changes. She’s becoming stronger, more confident and sexual, but also more aggressive. And what about those strange patches of hair? Marie, like her mother before her, is slowly becoming a werewolf. While her father (Lars Mikkelsen) wants to heavily sedate her and the loutish young men of the village want to abuse her, young Marie has plans of her own. Director Jonas Alexander Arnby and screenwriter Rasmus Birch skilfully play out the genre elements of their story (tipping their hats to David Cronenberg and John Landis as they go) while also delivering a biting critique of patriarchal societies’ fear of female empowerment. Philadelphia Film Festival
PASOLINI
MON 23
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
MARCH
The spirits of Raymond Chandler and James M Cain course through Black Coal, Thin Ice, a bleak but powerful detective thriller in which – as with all the best noirs – there are no real heroes or villains.
'an exciting stylistic tour-de-force' The Hollywood Reporter
Mon 23 Mar / Light House 3 / 8.30pm / 106 minutes Writer-Director: Diao Yinan 2014 China Cast: Liao Fan, Gwei Lun Mei, Wang Xuebing Winner, Golden Bear for Best Film, Berlin International Film Festival Winner, Silver Bear for Best Actor, Berlin International Film Festival
The setting is a northern Chinese factory district, circa 1999, where a set of dismembered human remains turns up. The dead man is husband to a laundry worker, Wu Zhizhen (Gwei Lun Mei). Enter detective Zhang (Liao Fan), who quickly identifies a suspect. But what should be a routine arrest goes awry, turning into one of the more imaginatively staged shootouts in recent movies. We jump forward five years to find Zhang drunk and dissolute. In a chance encounter he learns that two factory workers have turned up dead in eerily similar fashion. Zhang decides to begin his own investigation, starting with the widow Wu… Though less overtly political than Jia Zhangke’s A Touch of Sin, Black Coal, Thin Ice does proffer a similarly dark portrait of a China in which human lives are as expendable as natural resources. Scott Foundas Variety
NEXT TIME I’LL AIM FOR THE HEART LA PROCHAINE FOIS JE VISERAI LE COEUR Some artists meet bloody ends, others falter and a blessed few improve with age. Let’s file Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant) in the latter camp. The American director defies good taste, defies good sense, and flirts with disaster on a regular basis. But Pasolini stands as one of his best.
Mon 23 Mar / Light House 1 / 8.30pm / 87 minutes
Pier Paolo Pasolini was an outspoken Marxist intellectual and a filmmaker of rare, taboobusting talent. Ferrara clearly views the Italian as a kindred spirit, and his lush, reverent drama charts the director’s final 24 hours, winding towards a fateful rendezvous on the outskirts of Rome. Willem Dafoe is ideally cast as the great director, a raw-boned panther in the prime of his life, padding around his book-lined apartment and receiving guests with a quiet courtesy. Yet Pasolini’s existence turns out to be rigidly compartmentalised. Each evening he prowls for rent boys on the streets beside the station.
Director: Abel Ferrara 2014 France/Italy/Belgium Writers: Maurizio Braucci, Abel Ferrara, Nicola Tranquillino Cast: Willem Dafoe, Ninetto Davoli, Riccardo Scarmacio
Despite its volatile subject matter, Pasolini is cool and composed, a work of startling maturity. It’s profane and it’s precious and it glows like the moon.
With the support of the Italian Cultural Institute
Xan Brooks The Guardian
'a subtle, seductive, lamp-lit hymn to one artist’s talents from another' The Daily Telegraph
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A 1970s-set serial killer chronicle where cop and assassin turn out to be the very same person, Cédric Anger’s stylish thriller offers a strong central turn from Guillaume Canet while dishing out a number of crafty and suspenseful set-pieces. Former Cahiers du Cinema critic Anger has directed two other genre pieces (The Killer, The Lawyer) while also penning the script for André Téchiné’s true-story drama, In the Name of My Daughter. So he’s clearly in his element with this ripped-from-the-headlines period piece based on the real case of Alain Lamare, aka “the Oise killer” – a man who terrified a region north of Paris in the winter of 1978 when he gunned down several young women, all the while working as a gendarme responsible for tracking the murderer. Mon 23 Mar / Cineworld 9 / 8.30pm / 111 minutes Writer-Director: Cédric Anger 2014 France Cast: Guillaume Canet, Ana Girardot, Jean-Yves Berteloot Nominated, Best Actor & Best Female Newcomer, Lumière Awards
Anger’s screenplay follows the cop – renamed Franck (Canet) – from his first assault on a girl riding her scooter alone at night, through several other attacks, and on through his gradual fall as his fellow lawmen realize that the culprit may be inside their own department. Jordan Mintzer The Hollywood Reporter
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MON 23
BOOK ONLINE AT JDIFF.COM
MARCH
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
THE THIRD SIDE OF THE RIVER LA TERCERA ORILLA Celina Murga’s feel for small-town life is on full display in The Third Side of the River. A comingof-age story centred on the efforts of an angry young man (terrific Alian Devetac) to break free of a broken family, Murga’s feature is a beautifully achieved film in which placid surfaces belie cauldrons of violent emotion. The Third Side of the River introduces a family whose living arrangement has long ceased to seem abnormal. There is a mother, Nilda (Gaby Ferrero), and three children: Nicolas (Devetac), Andrea and Esteban. There is also a father called Jorge (Daniel Veronese), but he hangs his hat across town with his official wife and son. Nicolas is on the cusp of adulthood – a fact not lost on Jorge. But the more Jorge labours to groom Nicolas in his image, the more we see that there is no one the boy wants less to become.
'as absorbing as it is affecting… a small but beautifully observed film' The Hollywood Reporter
Mon 23 Mar / Screen 1 / 8.30pm / 92 minutes Director: Celina Murga 2014 Argentina/Germany/Netherlands Writers: Gabriel Medina, Celina Murga Cast: Alian Devatac, Daniel Veronese, Gabriela Ferrero
Don’t expect emotional fireworks – Murga’s style is a game of inches, where tensions hang in the air like unexploded bombs, and the way two characters’ eyes meet ripples through the film with seismic force.
1 CITY 11 DAYS 129 FILMS 50,000 SEATS
1 FESTIVAL
Scott Foundas Variety
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TUES 24
MARCH
BOOK ONLINE AT JDIFF.COM
TUES 24
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
MARCH
THE TRIBE PLEMYA Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy’s audacious debut is not only a compelling, confrontational drama, it’s also an innovative rethinking of cinema’s language of sight and sound. Featuring a superb cast of young performers, The Tribe is set in a boarding school for young deaf people, where new arrival Sergey (Fesenko) is drawn into an institutional system of organised crime, involving robbery and prostitution. But he crosses a dangerous line when he falls for Anna (Novikova), one of the girls to whom he’s assigned as pimp.
24th March
TUESDAY Highlights 'an audacious coup de cinema' Variety
THE TRIBE 6pm, Light House 1 Page 59
LIFE IN A FISHBOWL 6pm, Cineworld 8 Page 59
Tues 24 Mar / Light House 1 / 6pm / 130 minutes Writer-Director: Miroslav Slaboshpitsky 2014 Ukraine Cast: Grigoriy Fesenko, Yana Novikova, Rosa Babiy
Depicting a closed world with its own unforgiving laws, The Tribe is part-thriller, part-bad dream, with often startling use of intense sexuality and violence. Containing no spoken dialogue, but only sign language – and no subtitles – the film subverts the pieties that often attend cinema’s depiction of deaf people. Dazzlingly executed and shot in long complex takes, it is one of the outstanding discoveries of 2014. Jonathan Romney BFI London Film Festival
Winner, Critics’ Week Grand Prix, Cannes Film Festival Winner, Sutherland Award for First Feature, BFI London Film Festival
GETT 8.15pm, Screen 1 Page 73
LIFE IN A FISHBOWL VONARSTRÆTI The lives of three characters intertwine in Life in a Fishbowl, a strongly acted, sensitively directed drama. This naturalistic portrait of fraught lifestyles in Reykjavik on the eve of economic meltdown touched a nerve on home turf to become one of the island’s biggest-ever domestic hits. Each of the central characters leads a double life. Eik (Hera Hilmarsdóttir), the young mother of a diabetic 8-year-old, moonlights as a prostitute. Eik’s path begins to intersect with that of Mori (þorsteinn Bachmann), a poet and novelist who has been a raging alcoholic since a tragic incident 20 years earlier. Meanwhile, Solvi (Thor Kristjansson), a former soccer star recruited into international banking, wants the rights to Mori’s property.
Tues 24 Mar / Cineworld 8 / 6pm / 130 minutes Director: Baldvin Zophoníasson 2014 Iceland/Finland/Sweden/ Czech Republic Writers: Birgir Örn Steinarsson, Baldvin Zophoníasson Cast: Hera Hilmar, Thor Kristjansson, Sveinn Ólafur Gunnarsson
While these characters might have been stereotypes in other hands, Baldvin Zophoníasson and co-writer Birgir Steinarsson give them nuance and depth. Just when viewers think they know everything about the protagonists, the script delves deeper, revealing complications and contradictions. Alissa Simon Variety
Winner, NDR Film Prize, Nordic Film Days Lübeck Winner, Tridens Award for Best Debut, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 58
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TUES 24
MARCH
BOOK ONLINE AT JDIFF.COM
The Price of Desire
HORSE MONEY CARVALHO DINHEIRO One of today’s most important filmmakers, Pedro Costa returns with the follow-up to his landmark Fontainhas trilogy, which poetically captured the lives of those residing in the eponymous Lisbon slum. Ventura – the sad-eyed lead of Colossal Youth – is lost in indeterminacy as revolution takes place in the streets, increasingly held captive by his madness and the “nervous disease” that causes his constant trembling, the results of a lifetime’s worth of poverty. Recuperating in a mysterious infirmary with a network of subterranean passages, Ventura wanders in and out of rooms which lead to hidden areas of his mind. 'casts a spell that’s impossible to shake' IndieWire
Tues 24 Mar / Screen 2 / 6pm / 104 minutes
Costa’s new film is both a powerful indictment of injustice and a new pinnacle of the filmmaker’s art. Unfolding like a hushed, chiaroscuro fever dream, Horse Money is another masterpiece from one of the world’s greatest film artists.
Writer-Director: Pedro Costa 2014 Portugal Cast: Tito Furtado, Antonio Santos, Vitalina Varela
Andréa Picard Toronto International Film Festival
Winner, Best Director, Locarno Film Festival
With special guest Pedro Costa
With the support of the Embassy of Portugal in Ireland
TALKING TO MY FATHER
Film and Television Post Production Talking to My Father features two voices from two eras, each concerned with how we as a nation understand the architecture that surrounds our lives. Modern architecture in Ireland reached a high point in the early sixties and one of its most celebrated and influential figures was Robin Walker. Robin studied under Le Corbusier in Paris and later worked alongside Mies van der Rohe in Chicago. His return to Ireland in 1958 coincided with the emergence of an aspiring modern nation. Robin Walker became a key agent in this nation-building process.
Tues 24 Mar / IFI / 6pm / 90 minutes
A quarter of a century after his death, his son Simon Walker explores the legacy of his father’s life’s work. The director, Sé Merry Doyle, allows Walker’s buildings to speak for themselves, taking us with Simon in his search for Robin’s architecture of place. This unique tale is enhanced by Patrick Jordan’s stunning photography and avant-garde composer Stano’s telling composition.
Director: Sé Merry Doyle 2014 Ireland
Filmmaker’s statement
Reel Art is an Arts Council scheme designed to provide film artists with a unique opportunity to make highly creative, imaginative and experimental documentaries on an artistic theme.
In association with the Irish Film Institute
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The filmmakers will attend the screening
Currently in Production
Director
The Secret Scripture Sacrifice My Name is Emily Viva L'Acccabadora
Jim Sheridan Peter A. Dowling Simon Fitzmaurice Paddy Breathnach Enrico Pau
Recent Films
Director
The Price of Desire Leviathan The Hallow Moscow Never Sleeps Dare to Be Wild Miss Julie
Mary McGuckian Andrey Zvyagintev Corin Hardy Johnny O Reilly Vivienne De Courcy Liv Ullmann
Contact Tim Morris Head of Post Production Windmill Lane Pictures Limited 29 Herbert Street, Dublin 2, Ireland. Tel. +353 1 6713444 Fax. +353 1 6718413 Email. info@windmilllane.com www.windmilllane.com
BOOK ONLINE AT JDIFF.COM
VOLTA AWARDS
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
BEHIND THE SCENES JULIE ANDREWS
KUBRICK’S CAMERAS AND THE CINEMATOGRAPHY OF BARRY LYNDON Sat 21 Mar / Light House / 10.30am / €15 Much has made of Kubrick’s innovative use of cameras and lighting, especially in his masterpiece, Barry Lyndon (celebrated in a special screening this year with Ryan O’Neal – see p.25 for details). Prone to dismantling and rebuilding cameras (not to mention the legendary NASA lenses used for the ultra-low-light candlelit scene in Barry Lyndon), Kubrick was very much an innovator and a perfectionist. We warmly invite you to join our accomplished panel of experts and Kubrick collaborators: Doug Milsome (A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Barry Lyndon, Full Metal Jacket), Luke Quigley (Barry Lyndon) and the BAFTA Award-winning Joe Dunton (Eyes Wide Shut). Hosted by the Irish Society of Cinematographers, this panel is a must not only for aspiring camera practitioners but for film fans and enthusiasts of Kubrick’s cinematic legacy.
KENNETH BRANAGH
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63
BOOK ONLINE AT JDIFF.COM
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
BEHIND THE SCENES ANIMATORS IN CONVERSATION: DIDIER BRUNNER & TOMM MOORE
SEEKING THE TRUTH: MARK COUSINS IN CONVERSATION Thurs 26 Mar / Irish Times Building / 12pm / €15
This event is a must for anyone interested in a career in one of the fastest-growing creative sectors in Ireland as well as for lovers of animation everywhere!
For date, time and venue details see jdiff.com The Jameson Dublin International Film Festival is proud and delighted to present two leading animation professionals, producer Didier Brunner and Cartoon Saloon’s Tomm Moore, in conversation, discussing their work and careers to date.
Didier Brunner is an animation producer known for Belleville Rendezvous, The Old Lady and the Pigeons, and many of Michael Ocelot’s films. In 1967 he founded Trans-Europe Film, producing a wide range of animated work including Ocelot’s Tales of the Night. In 1994 he started Les Armateurs where he produced The Secret of Kells, Kiri le Clown and The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Bear. He has received numerous awards including an Oscar nomination, a César Award, a Genie Award and a BAFTA. His most famous animation is The Secret of Kells, where he worked alongside the Kilkenny-based Cartoon Saloon. Tomm Moore studied in Ballyfermot College of Further Education. In 1998 he co-founded Cartoon Saloon with Paul Young and Nora Twomey. Moore’s first animated film, The Secret of Kells (2009), went on to earn Cartoon Saloon its first Oscar nomination (as well as winning the 2009 JDIFF Audience Award). The follow up, Song of the Sea, garnered a second Oscar nomination this year!
‘IT BEGINS WITH THE SCRIPT’: CASTING WITH LEO DAVIS Sat 28 Mar / The Teachers' Club / 2pm / €15 Now a mainstay of our creative practices programme, our ever-popular casting event returns with aplomb. Come and join Emmy Award-nominated Leo Davis as she discusses her work in conversation with Margery Simkin. A founding member of the International Casting Directors Network, which shares knowledge of young European talent, Leo Davis has worked for over 25 years on a wide range of British and independent films, including Layer Cake, The Constant Gardener, The King’s Speech, The Queen and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. She has worked with acclaimed directors such as Fernando Meirelles, Roland Emmerich, Lars Von Trier and Wim Wenders. Leo will be joined in conversation by Hollywood casting director and JDIFF board member Margery Simkin, whose own credits include Avatar, Pacific Rim, Erin Brockovich and Top Gun.
