2008..... ...... 2008

10th January 2008 The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros PhilippinesUK 15                             100 Director: Aureas Solito Leading Players: Nathan Lopez, Solomon Cruz, J R Valentin, Neil Ryan Sesa Twelve year old Maxi, a budding drag queen, looks after his father and brothers in one of the Manila slums following the death of his mother. His family relies on crime to survive. Maxi is befriended by a devout Christian police officer on whom he develops a crush, but their two worlds are fated to collide. Described in Sight and Sound as ‘a delight from start to finish’, this is a warm, vibrant film with an irresistible performance from the young Nathan Lopez in the title role, and although it subject matter might at first appear depressing, the story is essentially about resilience, character and its capacity for triumph over adversity.

24th January Ten Canoes                                       Australia                            15                             91 Directors: Rolf De Heer, Peter Djiggirr Leading Players: Cruspe Kurddal, Jamie Dayindi Gulpilil, Richard Birrinbirrin Back to Australia, but for a completely different kind of film this time. Ten Canoes is a film about storytelling, its power and its importance, and its place in the transmission of cultural identity. Minygululu leads ten members of his tribe into the forest to harvest bark for canoe making. Whilst working he discovers that one of the men has desires for one of Minygululu’s wives. To head off the potential distress and tragedy that this could engender, he tells Dayindi a story ‘from long, long ago’ as they work, which helps the younger man realise the danger and avert it. Vivid, often funny, and sensitive, de Heer shows (according to Sight and Sound) ‘that it is possible to make a film, by careful and sympathetic collaboration with all the indigenous participants that is not condescending, exploitative or misrepresentative’. A treat for lovers of storytelling.

7th February Kenny                         Australia                         15                             103 Director: Clayton Jacobson       Leading Players: Shane Jacobson, Eve Von Bibra, Ronald Jacobson 2006-7 was clearly a busy year for the Australian film industry. This time we follow in the footsteps of Kenny, a portaloo installer who takes a pragmatic approach to the career that everyone else around him considers degrading. Despite the obvious hazards of what his brother describes as ‘turd burgling’, Kenny is a consummate professional who enjoys his work, a job (sorry) which takes him to a number of large scale events and festivals. When he is asked to represent his firm at an international conference, a brighter future seems to beckon…… Kenny himself is a wonderful comic creation and this is a likeable, gentle and diverting film. The feelgood story of one man and his portable toilet - what’s not to love? .

21st February La Vie En Rose                              France                       12A                             140 Director: Olivier Dahan Leading Players: Marion Cotillard, Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory ‘Tis the season for biopics, it seems. This time the subject is the extraordinary life of Edith Piaf, raised in a brothel by her grandmother, temporarily blinded, reclaimed by her father and taken away to the circus where her talent for singing is first revealed. She is eventually discovered by impresario Leplee but he is murdered just as she starts to become famous. Still in her early twenties, these are just the first of the many challenges and dramas that beset her life, and that she fiercely confronts in her most famous song Non, je ne regretted rien.’ Marion Cotillard has an uncanny resemblance to Piaf and plays her with passion. Some reviewers feel that Dahan has tried to get too much of Piaf’s eventful life into this film, with the result that the narrative often gets confused and episodes so edited that the meaning eludes the audience. However, it certainly caused a sensation on release.

6th March A Mighty Heart                              USA/UK                     15                               107 Director: Michael Winterbottom Leading Players: Angelina Jolie, Dan Futterman, Irrfan Khan Based on the true story of Wall St journalist Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped in Karachi in 2002, the film unfolds from the point of view of his pregnant French-Cuban wife, Mariane, played by Angelina Jolie. Mariane frantically harries the Pakistani authorities and anyone else she can recruit to get her husband released from his captors, who are members of an extremist group. Those who follow current events will already know how this story ends. Joli has received unreserved critical acclaim for her portrayal of Mariane Pearl and the film has been praised for handling its harrowing subject matter with honesty and acute political insight.

20th March The Singer         France                         12A                            113 Director: Xavier Giannoli Leading Players: Gerard Depardieu, Cecile de France, Mathieu Amalric Depardieu plays Alain, an aging provincial crooner whose career revolves around entertaining sedate middle aged couples and OAPs in a series of unfashionable venues scattered around the Clermont-Ferrand area of central France. He is managed by his ex-wife Michele and her new partner, and their humdrum lives are given a jolt when Alain meets and falls for Marion, an attractive young estate agent. The film follows Alain in his courtship of Marion, and around the circuit of discotheques, spas and stuffy restaurants, singing his repertoire of 60s and 70s pop classics. It is to Depardieu’s credit that he can convince, not only as a singer, but as someone genuinely contented with his less than glamorous lot in life. An engaging and genuine piece of storytelling.

3rd April True North                                  UK/Germany                     15                          95 Director: Steve Hudson Leading Players: Peter Mullan, Gary Lewis, Steven Robertson. A Scottish trawler puts into port in Ostend. The catch has been poor, and two of the crew are persuaded to secrete 20 Chinese illegal immigrants on board, and get them to Scotland. They hide them from the cook and the skipper, but eventually their secret is revealed, with tragic consequences. The director chose to shoot all his scenes aboard a genuine trawler in the North Sea, making the film truly authentic and pointing up the claustrophobia of the fishermen’s lives and drawing intense performances from his cast.

17th April Eagle vs Shark                                      New Zealand/USA                         15                          87 Director: Taika Waitit Leading Players:  Loren Harsley, Jamaine Clement Gauche fast-food waitress Lily is smitten with Jarrod, a video game fan who frequents her restaurant. Lily gatecrashes Jarrod's animal-disguise party dressed as a shark, where she impresses Jarrod (dressed as an eagle) in a videogame playoff. Lily accompanies him to his hometown where he intends to get even with his old high school nemesis Eric, who used to bully Jarrod when they were at school together, but their relationship is tested once they arrive at Jarrod's family home. Waititi has produced a quirky comedy with a very distinctive New Zealand identity; lots of offbeat irony, non-PC jokes that reflect the country's uneasy race relations, and a poignant social commentary depicting the troubling demands on masculinity in a nation with a very high suicide rate.