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Mark Cousins is a Northern Irish filmmaker, critic and programmer. He has programmed the Edinburgh International Film Festival and hosted BBC2’s Moviedrome and Scene by Scene. He is the author of The Story of Film, which became an acclaimed Channel 4 series, and co-wrote Imagining Reality: the Faber Book of Documentary with Kevin Macdonald. He has directed documentaries on subjects ranging from Neo-Nazism to Iranian cinema to Ian Hamilton Finlay, and we are delighted to have the opportunity to delve deeper into the work and career of such a unique and insightful filmmaker as he returns to the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival for the screening of his new film: 6 Desires: DH Lawrence and Sardinia.
THE FIRST RULE OF BOOK CLUB… Fri 27 Mar / Pearse Street Library / 2.30pm / Free but ticketed With literary adaptations so prevalent in today’s cinematic landscape we wanted to discuss the subject from the point of the view of the consumer. The old adage ‘You’ve seen it, but have you read the book?’ can be applied to so much of what is currently on offer in cinemas and on our TV screens: Gone Girl, American Sniper, Game of Thrones, even comic book adaptations such as Avengers or Batman Vs Superman, but are those audiences cinemagoers or avid readers? Or both? And, if both, which were they first? We invite you to meet our expert panel and join in the discussion (and – to paraphrase Fight Club – if it’s your first panel event, you have to ask a question!).
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BOOK ONLINE AT JDIFF.COM
CONQUERING THE SCRIPT
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
SCREEN TEST Presented in Association with the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland
GREAT STORYTELLING LIES AT THE HEART OF THE FILMMAKING PROCESS. Every aspect of the script-to-screen journey places the story at its core and film professionals refer constantly to how the script is ‘everything’. And, this year, screenwriting and film story development will receive its own specific focus during the festival. Over this two-day event, filmmakers from Ireland will be exposed to ideas and insights into the screenwriting process from writers, directors, producers, developers and experts from the domestic and international filmmaking community. Sessions will cover topics including ‘conquering the blank page’ – with advice from established writers on ideas generation – through to a detailed breakdown by its makers of a feature film exhibited in the festival. There will be industry sessions with filmmakers and executives in Ireland. An application process will be launched on the festival website jdiff.com. The event is primarily for writers, directors and producers but if you are a filmmaker in other roles who has written or worked on scripts, we would love to hear from you.
The symposium will consist of the following sessions:
BROADCASTING: A CHANGING LANDSCAPE
DAY ONE Fri 20 Mar / Wood Quay Venue / 12pm / €7 The day will take participants on a journey from the early generation of ideas and into the development of story through the paradigm of conflict and the crisis characters need to undergo so that film is powerful and engaging. There will a story debate with a screenwriter about the film, its development process and the story choices made and in the evening all participants will be invited to watch a festival film together in preparation to discuss its making with the filmmakers on day two.
Technology continues to influence both the ways in which we access broadcast content and the type of content we access. Television, radio and online services all find themselves obliged to compete ever more intensely for audiences who have never been able to access so much so easily. But what impact does technological change have on the content itself? Do ‘on demand’ and digital download services influence the types of shows being created, and are comissioners now looking for a broader range of content to meet a diverse and changing audience?
DAY TWO We decided to explore these developments from the point of view of broadcasters and showrunners. Join our expert panel to find out what the future holds, both for audiences and for those looking to produce the next hit show.
The day kicks off with a debate on the current state of storytelling in Irish film and TV drama. We are keen to open up the discussion about Irish storytelling, the changing nature of drama and how up-and-coming writers today can think about their work in a rapidly evolving marketplace. Further sessions offer vital insights into the rewriting process and advice on how to develop your writing skills across a broader range of media.
‘THE ART OF MANIPULATION’ : EDITING WITH RÉKA LEMHÉNYI Mon 23 Mar / The Teachers' Club / 3pm / €7
The event will feature a fantastic range of guests – both international and Irish – and will be curated by Angeli Macfarlane.
All participants will receive a training pack and the opportunity to apply for one-to-one mentoring on a feature film idea or project in development.
ANGELI MACFARLANE
Supported by Bord Scannán na hÉireann/Irish Film Board, Dublin City Council and Screen Training Ireland
Angeli Macfarlane is a freelance development consultant and script editor who has worked with Film4, Pathé, Carnival, Altered Image Films, Element Pictures, 42 Management, Salon Pictures and Sony TV. Recent films Angeli has worked on include Borrowed Time for the Film London Microwave scheme; Death of a President, winner of an Emmy, BANFF and an RTS award; I Am Slave which was BAFTA-nominated; the More4 feature documentary Little Matador and Outlaw Prophet for Sony TV. With Element Pictures Angeli has supported the writing on several films produced and in development. Previously she has acted as associate producer and script editor for features Europe-wide and also in Australia.
Roger Ebert famously said that ‘editing is the soul of the cinema’. With films like Birdman seemingly employing one-take visuals, the role of the editor – and the impact he/ she has upon the unfolding narrative – is more relevant than ever to emerging practitioners. Award-winning editor Réka Lemhényi joins us from her native Hungary to discuss in-depth editing techniques and her illustrious career, including her work on Free Fall, which is screening as part of this year’s programme (see p.52). She has worked on a wide range of genres and formats from television to documentaries, as well as short and feature narratives. This event will appeal not only to post-production practitioners but also to directors looking for more insight into the ways in which editing can affect the unfolding narrative.
EXPRESSING EMOTION: ACTORS IN CONVERSATION Tues 24 Mar / The Teachers’ Club / 3pm / €7
Angeli provides ongoing development consultancy and project assessment to the BFI, Creative England, the MEDIA programme and Microwave. Angeli teaches the National Film & Television School diploma in Script Development, she is a BA module leader in screenwriting at Central Film School and has lectured worldwide, most recently in the Philippines, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta. The application deadline and further programme details are available on the festival website jdiff.com
If you ask ten different actors about their approach to performance you will get ten different answers. But all of them will tell you that it’s hard work. As part of our Screen Test strand, JDIFF is proud to welcome some of our hardest-working actors (including Robert Sheehan, star of shows like Misfits and Love/Hate) to discuss their careers to date. They say that you have to work for ten years to become an overnight sensation, and these talented individuals will certainly have no shortage of wisdom to share with aspiring actors, as well as plenty of stories for those who simply enjoy their work. Supported by the Lisa Richards Agency.
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JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
SPECIAL EVENTS
SPECIAL EVENTS
WRITE TO LIVE, LIVE TO WRITE: MANAGING YOUR WRITING CAREER
DUBLIN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE
Wed 25 Mar / The Teachers' Club / 3pm / Free but ticketed Presented in conjunction with the Irish Writers Centre, this event is aimed at writers who are looking for advice about managing and maintaining their career. It will explore the challenges of the creative process, idea management, and overcoming the dreaded writers’ block, all while making a living in your chosen field. Our panel – ready to impart wisdom, tips and advice to writers at all levels – features experienced professionals including story development professional Rachel O’Flanagan, script consultant Mary Kate O’Flanagan, writer-director Conor McMahon (From the Dark) and writer Pierce Ryan (Standby).
Established in 2006, The Dublin Film Critics Circle offers the city’s full-time professional movie reviewers an opportunity to pool opinions on recent releases, consider movie heritage and whinge about each other’s shortcomings. Join these irascible folk as they ponder JDIFF 2015 and name their final selections for Best Film, Best Director, Best Irish Film, Best Documentary and Best Performances from the festival programme. This year, a jury that includes Daniel Anderson (Click), Brogen Hayes (movies.ie), Paul Whitington (Irish Independent), Nicola Timmons (Average Film Reviews), David O’Mahony (Access Cinema), Donald Clarke (Irish Times), Esther McCarthy (Sunday World) and DFCC president Tara Brady (Irish Times) will, additionally, announce the recipient of the sixth Michael Dwyer Discovery Award, named for our late friend and colleague. Presentable DFCC member Gavin Burke (entertainment. ie) will be on hand to introduce the final deliberations of the 2015 jury at The Church. For date and time details go to jdiff.com
Write to Live, Live to Write is part of an ongoing collaboration between JDIFF and the Irish Writers Centre.
CRITICAL RESPONSE
PERSPECTIVES IN PICTURES Sun 22 Mar / Collins Barracks / 12pm From Stanley Kubrick’s interpretation of the 18th century in Barry Lyndon to the fascinating study of Heinrich Himmler’s unseen domestic life in The Decent One, this year’s festival is a colourful tapestry of windows to the past. But do filmmakers feel a responsibility to represent historical figures and events accurately? Should they? And how much artistic licence should they give themselves? Set against the historic backdrop of Collins Barracks, and featuring Mary McGuckian (director of Eileen Gray biopic The Price of Desire), and Jennifer Goff (curator of the Collins Barracks Eileen Gray Exhibition), a panel of artists and documentary makers explore what happens when ‘history’ appears on screen.
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How susceptible are we to the reputation of a filmmaker, or the buzz about a new film? Does it make a difference to our enjoyment if we go into a film knowing nothing about it? Join us as six daring members of the Dublin Film Critics Circle provide instant responses to three films which they are shown blind. It is hoped that this fun event will provide audiences with an insight into the way in which opinions are formed and responses are fashioned in to reviews. For further details go to jdiff.com
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CINE TALENT AWARD
We have chosen the following directors, writers, producers and actors from this year’s Irish programme to join us in a spotlight initiative:
NÅNTING MÅSTE GÅ SÖNDER Something Must Break elevates young love to liberating new heights. A spectacular visual storyteller, director Ester Martin Bergsmark finds honesty in the lead characters and beauty beneath the dark grit of Stockholm’s edges. Alienated and lovelorn, Sebastian (Saga Becker) longs for intimacy and genuine connection. Hesitant to explore a feminine side, Sebastian embraces broader terms when it comes to gender identity, sometimes preferring to be called Ellie. However, being Ellie presents a challenge in some situations. Enter Andreas (performance artist Iggy Malmborg), a straight-identified punk who rescues Sebastian from a violent assault. Slowly, the two commence a dark and tumultuous relationship and Ellie rushes to the fore.
Talking to My Father Director: Sé Merry Doyle The Great Wall Director: Tadhg O’Sullivan Wheel of Fortune Director/Producer: Joe Lee Tues 24 Mar / Screen 1 / 6.10pm / 90 minutes
FEATURES & DOCUMENTARIES The Price of Desire Director/Producer: Mary McGuckian Writer: Mary McGuckian Actor: Orla Brady All About Eva Director/Producer: Ferdia Mac Anna Writers: Pauric Brennan, Joe Campbell, Mary Duffin Actor: Susan Walsh Actor: Claire Blennerhassett Let us Prey Director: Brian O’Malley Producer: Eddie Dick Writer: David Cairns, Fiona Watson Actor: Liam Cunningham Actor: Pollyanna McIntosh Yximalloo Directors: Tadhg O’Sullivan, Feargal Ward After the Dance Director: Daisy Asquith The Canal Writer-director: Ivan Kavanagh Producer: Anne Marie Naughton Actor: Antonia Campbell-Hughes From the Dark Director: Conor McMahon Producer: Kate McColgan Actor: Niamh Algar Actor: Stephen Cromwell Tana Bana Director: Pat Murphy Producer: Rachel Lysaght
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SOMETHING MUST BREAK
THE JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL AND BORD SCANNÁN NA hÉIREANN/THE IRISH FILM BOARD (IFB) ARE DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE THE 2015 CINE TALENT AWARD.
CINE Talent is designed to profile and foster exceptional new and established talent working in all areas of the Irish film industry.
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Eat Your Children Directors: Treasa O’Brien, Mary Jane O’Leary Glassland Writer-director: Gerard Barrett Producer: Ed Guiney Actor: Jack Reynor
Director: Ester Martin Bergsmark 2014 Sweden Writers: Ester Martin Bergsmark, Eli Levén Cast: Saga Becker, Iggy Mainborg, Shima Niavarani Winner, Hivos Tiger Award, International Film Festival Rotterdam
Bergsmark is best known for the documentary She Male Snails, an artistic portrait of Eli Levén. That film garnered flattering comparisons to Derek Jarman. Drawing once again from Levén’s awardwinning novel for Something Must Break, Bersmark seems poised to earn more effusive praise. Vancouver International Film Festival
SHORTS: An Ode to Love Writer-director: Matthew Darragh
MISS JULIE
Céad Ghrá Director: Brian Deane Writer: Matthew Roche
The ten films in which Liv Ullmann starred for Ingmar Bergman represent one of the greatest director-actor collaborations in cinema history. It was no surprise, then, that when Ullmann moved into the director’s chair she demonstrated an unerring ability to summon the best from her casts. That skill is on display in Miss Julie, a lacerating study of class, power, and desire that unfolds one Midsummer’s Eve in the late 1800s.
I am Here Director: David Holmes Writer: Lisa Barros D’Sa Rockmount Writer-director: Dave Tynan Boogaloo & Graham Director: Michael Lennox Writer: Ronan Blaney Big Bird Writer: Derek O’Connor The winners will be invited to a networking brunch on Saturday 28 March, with casting director Margery Simkin (Top Gun, Avatar) and an array of international film guests. A video shoot for the artists will take place on the day and the artists will be promoted by partner journalists who will champion CINE Talent’s chosen selection.
'unforgettable in every sense of the word’ The Playlist
Tues 24 Mar / Cineworld 9 / 6.15pm / 129 minutes Writer-Director: Liv Ullmann 2014 Norway/UK/Ireland/France Cast: Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton
Moving the action to County Fermanagh, Ullmann’s film opens as Julie (Jessica Chastain), daughter of an Anglo-Irish aristocrat, sets out to seduce the valet John (Colin Farrell). The flirtation between the two doubles as a kind of psychological gamesmanship – much of it witnessed by the house cook Kathleen (Samantha Morton). As Julie, Chastain possesses a beguiling blend of petulance and vulnerability, while Farrell is deliciously duplicitous as John. Yet the film’s secret weapon is Morton, exuding an eerie canniness about all that transpires as this upstairs-downstairs contest careens toward its chilling finish.
With the support of the Norwegian Embassy Michèle Maheux Toronto International Film Festival
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JAMESON CULT FILM CLUB
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THE BREACH This stunningly beautiful documentary is deeply personal yet relevant to us all. Filmmaker Mark Titus caught his first salmon at the age of two (with a little help from his dad) and thus started a lifelong love of angling and the particular species of fish that he stalked. Sadly, over the course of Titus’ life he has witnessed a breach in the contract between humans and his beloved salmon. The agreement, he contends, was that if we would protect waterways then the salmon would continue to carry nutrients up the river, provide plentiful food for us to eat and fertilisation for our land.
Tues 24 Mar / Light House 3 / 8pm / 90 minutes Director: Mark Titus 2014 USA
‘like Tarantino crossed with the Marx Brothers’ Roger Ebert
Winner, Best International Feature Documentary, Galway Film Fleadh
Almost like a gentle Michael Moore, Titus takes us on a journey, meandering through the northwestern region of the US and into Canada, to tell the story of how this rupture happened and the impact it has had on migrating fish and local people. He shows that, due to overfishing, dambuilding and fish-farming, wild salmon are less plentiful and more unhealthy than before. It’s a fascinating look at a dangerous course humanity has taken and what we must do to reverse it. Ross Whitaker With special guest Mark Titus
LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS
Of all the attempts to put a Tarantino spin on the British gangster movie, this is the freshest and most successful. Set entirely in a fantasy East End and shot through a drunken haze, it creates a world related to reality and to old crime movies but also self-contained and original.
GETT: THE TRIAL OF VIVIANE AMSALEM
Tues 24 Mar / 7pm / 107 minutes Writer-Director: Guy Ritchie 2015 USA Cast: Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher, Nick Moran This year, Jameson Irish Whiskey presents the Jameson Cult Film Club, a year-long programme of special screenings that take place around the country. The selected Cult Films are presented in key non-cinema locations while also adding some surprises along the way for the invite-only audience. Log on to www.jamesoncultfilmclub.ie to ensure you don’t miss the next one. Please note: this screening is only available to Jameson Cult Film Club members. For details go to www.jamesoncultfilmclub.ie
The plot is a complex collision of several sets of crooked characters. Our heroes – Eddy (Nick Moran), Tom (Jason Flemyng), Soap (Dexter Fletcher) and Bacon (Jason Statham) – are harmless wideboys who find themselves in a pickle when Eddy loses a rigged three-card brag game with local mob boss/porn baron Hatchet Harry (PH Moriarty). The lads are required to hand over half-a-million quid by the end of the week or suffer the attentions of Harry’s debt-collectors, a bald head-dunker called Barry The Baptist (bare knucks champ Lenny McLean) and the fearsome Big Chris (football hard man Vinnie Jones). The quartet overhear their nastier neighbours planning on robbing a group of public school dope cultivators and decide to rip-off the rip-off artists. Ritchie’s colour-desaturated style, use of unusual background music, scattershot slang and black comedy give the film the feel of an altered state of perception, whether it be Eddy’s shaky devastation at running up the debt or the various spells of drunkenness, dope trancing or adrenalin rush that smite all characters. And it ends with the best bit of dangling since The Italian Job.
Gett hinges on an Israeli law that might seem medieval to some: conventional marriages between Jews come under the jurisdiction of the rabbinical courts, not civil courts, and can only be dissolved when the husband presents his wife with a ‘gett’, a divorce document. In the hands of co-directors Ronit Elkabetz (who also co-stars) and Shlomi Elkabetz this legal loophole becomes the wellspring for rich drama.
'expertly written, brilliantly acted' Variety
Tues 24 Mar / Screen 1 / 8.15pm / 115 minutes Writer-Directors: Ronit Elkabetz, Shlomi Elkabetz 2014 France/ Germany/Israel Cast: Ronit Elkabetz, Simon Abkarian, Gabi Amrani Winner, Best Film, Jerusalem Film Festival
Set within the courtroom and waiting rooms of a rabbinical court, the story unfolds over five years as Viviane (Ronit Elkabetz) and her lawyer Carmel (Menashe Noy) try to persuade the court to compel Viviane’s stubborn husband Elisha (Simon Abkarian) to grant her a gett. In work this stripped down, nearly everything depends on the actors, and thankfully the cast is composed of crack performers. Elkabetz and Akbarian are first among equals: their minute changes in expression speak volumes. It’s an altogether strange but astonishing work. Leslie Felperin The Hollywood Reporter
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TU DORS NICOLE Tu Dors Nicole is the new film from Stéphane Lafleur, best known as the editor behind 2011’s Oscar-nominated Monsieur Lazhar (JDIFF 2012). It’s a comedy that comes across as a sort of FrenchCanadian take on Frances Ha, but also stands as its own unique, and equally brilliant, beast.
'sweetly absurd, wryly comic' Variety
Tues 24 Mar / Cineworld 8 / 8.40pm / 93 minutes Director: Stéphane Lafleur 2014 Canada Writers: Valérie Beugrand-Champagne, Stéphane Lafleur Cast: Julianne Côté, Catherine St-Laurent, Marc-André Gronin Winner, Best Canadian Film, Vancouver Film Critics Circle
Nicole (Julianne Côté) is not long out of college, and having trouble sleeping. Working in a charity store, she’s looking after her parents’ house for the summer, which would be more of a novelty if she didn’t live there. Nevertheless, she’s looking forward, with best friend Veronique (Catherine St-Laurent), to having the place to herself. Except that her older brother Remi (Marc-André Gronin) has the same idea, and has set up shop with his band. Lafleur maintains a bouncy, consistently funny tone that you’d describe as featherlight were there not real weight grounding it all. He has a talent for making comedy work visually, and as you might expect from a former editor, a sense not just for landing a joke, but for creating a unique and distinctive rhythm. Oliver Lyttelton The Playlist
25th March
WEDNESDAY Highlights ALL ABOUT EVA 6pm, Light House 1 Page 77
6 DESIRES: DH LAWRENCE & SARDINIA 8.45, Light House 3 Page 81
A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT 8.45pm, Cineworld 8
AUGUST WINDS
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VENTOS DE AGOSTO Brazilian director Gabriel Mascaro has been making extraordinary documentaries for a few years now (High-Rise, Defiant Brasilia), but August Winds is his narrative debut – and it’s one of the most significant breakthroughs of the year. Meditations on life and death aren’t exactly few and far between, but you won’t recognize Mascaro’s approach. With a subdued plot, August Winds is a film of quietly unfolding sensual pleasure, punctuated with warm humour, before it reaches its profoundly beautiful final image.
'a poetical reflection on age, youth, flesh and memory' Twitchfilm
Tues 24 Mar / Cineworld 9 / 9.15pm / 77 minutes Director: Gabriel Mascaro 2014 Brazil Writers: Rachel Ellis, Gabriel Mascaro Cast: Dandara de Morais, Geová Manoel dos Santos, Maria Salvino dos Santos
Shirley (Dandara de Morais), a gorgeous young woman, is in the countryside taking care of her aging grandmother when her diver boyfriend discovers a skull in the ocean. Then a corpse washes ashore. Youthful vitality and decay contrast throughout the film, evoking a sense of the confluence of time. Shot by the director himself, the stunning cinematography lends an optimistic beauty to the seemingly dark subject matter. At its heart, however, it’s the touching performance from de Morais that anchors this poetic and observant tale. Vancouver International Film Festival
Jury Special Mention, Locarno Film Festival
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MEET MONICA VELOUR
Wed 25 Mar / Light House 2 / 6pm / 98 minutes Writer-Director: Keith Bearden 2010 USA Cast: Kim Cattrall, Dustin Ingram, Brian Dennehy
This assured coming-of-age tale uses the emotional journey of a middle-class Rio teenager to probe the social schisms underpinning contemporary Brazilian society.
Monica is a former porn star who has become an object of obsession for geeky 18-year-old Tobe (Dustin Ingram). When he finds out that she’s making a rare live appearance at an Indiana strip club, he sets out in his vintage hot dog truck to meet the woman of his dreams, albeit one who is a good three decades older. But it becomes apparent that Monica’s best days are behind her… Cattrall is terrific, investing her portrayal with a complex mixture of vulnerability, toughness and still-powerful sexuality. Newcomer Ingram is also fine; his Tobe is appealingly eccentric without lapsing into stereotype. Fine comic turns are provided by Brian Dennehy as Tobe’s tart grandfather, Keith David as an avid collector of kitsch and Elizabeth Wright Shapiro as a low-rent stripper named Snickers.
'a confident and quietly promising feature debut' The Hollywood Reporter
Wed 25 Mar / Screen 1 / 6pm / 117 minutes Director: Fellipe Barbosa 2014 Brazil Writers: Fellipe Barbosa, Mauro Pizzo, Karen Sztajnberg Cast: Marcello Novaes, Suzana Pires, Thales Cavalcanti
Frank Scheck The Hollywood Reporter
TELSTAR: THE JOE MEEK STORY
Director: Nick Moran 2008 UK Writers: Nick Moran, James Hicks Cast: Con O’Neill, Kevin Spacey, Pam Ferris
Nick Moran’s biopic showcases a superb lead from Con O’Neill, shifting from manic enthusiasm to venomous tantrums which drive away Geoff Goddard (Tom Burke) and Major Banks (Kevin Spacey) before the final meltdown. Moran (who stars in this year’s Jameson Cult Film Club film: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels – see p.72) plays up his vampirish subject as he wrings sad comedy from Meek’s attempt to turn dim pick-up Heinz (JJ Feild) into the UK’s Elvis while rejecting The Beatles. Kim Newman Empire
Seventeen-year-old Jean (Thales Cavalcanti) lives with his affluent parents, attends an elite school and takes his privileged life for granted. However, the family faces bankruptcy and Jean’s plans to study at university are threatened by new legislation that will bring a certain quota of students from state schools into the higher education system. Suddenly, Jean’s world becomes less secure as he embarks on an emotional journey that takes him far outside his comfort zone. Fellipe Barbosa’s assured semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale, set in a class-riddled Rio de Janeiro, skilfully melds telling social commentary with a character-driven narrative, grounded in an intelligent central performance by non-professional actor Thales Cavalcanti. Casa Grande captures both the insecurity and cockiness of adolescence and the dynamics of change shaping Brazil’s ‘big house’ in the 21st century. Maria Delgado BFI London Film Festival
ALL ABOUT EVA ‘I knew you were trouble when I first set eyes on ya,’ says stable worker Gus to the beautiful Eva (Susan Walsh). He could well be right. It’s not long before the stunning young female jockey is connected with strange goings-on in the stables where she has inveigled herself a position.
Telstar is the true story of record producer Joe Meek, creator of a string of number 1 hits in the early 60s including ‘Telstar’, the biggest selling record of its time and the first British single ever to top the US charts. Despite his musical illiteracy, Meek went on to create the weird and wonderful recordings that earned him iconic status in the world of British pop until depression, heartbreak and paranoia ultimately led to a cataclysmic downfall.
Wed 25 Mar / Light House 3 / 6pm / 119 minutes
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CASA GRANDE It’s easy to see what attracted Kim Cattrall to the title role of Meet Monica Velour. Sex might figure in this character’s life as prominently as it does for Samantha Jones in Sex and the City, but the similarities pretty much end there.
'the leads are excellent, their ... would-be affair as heartbreaking and bleakly funny as love itself' Empire
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JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
The elite and competitive world of Co. Kildare horse racing provides the backdrop for this twisty and darkly funny revenge thriller. The charming, resilient and manipulative Eva is not afraid to use her brawn – and her sexuality – to get her way. But amid the ongoing power battles and back-stabbing that occur in the stable yard of wealthy racing magnate Pope Healy (Liam Quinlivan), it quickly becomes apparent to some that there is more to Eva than meets the eye. Is she ruthless enough to see her troubling ambitions through? Wed 25 Mar / Light House 1 / 6pm / 86 minutes Director: Ferdia Mac Anna 2014 Ireland Writers: Pauric Brennan, Joe Campbell, Marry Duffin, Richard Kearney, Ferdia Mac Anna, Zoe Palmer Cast: Susan Walsh, Liam Quinlivan, Jill Bradbury
This unique project was produced by Kildare County Council and directed by Ferdia Mac Anna, featuring a local cast of actors, writers and crew. The initiative set out to promote Kildare’s talented creative pool of filmmakers and actors. Esther McCarthy
The filmmakers will attend the screening
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THE DARK HORSE The Dark Horse is an emotionally potent story of redemption anchored by a heart-piercing performance from Cliff Curtis. Portraying the late Genesis Potini, a psychiatric patient-turned-localhero, Curtis (Whale Rider), commands the screen.
'a great, deeply affecting movie … the best to come out of these shores in many a year' New Zealand Herald
Wed 25 Mar / Cineworld 8 / 6.15pm / 124 minutes Writer-Director: James Napier Robertson 2014 New Zealand Cast: Cliff Curtis, James Rolleston, Kirk Torance
A former chess prodigy who has spent a great deal of his life in mental institutions, Potini is released into the care of his older brother, Ariki (Wayne Hapi), a gang member whose violent lifestyle doesn’t bode well for either Genesis or Ariki’s teenage son, Mana (James Rolleston). Genesis finds salvation teaching chess to a group of displaced kids, contending he can turn them into worthy competitors in time for an upcoming national tournament. While the main character might share something in common with the protagonists in Shine and A Beautiful Mind, director-writer Robertson has no intent of romanticizing mental illness. As Potini, Curtis demonstrates a commitment that goes well beyond physical transformation, and there’s very capable support from Rolleston and Hapi in a raw, convincing turn as Gen’s brother. Michael Rechtshaffen The Hollywood Reporter
KEBAB & HOROSCOPE KEBAB I HOROSKOP A former kebab-shop employee and an out-of-work horoscope writer declare themselves marketing experts and are hired to help a carpet emporium without customers in the droll shaggy-dog story Kebab & Horoscope. This colourfully stylized debut feature from Grzegorz Jaroszuk, known for his prize-winning shorts, displays a distinctive brand of eccentric humanism that draws inspiration from the works of Aki Kaurismäki, Roy Andersson (see p.114) and Petr Zelenka, among others.
'delightful moments of inspired silliness … a breath of fresh air' Variety
Wed 25 Mar / Cineworld 9 / 6.15pm / 72 minutes Writer-Director: Gregorz Jaroszuk 2014 Poland Cast: Bartłomiej Topa, Piotr Zurawski, Tomasz Schuchardt With the support of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland
Following the advice of a horoscope column in the magazine Animal Science, kitchen worker Kebab (Bartłomiej Topa) decides to quit his job. The only other patron in the place is a young man who turns out to be the author of the column, Horoscope (Piotr Zurawski). When the two men next appear they’re a duo, spouting semi-logical absurdities to workers at the aforementioned carpet shop under the rubric of marketing. As the employees participate in peculiar exercises designed to focus the efficiency and energy of the business, the dynamics of the group shift in subtle and comical ways, with surprising feuds and alliances emerging and evaporating. Alissa Simon Variety
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WED 25
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MARCH
DENNIS RODMAN'S BIG BANG IN PYONGYANG
Wed 25 Mar / Cineworld 9 / 8pm / 95 minutes Director: Colin Offland 2014 USA
Coming across as engaging eccentric, drunken buffoon and political naif, Rodman braves criticism, censure and even death threats during a series of sorties to Pyongyang. Offland and his crew capture (and shrewdly enhance) several remarkable moments, from the relentless rush through a veritable army of journalists in a Beijing airport to Rodman’s jovial backand-forth with the Marshall. Narrator Matt Cooper demonstrates an impressive ability to turn on a dime from whimsy to seriousness throughout.
MARCH
GOODBYE TO ALL THAT
A deftly constructed, consistently engrossing and frequently flat-out-hilarious account of a controversial sporting event with geopolitical implications, Dennis Rodman’s Big Bang in Pyongyang arrives just in time to serve as a companion piece to The Interview. Director Colin Offland strikes the perfect balance of bemused spectator and impartial commentator while offering an up-close, behind-thescenes account of the 2014 basketball tournament organized by the indefatigably flamboyant Dennis Rodman in North Korea, during which Rodman and other retired NBA greats were pitted against a dream team of local basketballers as a birthday tribute to dictator Kim Jong-un. 'incredible, incendiary and consistently irreverent’ The Hollywood Reporter
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Otto Wall (Paul Schneider) has a job, a marriage, and is a loving father to his 9-year-old daughter Eddie. But Otto’s also just a little bit… defective. A careless driving accident acts as a catalyst for his exasperated wife Annie. So Otto is utterly blindsided when Annie files for a divorce. Thunderstruck, Otto stumbles around trying to make sense of his life. It would be easy for Goodbye To All That, the directorial debut of Junebug screenwriter Angus MacLachlan, to get dark and anguished. But Goodbye To All That is gentle and yet surprisingly funny and even sexy. 'Paul Schneider shines' The Hollywood Reporter
Wed 25 Mar / Screen 1 / 8.20pm / 87 minutes Writer-Director: Angus MacLachlan 2014 USA Cast: Paul Schneider, Melanie Lynskey, Anna Camp
As the broken – but not defeated – Otto, Paul Schneider turns in his best performance since All The Real Girls. As Otto tries to find his bearings, navigates love, rediscovers sex and negotiates the difficulties of being a good father, he never quite figures it out. But this endearing depiction of his struggle is authentic and touching. Rodrigo Perez The Playlist
Winner, Best Actor Award, Tribeca Film Festival
Joe Leydon Variety
FUTURO BEACH
6 DESIRES: DH LAWRENCE AND SARDINIA
PRAIA DO FUTURO Breakneck motorcycle rides bookend Karim Ainouz’s stunning fifth feature, Praia do Futuro. Part gay romance, part journey into self, this spare but sensually saturated story seems on the verge of losing control, but its visual and sonic verve more than compensate.
Wed 25 Mar / Light House 1 / 8.10pm / 106 minutes Director: Karim Ainouz 2014 Brazil/Germany Writers: Felipe Braganca, Karim Ainouz Cast: Wagner Moura, Clemens Schick, Jesuíta Barbosa
The first of three chapters, set in Brazil, wastes little time lighting the spark between Donato (Wagner Moura), a lifeguard, and Konrad (Clemens Schick), an ex-military thrill-seeker from Germany. When their relationship deepens Konrad invites Donato to return with him to Germany. As they settle in the colder but more liberating climes of Berlin, Donato becomes fully acquainted with his sexuality – though the pull of his family, and the lure of the beach, tempt him to return home. 'Everything will be fine when the future arrives,' says a kindly bartender. The third chapter suggests it may not be as simple as that. There’s a touch of Jacques Audiard to the film’s opening, and Antonioni to its later stretches. Like the best appropriators, however, Ainouz works such scraps into a patchwork consistently his own.
Winner, Sebastiane Latino Award, San Sebastian Film Festival Guy Lodge Variety 80
Documentary filmmaker Mark Cousins follows in the footsteps of DH Lawrence in this dazzling road trip through Sardinia.
'both a beautifully rendered travelogue and a celebration of Sardinian culture' Slug Magazine
Wed 25 Mar / Light House 3 / 8.45pm / 85 minutes Director: Mark Cousins 2014 UK/Italy With special guest Mark Cousins
In 1921, DH Lawrence and his wife Frieda von Richthofen journeyed to Sardinia, where they spent the winter travelling. He wrote a book about his experiences and now Mark Cousins retraces his footsteps, armed with a camcorder and an inexhaustible reserve of curiosity. The film is conceived partly as a letter to Lawrence – or ‘Bert’, as he calls him, a detail that’s typical of the film’s inviting sense of conversational intimacy. A lively chronicle of Cousins’ own trip through Sardinia, the film is a bracing reflection on a dizzying range of subjects, including (but not exhausting) Lawrence’s creative impulses, fascism, the island’s Catholic rituals and the writings of such thinkers as Hélène Cixous and Antonio Gramsci. The results are witty, intelligent, thrillingly inventive and confirm the prolific Cousins (A Story of Children and Film – JDIFF 2014) as one of the UK’s most distinctive filmmakers. Oh, and Jarvis Cocker’s on hand to provide the voice for DH Lawrence. Edward Lawrenson BFI London Film Festival
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JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
THURS 26
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A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT Etched in kohl and doused in dark humour, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is the bewitching first feature from writer-director Ana Lily Amirpour. This fiendishly imaginative, distinctly feminist fusion of western, vampire flick and low-fi black-and-white indie will touch your soul and trouble your dreams. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is set in the fictional Bad City, a ghost town whose residents favour a diverse range of retro influences. It finds a small, skateboard-riding vampire known only as ‘The Girl’ (the wonderful Sheila Vand) stalking the townsfolk, dispensing bloody justice. 'an intoxicating blend of eerie horror and 80s pop' Time Out New York
Wed 25 Mar / Cineworld 8 / 8.45pm / 100 minutes Writer-Director: Ana Lily Amirpour 2014 USA Cast: Sheila Vand, Arash Marandi, Marshall Manesh
Amirpour and her team create an oldfashioned aesthetic, with influences ranging from Hammer and Universal horror to Jim Jarmusch, David Lynch and Sergio Leone. Despite the strong vein of leftfield humour there’s some chilling stuff here, with Vand making for a pretty scary bloodsucker. But the film is ultimately about how dangerous it is to let someone into your heart. Emma Simmonds The List
26th March
THURSDAY Highlights SORROW & JOY 6pm, Screen 1 Page 85
FORCE MAJEURE 8.15pm, Cineworld 9 Page 88
DARE TO BE WILD 8.30pm, Light House 1 Page 89
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HARDKOR DISKO
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
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SORROW AND JOY SORG OG GLÆDE
Thurs 26 Mar / Light House 1 / 6pm / 87 minutes Director: Krzysztof Skonieczny 2013 Poland Writers: Roberto Bolesto, Krzysztof Skonieczny Cast: Marcin Kowalczyk, Jasmina Polak, Agnieszka Wosinska Winner, Best Directing Debut, Gdynia Film Festival
Marcin has murder on his mind. He arrives in Warsaw with eyes only for his intended victims, but when fate drops their daughter in his path instead, what begins as an opportunistic means to access his would-be victims becomes something far more complex.
Nils Malmros is one of the most important Danish directors of recent decades, acclaimed for a highly personal series of films (including Boys and Tree of Knowledge) that mine his own youthful experiences. But he has waited forty years to make a film inspired by the most traumatic events of his life.
Krzysztof Skonieczny delivers a striking and unsettling portrait of angry youth in Hardkor Disko. Skonieczny adamantly refuses to explain why Marcin is so focused on killing this particular couple, instead employing a remarkably soulful performance from leading man Marcin Kowalczyk. Skonieczny is one of a new wave of European directors who exist in the intersection of old traditions and the new globalized world. It’s a position forcing them to create a language of their own, and what we’re seeing here are the first steps down that path.
Thurs 26 Mar / Screen 1 / 6pm / 107 minutes
Todd Brown Fantastic Fest
Writer-Director: Nils Malmros 2014 Denmark Cast: Jakob Cedergren, Helle Fagralid, Ida Dwinger
Johannes (Jakob Cedergren), an ambitious young film director, is newly married to Signe (Helle Fagralid), a schoolteacher. Together they have a baby girl called Maria. One day Johannes arrives home to find that the unthinkable has happened: Signe, who suffers from depression, has killed their child. Determined to save Signe from a lifetime of psychiatric ‘detention’, even as he struggles to come to terms with the tragedy, Johannes tries to persuade the psychiatrist assessing her that she can be released into his care. But in doing so he is forced to confront his own culpability in the events that led up to Maria’s death. Graced by magnificent performances, Sorrow and Joy is an intensely moving work from one of the great European auteurs.
With the support of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland
Nominated, Best International Feature Film, Edinburgh International Film Festival
Alistair Daniel Jameson Dublin International Film Festival
With special guest Krzysztof Skonieczny
With special guest Nils Malmros
With the support of the Danish Film Institute
GENTE DE BIEN
'an engrossing, sensitive and admirably nuanced social drama' The Hollywood Reporter
Thurs 26 Mar / Light House 3 / 6pm / 86 minutes Director: Franco Lolli 2014 Colombia/France Writers: Virginie Legeay, Franco Lolli, Catherine Paillé Cast: Brayan Santamarià, Carlos Fernando Perez, Alejandra Borrero
'a small miracle' Film Comment
SHOULDER THE LION Ten-year-old Eric (Brayan Santamarià) is unhappy to be packed off by his mother, along with his dog Lupe, to stay with his father, Gabriel, whom he has seen little of in recent years. Living in a noisy boarding house in a rough and ready quarter of Bógota, Gabriel struggles to make ends meet. However, Eric sees a different side to the city when he is taken to the home of one of Gabriel’s wealthier clients, a middle-class university teacher who is keen to help the pair out. Unfortunately, her altruism tests the father-son relationship in a series of unforeseen ways.
Sculptor/painter Katie Dallam entered the boxing ring for her first professional fight and, 140 blows to the head later, suffered major brain damage. (Her life became the basis for the movie Million Dollar Baby). Irish musician Graham Sharpe’s career was on the rise when advancing tinnitus caused a ringing in his ears so bad that it put an end to his rock-and-roll dreams. Sculptor Alice Wingwall experienced complete loss of sight from a degenerative eye disease. Each managed to struggle, innovate and, ultimately, through their art, transform themselves into someone new.
With a memorable central performance by newcomer Brayan Santamarià as the angry, disorientated but hilariously funny Eric, Franco Lolli’s impressive debut demonstrates an assured grasp of storytelling, employing the power of suggestion, along with a great soundtrack, to present a beautifully observed social drama that explores notions of class in contemporary society.
Unlike many films about artists, Erinnisse and Patryk Rebisz’ impressive feature documentary debut refuses to take the conventional path. No pat interviews or feel-good bromides about the transformative power of art. The filmmakers create original images that seek to mirror what Katie, Graham and Alice are going through. Yes, there will be transformation, but it will be hardearned. Be aware. It’s a journey that may shine its transformative powers on you.
'a visual … treat' The Hollywood Reporter
Thurs 26 Mar / Cineworld 9 / 6pm / 77 minutes Directors: Erinnisse Rebisz, Patryk Rebisz 2014 USA
Maria Delgado BFI London Film Festival
Palm Springs International Film Festival Winner, Grand Prix for Best Film, Film Fest Ghent Winner, Best Film, Lima Film Festival
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With special guest Erinnisse Rebisz
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MARCH
THURS 26
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
MARCH
SPECIAL PRESENTATION
EDEN Mia Hansen-Løve’s Eden would make a wonderfully eye-opening double bill with Inside Llewyn Davis. Though wholly different in tone, style and philosophy, this portrait of a struggling garage DJ as he navigates two decades in the French club scene is similarly sensitive in its evocation of the joys and disappointments of the artistic life, and just as impeccable in its presentation of music.
'terrific' Sight & Sound
Thurs 26 Mar / Cineworld 8 / 6pm / 131 minutes Director: Mia Hansen-Løve 2014 France Writers: Mia Hansen-Løve, Sven Hansen-Løve Cast: Felix de Givry, Pauline Etienne, Vincent Macaigne
Starting in 1992, Eden jumps into the decade’s illicit rave scene. It’s here that literature student Paul (Felix de Givry) first encounters garage. Paul forms a DJ duo with Stan (Hugo Conzelmann), and begins promoting his own parties. He keeps the records spinning even as financial troubles mount, friends drift away, and his cocaine use starts to become more than casual. Scenes set in the clubs have a lived-in authenticity, and Hansen-Løve (Goodbye First Love – JDIFF 2012) is wonderfully attuned to the electric currents that a perfectly mixed transition can send surging through a dance floor.
'sharp, witty, and positively charming' Huffington Post
Andrew Barker Variety
SENSITIVE SKIN HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT
Thurs 26 Mar / Movies@Dundrum / 6.30pm / 60 minutes (two episodes) Harley (Arielle Holmes) is madly in love with Ilya (Caleb Landry Jones). She’s sure he loves her just as much, if only he could express it. Both of them are heroin addicts, kids who pretend to be heavy-metal rockers but spend their time scuffling, arguing and preying on each other as they wander around New York looking for a fix and the chump change to pay for it.
'a horrifying and remarkable piece of cinema' Sound on Sight
Thurs 26 Mar / Screen 2 / 6pm / 94 minutes Directors: Ben Safdie, Joshua Safdie 2014 USA Writers: Ronald Bronstein, Joshua Safdie Cast: Arielle Holmes, Caleb Landry Jones, Ron Braunstein
The script, based on a Holmes’ memoir and written by the Safdies with Ronald Bronstein, is a miracle of economy. Sean Price Williams’ cinematography expresses the clouded vision of kids who can’t imagine how invisible they are to the New Yorkers who take their homes and jobs for granted. And the Safdie brothers (The Pleasure of Being Robbed), in their toughest and richest movie, direct a cast composed largely of first-time actors so that they disappear into their characters, horrify us and break our hearts.
Director: Don McKellar 2014 Canada Writer: Bob Martin Cast: Kim Cattrall, Don McKellar, Nicolas Wright With special guest Kim Cattrall
‘This is a story that I’ve never heard told before, from such a fresh point of view, and I was immediately drawn to the intelligence and humour of it. It very much reminded me of Sex In The City.’ Kim Cattrall Sensitive Skin is a dramedy starring Golden Globe Award-winner Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City) as Davina, a woman of a certain age, and her long-time husband, Tony Award-winner Don McKellar (Blindness, Sling and Arrows), who have sold their comfortable family home and moved downtown to an ultra-modern condo, in a transitional neighbourhood, in a conscious effort to change their lives, keep relevant, and begin again. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happens. The series is based on the acclaimed BBC programme of the same name. Kim Cattrall executive produces along with McKellar, who directs from scripts by Tony Award-winner Bob Martin. Additional cast includes Academy Award® nominee Elliott Gould (M*A*S*H), Nicolas Wright (White House Down), Gemini Awardwinner Colm Feore (The Borgias), Joanna Gleason (Last Vegas), Gemini Award-winner Clé Bennett (Flashpoint) and Marc-André Grondin (C.R.A.Z.Y.).
New York Film Festival
Winner, Grand Prix for Best Film, Tokyo International Film Festival
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MARCH
AFTER THE DANCE
From the green hills of Ireland to the parched deserts of Africa, to the dazzling heights of London society, Dare to be Wild is a contemporary romantic adventure that tells the true story of Mary Reynolds (Emma Greenwell), a gifted landscape designer whose mission is to share the beauty and power of wild nature with the world. Facing almost impossible odds, she enters one of the toughest competitions in her field, and with nothing but talent and sheer force of will to drive her, she gets sceptics and cynics alike to share her vision. She even embarks on an Ethiopian odyssey to bring back the only man who can help her win, and the two fall in love over their mutual passion to preserve the wild. A real modern-day heroine, Mary reaches for her dreams – and achieves them – one garden, one vast desert, at a time.
Asquith’s hand-held style of shooting – where she turns her camera onto obscure, hidden and lesser-known subjects – is well known in a body of work that has seen her make over 20 films for the BBC and Channel 4. Here she focuses on her own mother, conceived to unmarried parents in Ireland and adopted by an English family, as she goes in search of her roots in West Clare.
Director: Daisy Asquith 2015 Ireland
MARCH
DARE TO BE WILD BAFTA-nominated filmmaker Daisy Asquith explores her family’s painful Irish heritage in this moving documentary about her mother’s adoption.
Thurs 26 Mar / Light House 2 / 8pm / 76 minutes
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A visit to a confession box, intercut with archive footage (Daisy’s mother being interviewed in a pub and chatting with locals) lends itself to a ’stage Irish’ view of rural Ireland. However, when the long-lost relatives are eventually discovered, Daisy – the natural communicator who likes to see the world through other people’s eyes – takes us on a journey far from West Clare and beyond her mother’s quest to understand her mysterious Irish past – a past we are all too familiar with.
Carmel International Film Festival Thurs 26 Mar / Light House 1 / 8.30pm / 102 minutes The filmmakers will attend the screening Writer-Director: Vivienne De Courcy 2014 Ireland Cast: Emma Greenwell, Tom Hughes, Séainín Brennan
Barrie Dowdall is a Dublin-based filmmaker With special guest Daisy Asquith
FORCE MAJEURE
BELOVED SISTERS
TURIST
DIE GELIEBETEN SCHWESTERN Dominik Graf (The Red Cockatoo) makes an overdue return to the big screen with Beloved Sisters, an enthralling, gorgeously mounted depiction of the relationship between writer and philosopher Friedrich Schiller and the sisters Charlotte von Lengefeld (who would become his wife) and Caroline von Beulwitz (his eventual biographer). Retaining the narrative density offered by television while taking full advantage of cinema’s larger canvas, Graf has created an unusually intelligent costume drama of bold personalities torn between heart and mind.
A psycho-comedy-drama inspired by the selfishness of our survival instincts, Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s fourth feature is his best yet.
'an unsettling psychological thriller ... visually stunning [and] emotionally perceptive' Variety
Östlund (Play – JDIFF 2012) began his career as a director of skiing films, but it’s not so much the ski scenes that impress in his vision of the resort where Tomas (Johannes Kuhnke), Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli) and children Vera and Harry are taking a winter break: it’s the sense of the slopes as a menacing beast. When the family is eating lunch a ‘controlled’ avalanche rushes towards the chalet. Tomas bolts in the general stampede, but Ebba stays to protect the kids. The whiteout that envelops the terrace is just powder and when it settles life goes on as before. Except it doesn’t. Tomas’ instinctive act of selfishness begins to poison the couple’s relationship.
Writer-Director: Ruben Östlund 2014 Sweden/Norway/Denmark/ France Cast: Johannes Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Clara Wettergren
One of this superbly directed film’s many pleasures is the way Östlund risks provoking out-and-out laughs as the dramatic stakes heighten. But Force Majeure never loses sight of its mandate to make us wonder how we might react.
Winner, Jury Prize, Un Certain Regard, Cannes International Film Festival
Lee Marshall Screen International
Thurs 26 Mar / Cineworld 9 / 8.15pm / 118 minutes
Thurs 26 Mar / Screen 1 / 8.30pm / 133 minutes Writer-Director: Dominik Graf 2014 Germany/Austria Cast: Hannah Herzsprung, Florian Stetter, Henriette Confurius
Graf stages marvellous set pieces, including a visit by Goethe to sleepy Rudolstadt that sets the whole town aflutter. He’s also found a series of inspired devices for dramatizing the intensely passionate correspondence that flies back and forth between the characters with a speed that rivals today’s emails. Above all, he’s made one of those relatively rare “period” films that pushes past the stuffy decorousness and mannerism of the dreaded “Masterpiece Theater” school to get at a highly plausible reading of how people actually lived.
Winner, Best Cinematography, Berlin Film Festival
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Presented in co-operation with the Goethe-Institut Irland
Scott Foundas Variety
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MARCH
A GIRL AT MY DOOR DOHEE-YA
What's On Tonight?
A resolutely left-field and refreshingly offkilter drama, July Jung’s A Girl At My Door is a deftly intriguing tale that starts off as a familiar domestic drama before spiralling off into something more unnerving.
’gripping from start to finish … Korean cinema at its finest’ Twitch Film
Thurs 26 Mar / Cineworld 8 / 8.45pm / 119 minutes Writer-Director: July Jung 2014 South Korea Cast: Kim Sae-ron, Bae Doona, Song Sae-byuk Winner, Best First Film, Stockholm Film Festival
The film is given heart and soul by a magnetic performance by Doona Bae (Cloud Atlas – JDIFF 2013) as a policewoman seeking to protect a young girl from physical abuse. Young-nam (Bae Doona) is the newly appointed chief of a small-town police station. Drama comes into her life in the form of Dohee-ya (Kim Sae-rom), a timid 14-year-old who is beaten by her boozy stepfather. When Yong-ha attacks the girl again, Young-nam offers to let her stay at her house, where the two women offer each other a kind of solace. The film spins off in a subtly different direction when Young-nam’s former girlfriend comes to visit and, despite her good intentions, Young-nam finds herself caught in a terrible position.
A Girl at My Door is an engagingly strange drama that weaves abuse, sexual manipulation and racism into its apparently low-key story. Mark Adams Screen International
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FRI 27
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
MARCH
DOUBLE PLAY: JAMES BENNING AND RICHARD LINKLATER Over a weekend in Austin, Texas, filmmakers Richard Linklater (Boyhood) and James Benning (Ruhr) get together to discuss their distinct approaches to cinema and their long-time friendship, and to play some baseball. The conversation is interspersed with clips from their seminal works, as the film gains never-beforeseen insights into the inner workings of American cinema’s most significant outsiders.
27th March
FRIDAY Highlights
'as enjoyable as only a good, carefully-chewed-over conversation between creative equals can be' Sight & Sound
GLASSLAND 6.30pm, Light House 1 Page 95
TANA BANA 8.40pm, Light House 1 Page 97
Fri 27 Mar / Light House 3 / 4pm / 70 minutes Director: Gabe Klinger 2013 France/Portugal/USA Writers: Gabe Klinger, Eugenio Renzi
The directorial debut of respected film critic Gabe Klinger, Double Play turns viewers into flies on the wall, observing two masters comparing war stories. It is not just their similarities but also their differences that illuminate: Benning sees his role as solitary, Linklater sees it as the coach of a team. Part of the decades-long Cinéma de notre temps series, Double Play is as much a masterclass in film editing as it is an intelligent meditation on ageing; it’s a must for dedicated cinema fans. Melbourne International Film Festival
Winner, Venezia Classici Award for Best Documentary on Cinema, Venice Film Festival
PRESSURE 9pm, Cineworld 9 Page 98
QUEENS OF SYRIA Syrian refugees in Jordan incorporate their stories of exile while workshopping Euripides’ The Trojan Women in Yasmin Fedda’s absorbing documentary. Since 2013, more than one million Syrians have declared refugee status. Jordan hosts more than 600,000 of them, and it’s there, in the capital Amman, that a group of filmmakers and producers came up with the idea of staging an adapted form of The Trojan Women with women who have themselves recently lived through the kind of ferocious war and bitter exile faced by the characters in the play.
Fri 27 Mar / Light House 3 / 6pm / 60 minutes Director: Yasmin Fedda 2014 Lebanon/Jordan/UK/United Arab Emirates Winner, Black Pearl Award for Best Director, Abu Dhabi Film Festival
60 women signed up, none of whom had acting experience, committing to seven weeks of rehearsals before curtain time. As the days count down the attrition rate increases. Some husbands aren’t comfortable with the idea of their wives on stage, while others fear retribution from Syrian authorities should they attempt to return home. The final staging is both choral and singular, the stark immediacy of their traumas given added potency, thanks to the minimalist production design. Jay Weissberg Variety
With special guests Yasmin Fedda, Itab Azzam and Georgina Paget 92
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WE ARE YOUNG, WE ARE STRONG
FRI 27
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
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SECOND COMING
WIR SIND JUNG, WIR SIND STARK
Fri 27 Mar / Cineworld 9 / 6pm / 128 minutes Director: Burhan Qurbani 2014 Germany Writers: Martin Behnke, Burhan Qurbani Cast: Jonas Nay, Trang Le Hong, Devid Striesow Presented in co-operation with the Goethe-Institut Irland
August 1992. In the East German city of Rostock, tensions are running high. Since the collapse of Communism, asylum seekers and other immigrants have been housed on one run-down estate, and the local population is becoming increasingly enraged.
Jackie (Nadine Marshall) is expecting her second child but the maths doesn’t quite add up. It’s been months since she last slept with her husband Mark (Idris Elba), so she knows it can’t be his. But she also knows she hasn’t been with anyone else.
Based on real events and set, like Do the Right Thing, over the course of one hot summer day, We Are Young, We Are Strong follows the fate of two young people, Vietnamese immigrant Lien (Trang Le Hong) and Stefan (Jonas Nay), a troubled teenager drawn to one of the far-right groups determined to drive ‘foreigners’ out. As darkness falls on the estate and an angry mob gathers, Lien and Stefan find themselves on opposite sides of a confrontation that threatens to spiral out of control.
That’s the intriguing premise of Second Coming, the remarkable feature debut from BAFTA Awardwinning television director and playwright Debbie Tucker Green. Prior to Jackie’s discovery, she, Mark and son JJ (Kai Francis-Lewis) are a close-knit middle-class family living in London. And then comes Jackie’s seemingly immaculate conception. Afraid of Mark’s reaction, she says nothing. But she knows it’s only a matter of time until she can’t conceal the truth any more. When that moment does arrive, its effect is profound. And what happens next will take both characters and audience by surprise.
Acclaimed young German filmmaker Burhan Qurbani keeps the tension simmering, plunging into a heady mix of issues without losing sight of his characters, and drawing strong performances from an ensemble cast. His freewheeling camera brings events an epic scale that embraces all of German society and, implicitly, our own.
'a unique imagination at work' Variety
Fri 27 Mar / Cineworld 8 / 6pm / 105 minutes Writer-Director: Debbie Tucker Green 2014 UK Cast: Nadine Marshall, Idris Elba, Kai Francis-Lewis
Alistair Daniel Jameson Dublin International Film Festival
Bolstered by the outstanding performances of Marshall and Elba, Second Coming is a provocative, allegorically loaded conversation-starter that you won’t soon forget. Cameron Bailey Toronto International Film Festival
With special guest Burhan Qurbani
MELBOURNE
GLASSLAND Set in a Tehran apartment, where the action unspools in real time, Nima Javidi’s unnerving debut invites audiences to speculate what they might do in the characters’ shoes. Javidi demonstrates enormous potential, judging by a feature that makes such strong use of its script and characters Amir (A Separation’s Peyman Moaadi) and Sara (Negar Javaherian). The opening focuses on an apartment whose residents are trying to juggle the last details before a major life change. Characters come and go, including a young woman who fusses with a baby sleeping in the bedroom. Suddenly, things change: Amir goes into the bedroom where the baby is sleeping and discovers that Tina isn’t breathing. Was Tina delivered to them that way? Or could it be that the infant expired under their supervision, leaving them responsible?
Fri 27 Mar / Screen 2 / 6pm / 93 minutes Writer-Director: Nima Javidi 2014 Iran Cast: Roshanak Gerami, Mani Haghighi, Negar Javaherian
Javidi has lit upon a universal and thoroughly engrossing premise, carrying it off through meticulous staging and top-notch acting to deliver a debut that should command attention from Iran to Australia and everywhere in between.
A young Dublin cab driver, John (Jack Reynor), barely makes ends meet. He shares social housing with his mother Jean (Toni Collette), who is systematically drinking herself to death. Hospitalized after another overdose, Jean’s best hope is a costly private rehab clinic. Desperate, John takes a shady job from the ambiguous criminal element he’s loosely connected to.
'a curiously brilliant (and brilliantly curious) film' The Irish Times
Fri 27 Mar / Light House 1 / 6.30pm / 89 minutes Writer-Director: Gerard Barrett 2014 Ireland Cast: Will Poulter, Toni Collette, Jack Reynor
It takes a special sensibility to capture a bleak reality while still giving tremendous vitality to the storytelling, but that’s exactly what writer-director Gerard Barrett (Pilgrim Hill) brings to Glassland. Its poetic realism and quiet intensity take hold early and never let go. Barrett pushes his characters in surprising, even funny directions, and Glassland’s emotional power hinges on spellbinding performances from Collette and burgeoning talents Reynor (What Richard Did) and Poulter (We’re the Millers). John Nein Sundance Film Festival
Joint Winner, Best Irish Feature, Galway Film Fleadh Peter Debruge Variety
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With the support of the Australian Embassy
With special guests Gerard Barrett and Jack Reynor
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MARCH
BERTOLUCCI ON BERTOLUCCI
Fri 27 Mar / Screen 1 / 6.45pm / 105 minutes Directors: Walter Fasano, Luca Guadagnino 2013 Italy With special guests Walter Fasano and Luca Guadagnino With the support of the Italian Cultural Institute
The documentary works through the course of Bertolucci’s career, from his beginnings as a poet and later Pier Paolo Pasolini’s assistant, to his most recent feature, Me and You. Strands that crop up include the director’s love of opera, his intense on-and-off-set relationships with actors, such as Marlon Brando, and his love-hate relationship with Hollywood studios. Whatever viewers might feel about the individual films, it’s hard not to warm to the erudite, forceful and self-critical man seen here, especially in the last hour where he discusses overcoming physical disability.
Three years ago, Les Intouchables became one of France’s biggest breakout hits, charming audiences across the world. Much of its charm flowed from its co-star, the exuberant Omar Sy. If you’ve yet to discover the appeal of Sy, just watch Samba.
'an impressively lucid, and often hilarious, indictment of France’s two-tiered social system' The Hollywood Reporter
Fri 27 Mar / Screen 2 / 8pm / 120 minutes Writer-Directors: Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano 2014 France Cast: Omar Sy, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Tahar Rahim
Leslie Felperin Variety
TEN YEARS IN THE SUN
Writer-Director: Rouzbeh Rashidi 2015 Ireland Cast: Dean Kavanagh, Rouzbeh Rashidi, Maximilian Le Cain
Samba Cissé (Sy) is a migrant to France from Mali. Washing dishes in the back kitchen of a fancy hotel is hardly his European dream, but it gets worse when a bureaucratic slip-up lands him in detention. There he meets Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg), an immigration worker new to the job and unused to the hard realities of life on France’s bottom rung. When Samba is released but slapped with an order to leave France, Alice begins to let her professional role bleed into her personal life. Marking a shift from the broad integration comedy of Les Intouchables, directors Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache craft a nuanced story, inflecting the drama of Samba’s predicament with humour that emerges naturally from his growing friendship with Alice, and with a fellow migrant, played by the always-engaging Tahar Rahim (The Past – JDIFF 2014). Toronto International Film Festival
TANA BANA For more than two thousand years, so legend has it, the Muslim silk weavers of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh have been working their trade, spinning, dyeing and weaving beautiful silk saris on simple wooden looms. But now their way of life is under threat from computerisation: a single operator can work four automated looms at the same time, and thousands of small family businesses are closing down.
Dublin-based experimental filmmaker Rouzbeh Rashidi has become recognized as one of the most radical and uncompromisingly independent talents in contemporary underground cinema. Eschewing traditional narrative, he roots his style in the poetic interaction of sound, image and atmosphere. Visually and sonically hypnotic, his films provide uniquely intense sensorial experiences that question everything you ever took for granted about cinema.
Fri 27 Mar / Light House 3 / 8pm / 148 minutes
MARCH
SAMBA With a title that harks back to Faber’s series of books on filmmakers, dense, intimate documentary Bertolucci on Bertolucci feels squarely aimed at film buffs. Walter Fasano (best known as an editor) and Luca Guadagnino (I Am Love) have compiled their tribute almost entirely from rare archive clips and interviews. The result is a rich, thematically structured essay film covering both the highlights of Bertolucci’s venerable career (The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris) and the less celebrated works with equal seriousness.
'as a subject Bertolucci is wonderfully eccentric and mischievous' The Upcoming
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JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
Ten Years in the Sun is Rashidi’s most extreme and ambitious film to date. In an absurdist and fragmented plot, Nicholas Fox (Dean Kavanagh) seeks to make contact with the legendary villains Scorpio (Rashidi himself) and Boris Remy (Maximilian Le Cain) through the intercession of the insane Sergeant-Major Barrett (John Curran). At the same time, the universe collapses into a random series of incompatible image systems. The resulting film is a sensory onslaught that combines a homage to the subversive humour of Luis Buñuel and Joao Cesar Monteiro with the visionary scope of a demented science fiction epic in meltdown.
Fri 27 Mar / Light House 1 / 8.40pm / 78 minutes Director: Pat Murphy 2014 Ireland With special guest Pat Murphy
Pat Murphy’s fascinating documentary takes us on a journey through a day in the life of the men, women and children in the silk trade, from morning prayers by the Ganges to a wedding where the bridal party display their fine hand-woven saris. Murphy talks to everyone about their hopes, fears and dreams, from hard-nosed Hindu businessmen to young girls determined both to go to school and to marry the husband of their parents’ choice (love marriages, they confidently tell us, never work). Free from judgment, and filmed with an eye for poetic detail, Tana Bana offers a snapshot of a society teetering on the edge of a brutal modernity, with all the opportunities and losses that entails. Alistair Daniel Jameson Dublin International Film Festival
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MARCH
A repair job on a pipeline lying on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean ought to be routine for an experienced team of saturation divers. But when their ship is destroyed by a storm, the team finds itself trapped in a diving pod hundreds of feet below the surface, with only their wits to keep them alive.
Director: Ron Scalpello 2014 USA Writers: Louis Baxter, Alan McKenna, Paul Staheli Cast: Danny Huston, Matthew Goode, Joe Cole
MARCH
LET US PREY
PRESSURE
Fri 27 Mar / Cineworld 9 / 9pm / 91 minutes
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JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
Any film in which oxygen is a precious (and dwindling) resource inevitably calls Gravity to mind, but in its claustrophobic set-up and sense of individuals forced, in the face of corporate indifference, to fend for themselves, this taut suspense thriller has more in common with Buried, with the diving pod a kind of coffin in which the crew resorts to ever more desperate measures to stay alive. Danny Huston (The Congress – JDIFF 2014), is on typically excellent form as Engel, the most level-headed – but also the most tormented – member of the crew, and enjoys fine support from Alan McKenna and Matthew Goode (The Imitation Game), while up-and-coming young actor Joe Cole impresses as the cocksure Bones. Alistair Daniel Jameson Dublin International Film Festival With special guests Danny Huston, Ron Scalpello and Alan McKenna
‘Irish horror movie’ isn’t a phrase that comes up a lot, and yet a horror film by first-time director Brian O’Malley is making waves, and with good reason. Let Us Prey is a tense, tightly-wound and effective horror film that delivers both for gore fans and those in search of something a little deeper than mere exploitation. Police Constable Rachel Heggie (Pollyanna McIntosh) is stationed at a sleepy station house staffed largely by the lazy, the corrupt, and the unprofessional. But a mysterious figure (Liam Cunningham) arrives and begins to turn the police and prisoners against themselves, bringing chaos, death, and lots of fire. 'horror the way it was always supposed to have been made' Starburst Magazine
Director: Brian O’Malley 2014 Ireland/UK Writers: David Cairns, Fiona Watson Cast: Liam Cunningham, Pollyanna McIntosh, Bryan Larkin
Cunningham (Game of Thrones) bleeds pure malevolence, even when simply sitting and staring at the wall, and McIntosh (Love Eternal – JDIFF 2014) is one of the stronger female horror leads in recent memory. From the opening shots to the fiery, violent climax, Let Us Prey feels truly apocalyptic, and the chilling final shot gives the sense that what we’ve seen was just the overture to something even more horrifying.
Winner, Méliès d’Argent, Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival
Thomas O’Connor Sound on Sight
Fri 27 Mar / Light House 1 / 10.40pm / 89 minutes
RETURN TO ITHACA RETOUR À ITHAQUE A conversation piece on a Havana rooftop may seem like less than an attractive proposition. But Laurent Cantet’s film turns out to be an amazingly astute, perceptive and moving film about a disenchanted generation. Five friends celebrate the return of Amadeo (Néstor Jiménez), a once-promising playwright who defected to Spain. As the evening proceeds, the recollections grow from nostalgic pleasantry into painful confessions. A whole generation of intellectuals has capitulated, abandoning all their ambitions out of sheer terror. As for Amadeo, running away to Spain put an end to his career. 'pack[s] a huge emotional punch' The National
Fri 27 Mar / Screen 1 / 9.15pm / 95 minutes Director: Laurent Cantet 2014 France Writers: Leonardo Padura, Laurent Cantet Cast: Isabel Santos, Jorge Peugorría, Fernando Hechevarria Winner, Venice Days Award, Venice Film Festival
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What makes this particularly Cuban is the warmth and the closeness that permeates all of Cantet’s characters. Shooting the entire film with two cameras, Cantet (The Class) never lets his actors go further than an arm’s length from his lenses. He is rewarded by excellent performances, the kind where actors disappear into the parts they play. Who can ask for more? Dan Fainaru Screen International
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ray@rte.ie
THE
RAY D’ARCY SHOW
MONDAY - FRIDAY
28 March
SATURDAY Highlights CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA 1pm, Cineworld 9 Page 102
A MASTER BUILDER 6pm, Screen 1 Page 107
A LITTLE CHAOS 6.15pm, Cineworld 9 Page 109
3PM - 4.30PM
88-90FM 101
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CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA
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YXIMALLOO A veteran stage star (Juliette Binoche) turns to her assistant (Kristen Stewart) for solace as she jousts with an arrogant younger actress (Chloë Grace Moretz) in the brilliant new film from Olivier Assayas (Something in the Air – JDIFF 2013).
Sat 28 Mar / Cineworld 9 / 1pm / 124 minutes
Clouds of Sils Maria began with a challenge from Juliette Binoche to write a deep and complex female role, and Assayas has responded with a film that is at once urgent and magisterial, delving into the female psyche through not just one but three women. Binoche plays Maria, a famous actor who rose to success with her role in an acclaimed lesbian play in which she played the younger part opposite a middle-aged lover. Now, years later, she is approached to do the same play – this time in the role of the older woman. As life begins to mirror art, Maria finds herself facing a younger version of herself in the form of Jo-Ann (Chloë Grace Moretz), the actor hired to play opposite her.
Writer-Director: Olivier Assayas 2014 France/USA Cast: Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, Chloë Grace Moretz
Piers Handling Toronto International Film Festival
'a complex, bewitching and melancholy drama, another fearlessly intelligent film from Assayas' The Daily Telegraph
In a quiet Dublin suburb, in a strange and cluttered house, silence and uncertainty reign. Amongst the countless cassettes, records, posters and mementoes of a career on the margins of marginal music, Yximalloo considers his future. Across the smoke-filled room his partner of ten years passes another day at his ancient computer, glancing habitually at the CCTV monitors, pausing to talk to the cat. Yximalloo is uncertain. He cannot sleep. He misses Japan. He has nothing to do. Dressed in green lycra leggings, glove puppets on his hands, he sets out once more to win over a tiny Dublin audience… Yximalloo is a unique portrait of unique and difficult man, his love and his music, his inability and unwillingness to fit in and the countless conflicts that threaten to tear him apart. Sat 28 Mar / Light House 3 / 2pm / 75 minutes
Filmmaker’s statement
Directors: Tadhg O’Sullivan, Feargal Ward 2014 Ireland Winner, First Film Prize, FID International Film Festival Marseille
'an immersive, moving and, at times, truly magical window on the past' The Guardian
Sat 28 Mar / Light House 1 / 1.15pm / 76 minutes Director: Virginia Heath 2014 UK Nominated, Best Single Documentary, BAFTA
Image: National Library of Scotland Scottish Screen Archive
FROM SCOTLAND WITH LOVE
MURIEL’S WEDDING Virginia Heath’s cinematic meditation on twentieth-century Scotland interweaves dreamlike archive images with a transcendent score by Scottish musician King Creosote. Created through an iterative process between director and composer, the film explores universal themes of love, loss, resistance, migration, work and play. As the industrious, teeming cities intertwine with the raw beauty of the Scottish landscape, it is the grace found in everyday human life that is brought to the fore. Ordinary people, some long since dead, their names and identities largely forgotten, appear shimmering from the depths of the vaults to take a starring role. Brilliantly edited together by Colin Monie, these silent individuals emerge to tell us their stories, given voice by King Creosote’s poetic music and lyrics. The film beguilingly encourages audiences to reflect on what has actually changed from the twentieth to the twenty-first centuries. The past holds up a mirror to the present and we recognise that the struggles and desires of the characters depicted on screen resonate with us today. Cromarty Film Festival
This hugely influential feel-good comedy did more than launch its female leads into international stardom: it alerted Hollywood to the astonishing reservoir of talent in Australia’s film industry.
'a gently funny, thoroughly entertaining tale' Empire
Toni Collette plays Muriel Hislop, an ugly duckling from Porpoise Spit, who longs to have the white wedding of her dreams. She takes a step closer to her fantasy life when, during an impromptu vacation, she runs into old classmate Rhonda (Rachel Griffiths), a wacky headcase who shares her love of ABBA. With the help of Rhonda’s sharp tongue, Muriel gradually breaks out of her shell. She finds romance, of a sort, with David Van Arckle (Daniel Lapaine), a South African swimmer who needs an Australian passport to compete in the 1996 Olympics. So far, so funny. But writer-director PJ Hogan has some unexpected twists in store before his quirky farce reaches its uplifting conclusion.
Sat 28 Mar / Cineworld 8 / 2pm / 106 minutes Writer-Director: PJ Hogan 1994 Australia/France Cast: Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths, Bill Hunter
Collette and Griffiths make a terrific double act, while Hogan effortlessly steers his film between broad satire and more challenging, emotional waters. Neil Smith BBC
With special guests Virginia Heath and Grant Keir 102
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WHEEL OF FORTUNE: THE STORY AND LEGACY OF THE FAIRVIEW LION TAMER
www.thelir.ie
Wheel of Fortune is a documentary feature film about Bill Stephens, an ordinary young man in 1950s Ireland with an extraordinary ambition: to become an international circus star. It is also a love story about Bill and his young and beautiful wife May, from East Wall. Their double act, Jungle Capers, Bill Stephens and Lovely Partner, was a series of death-defying feats with a troupe of lions and dogs designed to thrill audiences in the circus tent and on the stage. With this act they hoped to break free from the suffocating reality of Irish life, but things went terribly wrong when, in November 1951, one of their animals escaped. The story gained national and international attention at the time, but it is only now – after 60 years of silence – that two families and a community have come together to tell the story in full.
Director: Joe Lee 2015 Ireland
Independent filmmaker Joe Lee’s work includes film, TV and a range of video documentation/ archive projects with Irish national cultural institutions, as well as directing and curating public art projects. Filmmaker’s statement The filmmakers will attend the screening
TAKE THE BOAT Whereas France recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of abortion legalization, the woman’s right to choose is still not guaranteed everywhere in Europe. In Ireland, abortion is punishable by a fourteen-year jail sentence. Every year, it is estimated that thousands of women travel to the UK to access this medical procedure. In conversation, people often say they ‘take the boat’. Gillian, Vanessa, Melisa, Gerard and Gaye talk about this taboo journey.
STUDY AT THE LIR AT TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN Bachelor in Acting Degree Professional Diploma in Stage Management and Technical Theatre (includes theatre and short films)
The filmmakers will attend the screening
SHORT COURSES IN ACTING INCLUDING: Introduction to Acting Character and Scene Study Sat 28 Mar / Light House 3 / 4pm / 118 minutes Directors: Camille Hamet, Serena Robin 2014 France
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Individual Acting Classes For further information on the full range of courses available, visit www.thelir.ie or email info@thelir.ie
Image by Keith Dixon
Sat 28 Mar / Light House 1 / 3.30pm / 78 minutes
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SAND DOLLARS
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THE FALLING
DÓLARES DE ARENA
'Geraldine Chaplin’s riveting performance adds depth to this remarkably sensitive, nonjudgmental portrait' Variety
Sat 28 Mar / Cineworld 9 / 4pm / 80 minutes Writer-Directors: Laura Amelia Guzmán, Israel Cárdenas 2014 Dominican Republic/Argentina/Mexico Cast: Geraldine Chaplin, Yanet Mojica, Ricardo Ariel Toribio
Imagine a single-sex version of Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise: Love, transposed to the Dominican Republic, and you’re getting close to the spirit of this delicate, honest tale of the relationship between a French grandmother – played with slowburn passion by Geraldine Chaplin – and a young Dominican girl.
Carol Morley is best known for her documentaries Dreams of a Life and The Alcohol Years; her second narrative feature (after Edge) is a dark, twisted and thoughtful coming-of-ager set at a British girls’ school in the late 1960s, partly inspired by a recent case of psychogenic illness, or mass hysteria, in the US.
Svelte young Noeli (Yanet Mojica) makes a living by befriending rich foreigners in an upscale Dominican beach resort. Her boyfriend (Ricardo Ariel Toribio) is happy to live off her earnings. Noeli’s main client is Anne (Chaplin), a solitary, ageing Frenchwoman who seems to need the young girl as much for companionship as for sex, and has a plan to take her back to France. The boyfriend is wary, jealous but also conflicted by his need for the money Noeli brings home. The story will resolve itself in a surprising way that yet feels entirely believable.
Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) and newcomer Florence Pugh star as two teenage friends, Lydia and Abbie. When an unexpected tragedy occurs, Lydia begins twitching and fainting at school. Her malady infects fellow pupils and teachers but stern headmistress, Miss Alvaro (Monica Dolan), thinks it’s all down to their overactive imaginations.
It’s a film with a restless motion, a film about people in transit (on motorbikes, on foot, in life), in which the question of whether to stay or whether to go takes on a special, existential resonance.
'terrific film-making – enough to bring a rush of blood to the head' The Guardian
Sat 28 Mar / Light House 1 / 6pm / 101 minutes Writer-Director: Carol Morley 2014 UK Cast: Maisie Williams, Florence Pugh, Monica Dolan With special guest Carol Morley
Lee Marshall Screen International
LOST RIVER
Katherine McLaughlin The List
A MASTER BUILDER With a handful of films, from Drive to The Place Beyond the Pines, Ryan Gosling has emerged as one of the most magnetic screen presences of his generation. Now he has stepped behind the camera with Lost River, a mesmerising Lynchean fable starring Christina Hendricks, Eva Mendes and Saoirse Ronan. Hendricks (Struck By Lightning – JDIFF 2013) stars as Billy, a waitress struggling to raise her two children amid the ruins of a city that bears a striking resemblance to Detroit. Pitted against her are Bully (Matt Smith), a psychotic villain prowling the derelict streets, and Dave (a scene-stealing Ben Mendelsohn), the lecherous banker who threatens to foreclose on Billy’s home unless she takes a job at a sinister nightclub, where things can only take a turn for the worse…
Sat 28 Mar / Cineworld 8 / 4.15pm / 105 minutes Writer-Director: Ryan Gosling 2014 USA Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Christina Hendricks, Eva Mendes
Shot through with potent imagery, beautifully captured by cinematographer Benoit Debie (Irreversible), and directed with enormous style and verve, Lost River is a dark modern fairytale that marks the debut of a raw filmmaking talent. Alistair Daniel Jameson Dublin International Film Festival
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Mixing supernatural elements with drama, choreographed dance with original music, The Falling is its own beast yet has hints of Heavenly Creatures, The Craft and even The Woods. Terrible secrets hide in the grounds of this school and the deterioration of Lydia’s mental state is strikingly rendered by cinematographer Agnès Godard (Beau Travail).
The duo behind My Dinner with Andre and Vanya on 42nd Street take on another classic of the stage in their big-screen Ibsen adaptation. This terrifically performed version of The Master Builder channels the rage, joy and delusions of an architect’s final days.
'crafted with care from top to bottom' Paste Magazine
Sat 28 Mar / Screen 1 / 6pm / 130 minutes Director: Jonathan Demme 2014 USA Writer: Wallace Shawn Cast: Wallace Shawn, Julie Hagerty, Larry Pine
Jonathan Demme returns with his first fiction feature since Rachel Getting Married, benefitting from a superb cast that includes Wallace Shawn. The star would seem an unusual candidate to play Halvard Solness – a powerful architect who’s unable to come to terms with his misdeeds. Yet Shawn conveys a character whose mania seems to have no limits, as evidenced by his wife (Julie Hagerty), a browbeaten woman who sticks to the background until an unexpected guest arrives. The mysterious visitor, 22-year-old Hilda (Lisa Joyce), immediately ingratiates herself with Solness for reasons that soon become frighteningly clear. Joyce brings enormous energy to the role. Her scenes opposite Shawn are filled with lust and loathing, creating a sense of disembodiment that will haunt the final acts. Jordan Mintzer The Hollywood Reporter 107
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SPECIAL PRESENTATION
MOVE PEREEZD Ainazik and her grandfather Sagyn live beside a river in a rural part of Kyrgyzstan, a desolate region of barren mountains and implacable winds. Life there has its simple pleasures: a candlelit cabin, a pet goldfish, the wind in the rushes. And they have each other. But when Ainazik’s mother Perizat arrives to bring them to the city to live with her, the move has unforseen consequences for them all.
Sat 28 Mar / Screen 2 / 6pm / 178 minutes Writer-Director: Marat Sarulu 2014 Kyrgyzstan Cast: Sagyndyk Makekadyrov, Perizat Ermanbaeva, Ainazik Damirbekova Winner, NETPAC Award, Black Nights Film Festival Talinn Winner, Jury Prize for Best Director, Black Nights Film Festival Talinn
Marat Sarulu (Songs from the Southern Seas) directs this quietly devastating portrait of the erosion of family life in a corner of the world rarely seen on film. Every shot is lovingly composed, lingering over texture and detail, and finding desolate beauty in a landscape where the wind, howling through steppes and city alike, is a metaphor all on its own. The cast of firsttime actors is uniformly touching, especially Perizat Ermanbaeva as the beleaguered mother, sleepwalking through the rubble of her life before finally letting the pressure of her situation show. At once intimate and epic in scale, Move is a painstakingly crafted study of a family torn apart by economic forces. Alistair Daniel Jameson Dublin International Film Festival
BOYCHOIR
Sat 28 Mar / Cineworld 8 / 6.30pm / 106 minutes Director: François Girard 2014 USA Writer: Ben Ripley Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Kathy Bates, Debra Winger
A LITTLE CHAOS Sat 28 Mar / Cineworld 9 / 6.15pm / 116 minutes
Newcomer Garrett Wareing goes toe-to-toe with Dustin Hoffman in this rousing story of a determined, angel-voiced loner who elicits some real jealousy from his fellow students while earning the respect of the strict choirmaster of the prestigious American Boychoir School.
'in a country where musical talent is so often confused with sex appeal, Boychoir offers a welcome alternative' Variety
'an unashamedly crowd-pleasing period drama with a terrific central performance from Kate Winslet' The List
When his alcoholic mum meets a tragic end, 11-year-old Stet (Wareing) is unceremoniously transplanted from Texas squalor to the posh confines of the elite East Coast boarding school. Making the transition all the more daunting for the wild child are Carvelle’s (Hoffman) authoritarian tactics and exacting standards. The threat of puberty robbing Stet of his pure soprano voice before he’s realized his potential lends a rather unique ‘running clock’ urgency to the film, which also boasts rousing flourishes of rebellious energy reminiscent of classic 50s teen movies. As a fierce battle of wills ensues, the spiralling drama is heightened by director François Girard’s (The Red Violin, 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould) sublime use of the boys’ choral performances. It’s wonderful to see Girard being celebrated as one of “the most sought-after interpreters of the American experience.”
Director: Alan Rickman 2014 UK Writers: Jeremy Brock, Alison Deegan, Alan Rickman Cast: Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman, Matthias Schoenaerts
Alan Rickman’s second film as director, following The Winter Guest, is an unashamedly crowdpleasing period drama with a terrific central performance from Kate Winslet. Winslet plays Sabine De Barra, a widowed landscape gardener in 1682 Paris, who’s commissioned to work on the gardens of Versailles after she impresses chief landscape architect André Le Notre (Matthias Schoenaerts). However, their increasingly close relationship provokes the fury of Le Notre’s scheming wife (Helen McCrory), despite the fact that she has already insisted on an open relationship that allows for assignations at the court of King Louis XIV (Rickman). Winslet is wonderful as De Barra. She generates touching chemistry with Schoenaerts and there’s fine comic support from Stanley Tucci as the king’s flamboyant brother. What A Little Chaos lacks in historical accuracy it makes up for in sheer entertainment, thanks to strong performances, an emotionally engaging story and confident direction. Matthew Turner The List With special guest Alan Rickman
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DARK HORSE
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PIGS PSY Pigs is one of the most important Polish films of the 1990s. Every Pole knows at least one line by the film’s protagonist, Franz Maurer (Bogusław Linda). He’s an ex-functionary of the communist UB (Office of Security), who, after a verification process, joins the police force. In this new reality, he can no longer count on the special treatment he used to get for being married to the daughter of a minister. Franz is sent where the action is – straight into the fight with organised crime. He realizes he’ll be forced to confront former colleagues who have crossed over to the other, more profitable, side of the barricades
In early 2000, in a tiny village in one of the poorest mining valleys in Wales, Jan Vokes, the barmaid at the local men’s club, hatches a crazy plan to take on the “sport of kings” and breed a racehorse. She gathers together a group of locals who each agree to pitch in 10 pounds a week. They raise their foal on a hillside made of slag from the coal mine and nurture it to maturity. Reflecting their pride and flights of fancy, they name their horse Dream Alliance.
Sat 28 Mar / Light House 3 / 7pm / 85 minutes
To the astonishment of the racing elite, Dream becomes an unlikely champion, beating the finest thoroughbreds in the land. Then, in one fateful race, the horse – which embodies the plucky band of misfits’ hopes and dreams – has a near-fatal accident. Nursed back to health through the love of his owners, Dream makes a remarkable recovery, returning to the track for a heartpounding comeback.
'gripping' Variety
Pasikowski’s film was a huge success, both artistically and commercially. It also triggered violent critical reactions to its brutal vision of Poland’s post-transformation reality, filthy and full of moral decay.
Sat 28 Mar / Screen 1 / 8.30pm / 104 minutes Off-Plus Camera
Director: Louise Osmond 2014 UK
Buoyantly crafted by filmmaker Louise Osmond, Dark Horse is a life-affirming underdog story that will touch the hearts of anyone who has dared to dream.
Writer-Director: Władysław Pasikowski 1992 Poland Cast: Bogusław Linda, Marek Kondrat, Cezary Pazura
With the support of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Dublin
David Courier Sundance Film Festival
THE CANAL
THE SALT OF THE EARTH LE SEL DE LA TERRE Oscar nominations for The Buena Vista Social Club and Pina attest to the way that the documentary seems to bring out the best in Wim Wenders. The Salt of the Earth is no exception as it pays tribute to the extraordinary life of photographer and environmentalist Sebastião Salgado.
With a scare factor far greater than its modest dimensions, The Canal is a polished psycho-thriller full of macabre twists and nerve-snapping tension. Rupert Evans plays David, a film archivist who moves into an elegant townhouse with his wife Alice (Hannah Hoekstra) and their young son Billy, superbly played by Calum Heath. Soon after unearthing creepy footage of a murder that took place in his house 100 years ago, David discovers that Alice is having an affair. When her body is dragged from the canal he becomes the prime suspect. Crazed by grief and jealousy, David struggles to convince the police that malevolent paranormal forces were behind the murder. 'an unsettling blend of old-fashioned horror and modern shock effects' Variety
Sat 28 Mar / Light House 1 / 8.30pm / 120 minutes Writer-Director: Ivan Kavanagh 2014 Ireland Cast: Rupert Evans, Steve Oram, Antonia Campbell-Hughes
The Canal is a styling and scary mash-up of psycho-horror traditions. Kavanagh, editor Robin Hill and their sound design team push their skills to experimental extremes with shuddering jump cuts, subliminal single-frame edits and blood-curdling offscreen noises. The cumulative effect is an intense and unsettling trip into the twilight zone. Stephen Dalton The Hollywood Reporter The filmmakers will attend the screening
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'magnificent' The New York Times
Sat 28 Mar / Cineworld 9 / 9pm / 109 minutes Directors: Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado 2014 Italy/Brazil/France Nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Documentary Winner, Un Certain Regard Special Prize, Cannes International Film Festival
Working with Salgado’s son Juliano Ribeiro, Wenders has created a film entirely in keeping with the humility of the subject. Hauntingly beautiful images are matched with illuminating testimony to create an utterly absorbing portrait. Salgado is a magnetic personality and he recalls some of the major projects of his career, including Workers and Genesis, an affectionate love letter to the planet. Salgado recalls lengthy periods of his life when he saw ample evidence of death and destruction. Typically, he found creative ways to transcend that despair and the film ends in hope as we learn of the Salgado family’s success in re-building an entire ecosystem at the Instituto Terra in Brazil. A fitting tribute to an inspirational figure. Allan Hunter Screen International
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OUTREACH VENUES 29th March
The festival is proud to work with our colleagues in venues that run successful Arts Council-supported film clubs, and this year we are delighted to co-present with:
SUNDAY
Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge, Co. Kildare We Are Young, We Are Strong 8pm Wed 25 March Tickets from www.riverbank.ie
Highlights
Pavilion Theatre Meet Me in Montenegro 8pm Mon 23 March Tickets from www.paviliontheatre.ie
THE LAST MAN ON THE MOON 2pm, Savoy 1 Page 115
VILLA TOUMA 2pm, Cineworld 8 Page 116
THE NEW GIRLFRIEND 4pm, Light House 1 Page 116
The An amazing year of film Unlimited movies and more – from just €21.40 a month. Join in cinema at Cineworld Dublin, Parnell Centre or at cineworld.com #theunmissables Terms & Conditions: Minimum 12 months subscription. 3D, IMAX and D-Box uplifts payable. 3D glasses, VIP/premium seating and special screenings excluded although discounts for Event Cinema may be available. Full terms available at cineworld.com/unlimited/terms.
Dublin
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SPECIAL PRESENTATION
FAR FROM MEN LOIN DES HOMMES Taking the conventions of Western films to different countries, time periods or political situations is hardly new, but when it’s done well, it never gets old. Far From Men, which transposes classic Western archetypes to the Algerian Civil War, is a terrific reminder of just that. It is simply a great, traditional Western. Based on Albert Camus’ short story ‘The Guest’ and boasting a pair of flawless lead performances from Viggo Mortensen and Reda Kateb, Far From Men is a quietly grand, beautiful film.
'an intelligent, slow-burning western … expertly acted' Time Out
Sun 29 Mar / Savoy 1 / 11am / 101 minutes Writer-Director: David Oelhoffen 2014 France Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Reda Kateb, Djemel Barek
It is 1954, just after the outbreak of the Algerian war of independence, and Daru (Mortensen) is a schoolteacher in a remote area. One night a gendarme arrives with a prisoner in tow. The policeman warns Daru of the approaching Algerians, revolting against colonial rule. He forces Daru, an ex-army major, to take charge of the prisoner, Mohamed (Kateb) who, having killed his cousin, is to be transported to the city to stand trial. That journey forms the backbone of the elegant plot. This buddy movie dynamic is beautifully underplayed, but builds believably and touchingly to provide the film with enormous heart. Jessica Kiang The Playlist
A PIGEON SAT ON A BRANCH REFLECTING ON EXISTENCE EN DUVA SATT PÅ EN GREN OCH FUNDERADE PÅ TILLVARON The jury at Venice can be notoriously difficult to second-guess: this year, however, they got it right. The Golden Lion was awarded to not just the best film at the Venice Festival, but the year’s best film outright, not to mention the one with the drollest title.
'a brilliantly distinctive film that no one else could have made' The Guardian
Sun 29 Mar / Light House 1 / 2pm / 101 minutes Writer-Director: Roy Andersson 2014 Sweden/Norway/France/Germany Cast: Holger Andersson, Nils Westblom, Charlotta Larsson
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, by the Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson (Songs from the Second Floor), is made up of 39 separate but interconnected sketches, some soaringly comic and others heartbreakingly sad. Many of them centre on two practical joke salesmen, Sam and Jonathan, who slope around Gothenburg, trying to shift vampire fangs and laughing bags without much luck – but in others they’re nowhere to be seen, or are hovering in the background while some other Nordic oddness unfolds around them. The film’s style and tone are next-to-impossible to describe – imagine Jacques Tati stuck in Ingmar Bergman’s spare room, and you’re in the right area – and each scene consists of a single, meticulously composed shot.
'an elegy for a time when humankind still appeared determined to achieve impossible goals' We Got This Covered
THE LAST MAN ON THE MOON Sun 29 Mar / Savoy 1 / 2pm / 99 minutes Director: Mark Craig 2014 UK
Take a pinch of Top Gun, stir in a generous dollop of The Right Stuff, add a light sprinkling of Mad Men, and you have the formula for this uplifting documentary portrait of former Apollo astronaut Eugene Cernan. A real-life space cowboy in the Clint Eastwood mould, Cernan’s epic story is a gift to any filmmaker. Recruited by NASA in 1966 despite his lack of qualifications, he logged almost 600 hours in space, 73 of them on the moon. He is the only man to have descended to the lunar surface twice. He also took one of the first space walks and set the speed record for a manned vehicle, hitting 24,791 miles per hour during Apollo 10’s re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. British director Mark Craig is the latest filmmaker to recognise the dramatic potential of America’s space programme and its clean-cut heroes. The Last Man on the Moon includes spectacular CG sequences that recreate Cernan’s space missions in Gravity-style widescreen dimensions. Lorne Balfe’s stirring score also adds to the sense that we are witnessing the last will and testament of an old-school hero. Stephen Dalton The Hollywood Reporter With special guests Mark Craig and Gareth Doods
Robbie Collin The Daily Telegraph
Winner, Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival
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VILLA TOUMA
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SURPRISE FILM Best known as the co-writer of The Syrian Bride and The Lemon Tree, Suha Arraf makes her narrative-feature debut with this intimate, masterfully written Chekhovian drama.
Sun 29 Mar / Cineworld 8 / 2pm / 85 minutes
Leaving the orphanage in Jerusalem where she was raised, eighteen-year-old Badia (Maria Zreik) arrives at the home of her spinster aunts in Ramallah. She finds a house – and three lives – frozen in time. The sisters, Juliette (Nisreen Faour), Violet (Ula Tabari) and Antoinette (Cherien Dabis), are the last remnants of the Christian minority. In their fifties and nearly destitute, they are ruled by Juliette’s strict domestic routines and their perception of themselves as ladies of the upper crust. Now saddled with the daughter of their late brother, the sisters decide to dispense with this upheaval by marrying Badia off. But Badia’s spirited temperament rattles the sisters, and soon secrets and grudges cascade through Villa Touma.
Writer-Director: Suha Arraf 2014 Cast: Nisreen Faour, Ula Tabari, Cherien Dabis
Aided by wonderful performances, Arraf announces herself as a significant director in her own right. Jane Schoettle Toronto International Film Festival
Of the 130 or so films shown each year at JDIFF, the one that that inspires the keenest sense of anticipation is the Surprise Film. The identity of the Surprise Film is the best kept secret in town – even the festival staff don’t know what it is – and, for weeks beforehand, the city is awash with speculation. But all that comes to an end when, on the last day of the festival, the lights in Savoy 1 go down, the buzz of conversation dies and the curtains slowly pull back. Last year, what happened next was this: Ricky Gervais:
Sun 29 March / Savoy 1 / 5pm / ??? minutes Director: ??? Year ??? Country ??? Writer(s) ??? Cast: ???
Hello Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. I’m Ricky Gervais and I have been given the honour of introducing tonight’s movie to you. Now you are probably expecting some sort of very worthy masterpiece about an important issue made by a local director on very little budget, but no, it’s me, in a Muppet movie. So be ready for anything. Whatever we’re showing this year, it’s guaranteed to be a genuine surprise. Gráinne Humphreys Director, Jameson Dublin International Film Festival
With special guest Suha Arraf
THE NEW GIRLFRIEND UNE NOUVELLE AMIE To reveal anything about the ravishing, unexpected twist in the latest of François Ozon’s audacious, elegant and witty melodramas would do the film a significant disservice. Envisage a gloriously conceived, sublimely realised amalgam of Douglas Sirk and Christopher Isherwood, and be sure that Ozon will have surpassed your wildest imaginings.
'a delectable riff on transformation, desire and sexuality' The Hollywood Reporter
Sun 29 Mar / Light House 1 / 4pm / 105 minutes Writer-Director: François Ozon 2014 France Cast: Romain Duris, Anaïs Demoustier, Raphael Personnaz Winner, Sebastiane Award, San Sebastián Film Festival
Claire (Anaïs Demoustier), devastated by the death of her best friend, makes a promise to watch over her husband (Romain Duris) and newborn child. Battling through a fog of depression, she reluctantly drags herself to the home of her friend’s widower only to make a startling discovery about the form his grief has taken. At first shocked and resistant, then progressively seduced, she ultimately finds expression for her own anguish and repressed desires. Demoustier (Elles – JDIFF 2012) and Duris (Mood Indigo – JDIFF 2014) give superb performances, perfectly attuned to the film’s observations about gender, class and consumerism while conspiring to paint a layer of normality over the deliciously subversive story.
FRENCH COURSES We have cut everything but quality
Shorter Terms & Lower Fees! Easter Term 30 March – 30 May 2015 www.alliance-francaise.ie
Clare Stewart BFI London Film Festival 116
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MARCH
SPECIAL EVENT
SUN 29
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
MARCH
CLOSING GALA
'one of the greatest screen musicals ever' Empire
JULIE ANDREWS AT THE BORD GÁIS ENERGY THEATRE Sun 29 Mar / Bord Gáis Energy Theatre / 3pm €25-39.50 Tickets may be purchased via jdiff.com or bordgaisenergytheatre.ie
Of all the illustrious guests who have attended the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, no one has brought such grace and happiness to so many film fans as Dame Julie Andrews. She is one of the great legends of stage and screen, and it is a great honour to welcome her to Dublin to participate in a public interview hosted by Aedín Gormley from RTÉ’s Movies and Musicals. Dame Julie will discuss her career and receive the Festival Tribute Award – the Volta. Our annual Volta Awards are named after Ireland’s first dedicated cinema, the Volta Picture Theatre on Mary Street in Dublin, which was opened on 20 December 1909 by an enterprising young writer named James Joyce. Previous recipients of our Volta Awards include Al Pacino, Daniel Day Lewis, Martin Sheen and Danny DeVito. Miss Andrews has been a beloved star of stage, screen and television for more than half a century. She was already a Broadway legend when she made her feature film debut in 1964’s Mary Poppins. Andrews’ iconic performance in the title role of the magical nanny brought her an Academy Award®, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award. The following year, she earned a second Oscar® nomination and won another Golden Globe Award for her unforgettable portrayal of Maria Von Trapp in The Sound of Music. She received her third Academy Award® nomination and won another Golden Globe Award for her ‘dual’ role in Victor/Victoria. Today’s young film audiences may be more familiar with Andrews as a queen trying to train her teenaged granddaughter to be a princess in the hit film The Princess Diaries and its sequel, The Princess Diaries 2: The Royal Engagement. Andrews also voiced the character of Queen Lillian in the blockbuster hits Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third. More recently, she voiced the narration of the hugely successful Disney release of Enchanted. In 2010, Ms Andrews added to her multi-generational appeal with the release of The Tooth Fairy, Shrek Goes Fourth and Despicable Me. Her earlier motion picture credits include The Americanisation of Emily (screened at JDIFF this year – see p.33), Hawaii, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Star!, Darling Lili and 10, to name only a few. The interview will start at 3pm and will be followed by an opportunity for the audience to ask questions. Dame Julie will introduce a special Gala presentation of The Sound of Music in the Savoy Cinema at 7.30pm (see opposite).
THE SOUND OF MUSIC Sun 29 Mar / Savoy 1 / 7.30pm / 174 minutes Director: Robert Wise 1965 USA Writers: George Hurdalek, Ernest Lehman Cast: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker Winner, five awards (including Best Picture and Best Director), 1966 Academy Awards® With special guest Julie Andrews
At this distance it is hard to separate Robert Wise’s lush film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical from its current incarnation in thousands of singalong performances. But bad films don’t survive to be loved as much as this one is. And from the soaring opening shot, swooping over the mountains to find the glorious figure of Julie Andrews singing with a voice as clear as a mountain stream and as pure as an angel, to the closing moment, the movie has a confidence and a sense of moral purpose that warms the hardest heart. Its enduring appeal stands, I think, on three sturdy legs. The first is that behind the beautiful scenery and under the charm, something important really is at stake. The movie is full of ethical dilemmas, where people must choose between right and wrong. Its second strength lies in the performances. Andrews is just a joy, conveying enough doubt beneath that brisk, clean exterior to stop her character becoming a prig; her comic timing and the way in which she convinces in her relationships with the children are so understated they can be underrated. Finally, of course, there are the songs. Indelible, indestructible, magnificently structured, they make The Sound of Music a film to watch over and over, and even to sing along with. Sarah Crompton The Daily Telegraph
Please note: JDIFF is an over-18 festival. 118
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JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
PICTURE HOUSE 2015 9 – 13 MARCH
VENUES & DATES
JDIFF is a festival that aims to engage with the whole city (and beyond), but we’re fully aware that not everyone is able to attend. That’s why we created our outreach programme, ‘Picture House’. Since 2012, JDIFF has brought a broad selection of festival films to care centres across the city whose residents wouldn’t otherwise be able to take part, and this year we’ve expanded our approach to include a number of hospitals in Dublin. This year’s Picture House programme, showing an eclectic mix of short films, brings the magic of cinema to the people who really need it.
Monday 9 March Cairdeas Day Care Centre
THE AUDIENCE AWARD AT YOUR FESTIVAL Don’t forget to cast your vote at the end of every film! Volunteers will collect your vote and, as the festival progresses, the excitement mounts! Which film at JDIFF 2015 will audiences vote the best…?
Tuesday 10 March St Patrick’s Hospital Tuesday 10 March St Luke’s Hospital
Previous winners of the Audience Award 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Wednesday 11 March St Mary’s, Phoenix Park
Special thanks to Anne O’Connor and the Arts Council. ‘Picture House is … hands down … one of the brightest things about this festival. I've seen it make the people we bring it to laugh, cry and remember. It engages them in a get together otherwise beyond their reach. I am complimented to be a close part of something that is so vital to a marginalised segment of our society.’ Brenda Fricker, Patron of Picture House
Wednesday 11 March Mater Private Hospital Thursday 12 March Post Acute Care Services, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, located in Fairview Community Unit
Once Waveriders Anvil! The Story of Anvil His & Hers Benda Bilili! The Raid Broken Song Los Wild Ones
Friday 13 March Raheny Community Nursing Unit, under the management of Beaumont Hospital
MOVIES & MUSICALS Creative Print for Creative People with Aedín Gormley Saturday 21 March at 1pm 96-99fm | On Digital Radio | On the RTÉ Radio Player As part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, Aedín Gormley broadcasts a special Movies & Musicals programme live from Filmbase in the heart of Temple Bar. There will be plenty of live film music from Musici Ireland, and tunes from the musicals with Cian Boylan (piano), Dan Bodwell (double-bass) and Jerry Fish (vocals). Aedín has some great surprise guests lined up and will join in the festival’s celebration of the 40th anniversary of Stanley Kubrick's film Barry Lyndon, much of which was filmed in Ireland. The hugely popular Movies and Musicals with Aedín Gormley broadcasts 1-4pm every Saturday on RTÉ lyric fm. Aedín has been showcasing music from the world of stage and screen since lyric began in 1999. Her programme features a broad range of soundtracks from early classics right through to contemporary scores. Always a fan of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, she is particularly delighted in recent years to have been able to play so many wonderful film scores from the new crop of Irish composers. 120
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JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
INDEX
THE CHURCH BAR & RESTAURANT PROUDLY SUPPORTING...
EVENTS NIGHTLY
19-29TH MARCH 15 CHECK OUT WWW.THECHURCH.IE
FOR FULL DETAILS.
FESTIVAL SPECIAL OFFER
10% DISCOUNT OFF FOOD
19-29 MARCH 2015
IN THE BAR OR GALLERY RESTAURANT ON PRODUCTION OF YOUR CINEMA TICKET FOR THE DURATION OF THE FESTIVAL
10,000km 6 Desires 99 Homes
45 81 22
Hardkor Disko Heaven Knows What Horse Money
A Girl at My Door A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night A Little Chaos A Master Builder A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence After the Dance All About Eva August Winds
90
I Can Quit Whenever I Want In Cold Blood
17 19
Kebab & Horoscope
78
Let us Prey Life in a Fishbowl Listen Up Phillip Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels
99 59 44
Marshland Meet Me in Montenegro Meet Monica Velour Melbourne Miss Julie Monument to Michael Jackson Move Muriel's Wedding My Life Directed by
21 53 76 94 71
82 109 107 114 88 77 74
Barry Lyndon Beloved Sisters Bertolucci on Bertolucci Black Coal, Thin Ice Black Souls Blind Boychoir
25 89 96 55 52 49 108
Casa Grande Cinderella Clouds of Sils Maria Cobain Coming Home Court
77 34 102 32 31 33
Dare to be Wild Dark Horse Dearest Dennis Rodman's Big Bang in Pyongyang Difret Double Play
89 110 42 80 21 93
Eat Your Children Eden Electric Boogaloo
39 86 31
Far From Men Fidelio Force Majeure Free Fall From Scotland with Love From the Dark Futuro Beach
114 49 88 52 102 36 80
Gente De Bien Gett Glassland Goodbye to All That
84 73 95 81
84 86 60
72
30 108 103
Nicolas Winding Refn Next Time I'll Aim for the Heart
55
Partie de Campagne Pasolini Phoenix Pigs Pressure
35 54 43 111 98
Queens of Syria
93
Red Army Return to Ithaca
18 98
Samba Sand Dollars Second Coming Sensitive Skin She's Lost Control Shorts Programme 1 Shorts Programme 2 Shorts Programme 3 Shoulder the Lion Silent Heart Something Must Break Sorrow & Joy Surprise Film
17
97 106 95 87 41 26-27 26-27 26-27 85 42 71 85 117
Take the Boat Talking to My Father Tana Bana Telstar Ten Years in the Sun The Americanisation of Emily The Breach The Canal The Connection The Crowd The Dark Horse The Dead Lands The Decent One The Dinner The Falling The Fool The Great Wall The Kingdom of Dreams & Madness The Last Man on the Moon The New Girlfriend The Price of Desire The Quiet Roar The Road Within The Salt of the Earth The Salvation The Second Game The Sound of Music The Tale of the Princess Kaguya The Third Side of the River The Town that Dreaded Sundown The Tribe The Water Diviner Theeb Tu Dors Nicole
104 60 97 76 96 33 73 110 44 46 78 38 22 41 107 18 50 32 115 116 13 45 47 111 19 43 119 30 56 50 59 20 38 74
Uncertain Terms
53
Villa Touma
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We Are Young, We are Strong What's Up, Doc? Wheel of Fortune When Animals Dream While We're Young Who Am I No System is Safe Yximalloo
94 16 104 54 35 39 103
THE CHURCH, CAFÉ | BAR | RESTAURANT | NIGHTCLUB JUNCTION OF MARY ST . & JERVIS ST. , DUBLIN 1. T: 01 828 0102 E: RESERVATIONS@THECHURCH .IE
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JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
BOARD & STAFF BOARD OF DIRECTORS Paddy Breathnach Sue Bruce-Smith Clare Duignan Jonathan Kelly Hugh Linehan David McLoughlin James Morris Margery Simkin Gaby Smyth – Chairman
Audience Development Officer Sarah Ahern Accounts Officer Bairbre Quinn Print Transport Manager Anthony Doyle Print Transport Assistant Sophie Hammer
STAFF Festival Director Gráinne Humphreys General Manager Jackie Ryan Festival Administrator Michelle MacDonagh Marketing Manager Kamil Chechlacz
Catalogue Editor Alistair Daniel Industry & Production Manager Liam Ryan Industry & Production Assistant Aisling O’Farrell Volunteers Manager Paul Donnelly
Volunteers Assistant Andrew O’Hanlon
Festival Intern Melissa Hersee
Hospitality Manager Aislinn Ní Chuinnegain
Box Office Operations Manager Alison Reilly
Hospitality Assistant Flaminia Iacoviello Ireland Festival Publicists Kate Bowe PR, Dublin UK Festival Publicists Way to Blue, London Festival Publicist inhouse during festival Gillian Temple, Kate Bowe PR Press Assistant Amy Carroll Audience Development/ Marketing & Administration Intern Janine Petry
Box Office Manager Eims O'Reilly Assistant Box Office Manager Colm Carney Venue Managers Paul Brewster Sarah Gallagher Jenni Little John McHale JDIFF TV (Producer) Tony Callaly JDIFF TV (Director) Conor Maloney
Marketing Assistant Leonor Pinho
VOLUNTEERS
THANK YOU How do you begin to thank all the people who help to make this festival happen? There was a time when we could list filmmakers, distributors, partners, board, staff and friends of the festival by name, but how can we do that when, this year, literally thousands of people have helped us to create this 11 days of magic in Dublin? So please accept this thank you to all those of you who have given us your creativity, your vision and your time over the last few months, and helped us to bring the festival to life. Thank you for the resources you have put into the festival (whether time, or money, or both!). Thank you for your energy and your passion for film, and for the guests who come with those films. And thank you for those personal touches – the stories behind the films – that help us to make every moment of the festival special and unique.
VOLUNTEERS ARE AN ENTHUSIASTIC, COMMITTED ARMY OF ‘CINEMA SOLDIERS’ WHO SELFLESSLY GIVE UP THEIR FREE TIME TO MAKE SURE THAT OUR AUDIENCES ENJOY THEIR FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE.
In short – we thank you all. Now tell your friends, and we’ll thank them too...!
They come from all ages, occupations and nationalities, generously lending themselves to staffing various departments and venues for the festival period. These 'smiles in T-shirts' become advocates and ambassadors, a vital bridge between the festival and her audience. The volunteer community within the festival is a special one and, despite the festival occuring in March, the volunteers’ enthusiasm remains in place throughout the year. Their grá for cinema, both Irish and international, enriches the festival experience as a whole and creates that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you realise you are a part of something special in the Irish film calendar. This love of theirs has seen past volunteers change their career path and head into the arts and film arenas.
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Our Volunteer Programme is fast becoming a force unto itself that sees many individuals returning year after year and contributing to the festival’s continued success. And so, to our volunteers: for your generosity, dedication, personality and goodwill, we here at the festival are extremely grateful to each and every one of you. Thank you.
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FESTIVAL GUIDE
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
JDIFF MENU
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JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL IS BACK FOR ITS 13TH EDITION, AND ONCE AGAIN TAKING THE CITY BY STORM! TO HELP YOU MAKE THE MOST OF WHAT THE FESTIVAL HAS TO OFFER, JUST FOLLOW THESE USEFUL TIPS… Please arrive at the cinema on time - All seating is unreserved and allocated on a first come, first served basis. Q&As - Each year, we invite nearly 100 filmmakers from around the world to meet and talk to our audiences. This year we’ve made it even easier to find everything you need to know about our guests. Check jdiff.com and our social media platforms for information and daily updates on the Q&As taking place each day. Keep us in the loop - Grab your phone and tell us about your festival experience. Share your photos, comments and reviews with everyone! You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, Flickr, YouTube, Google+ and other social media platforms. And don’t forget to tag us! @dublinfilmfest #jdiff #JDIFF2015 #redcarpetdublin #joinDIFF #justDIFF. We’ll keep an eye on all the posts coming in and share your experiences with a wider audience.
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MOVIES @ DUNDRUM & THE PAVILION THEATRE
Daily deals - Keep an eye on our website and social media channels: every day during the festival, between 1pm and 3pm, we’ll be posting special discounts and offers for you to enjoy! Explore the city - Check out our festival map (above) and you’ll see how closely connected and accessible all the venues are. Make your way around the city by Dublin Bus, DART or even hop on one of the Dublin Bikes. Sink your teeth into JDIFF Menu (see opposite) for special festival deals and offers for all ticket holders! Chat to us - If you are looking for film and event recommendations, just talk to our Box Office staff, who will be happy to help you explore the programme and send you on a cinema adventure! Or you can talk to any of the wonderful volunteers and staff stationed at every venue and they’ll be glad to answer all your questions. Feel free to ask for directions, chat about the weather, or share your festival opinions and suggestions!
FOR THIS YEAR’S EDITION, JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL IS BRINGING SOMETHING NEW AND EXCITING INTO THE MIX - THE JDIFF MENU!
During the 11 days of screenings and events, we want our audiences to feel that the festival doesn’t begin and end inside the cinema. Bring your JDIFF Menu card with you for access to specially designed menus and discounts at various locations across the city. From delicious cakes to luxurious cocktails, we have something for everyone’s taste! Every ticket holder can pop into one of our box offices and collect a special JDIFF Pass that entitles them to participate in the JDIFF Menu offers. Check jdiff.com in advance to find out which Menu Partners are located closest to the cinema you’re heading to and to check what’s on offer. And don’t forget to share your festival experiences with everyone!
Buying tickets - Now you can print your own tickets or, better still, bring your smartphone along and we’ll scan the barcode directly off the screen, minimising your carbon footprint! You can buy tickets online at jdiff.com (available on desktop or mobile) up until the very last minute before the screening (although we do advise you to book early as capacities are limited and films sell out quickly). You can also book by calling 01 687 7974 or by dropping into any of our ticket offices.
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JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015
FESTIVAL CLUB & FILMMAKERS LOUNGE
The Church junction of Jervis Street & Mary Street, Dublin 1 Jameson Dublin International Film Festival is excited to renew its partnership with The Church Restaurant, Bar & Venue for the 2015 season. Only a few minutes from all our venues, The Church is the place to be at the end of each festival day. Actors, filmmakers, festival-goers and the JDIFF team all gather in this one special place where entertainment will kick off every evening at 9.30pm! With DJs, a film quiz, live music and a couple of drinks on the mix, we’ll help you keep the festival spirit going until your next screening. Please check the Your Festival section at jdiff.com for an updated programme of events at the Festival Club. Come and say hi – we look forward to seeing you there!
PROGRAMME Friday 20th LA GRANDE BELEZZA Italian theme, LIVE music | DJ till late.
Thursday 26th STAND UP & ANSWERS with Jarlath Regan DJ till late.
Saturday 21st COME AS YOU ARE Seattle Sound theme | LIVE music | DJ till late.
Friday 27th RETURN TO ITHACA Latin theme | LIVE music | DJ till late
Sunday 22nd LISTEN UP, PHILLIP Jazz, Sax, Chill Out | LIVE music | DJ
Saturday 28th My Big Fat MURIEL’S WEDDING Fancy Dress | LIVE music | DJ till late
Monday 23rd IN CONVERSATION Lounge Tue 24th FILM QUIZ | DJ* Wednesday 25th DIFFpix JAM SESSION | Bring your own instrument*
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Sunday 29th CLOSING NIGHT After Party for Closing Gala Ticket Holders *you must register your interest in quiz and jam session in advance at events@jdiff.com
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Enjoy JAMESON Sensibly. Visit 130