Karlovy vary international film festival

A pair of Scottish animators struggle to make a film in A Cat Called Dom , world premiering as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival ’s feature strand. Chiefly a live-action documentary, it shows friends and collaborators Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson ( The Making Of Longbird ) trying to shoot a semi-scripted film for Will’s mother, who has been diagnosed with cancer. Their footage and outtakes are eventually worked into more of a behind-the-scenes story, showing the frustrations that get in the way of their filming, and the strain on their friendship. The cat of the title is DOM, an animated feline that lives on Will’s laptop screen and interjects with observations, questions and actions that shed a light on his feelings in a darkly humorous way. It’s a busy mix and scattershot by its very nature; this is a collage of emotions, events and styles that collide in a film that’s openly not what it was originally intended to be. But Anderson … [Read more...] about Edinburgh Film Festival Review: Will Anderson & Ainslie Henderson’s ‘A Cat Called Dom’

An Oscar statue goes missing in Hassan Nazer ’s amiable feature Winners , which had its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival . After the Oscar is inadvertently left in a taxi in Iran, the prize is sent to the post office, where it’s once again lost by a well-meaning postal worker. While he insists that it must have fallen out of his car in a rural location, the authorities insist that the man is detained, assuming theft, until the statue is located. And so there’s a ripple of urgency running through this otherwise gently paced comedy-drama. It’s no spoiler to reveal that the Oscar ends up in the hands of two children: nine-year-old Yahya and his friend Leyla. We’re let in on their secret as they hide the “doll” from their friends and, amusingly, put it in a dress to preserve its modesty (“It’s so Leyla won’t see him naked,” explains the boy). Their efforts to sell the find are thwarted: such items are of no use to the locals. As the … [Read more...] about Edinburgh Film Festival Review: Hassan Nazer’s ‘Winners’

Married couple Devorah Baum and Josh Appignanesi co-direct and produce the confessional documentary Husband , world premiering at the Edinburgh International Film Festival . Baum is a successful author, academic and speaker; Appignanesi won rave reviews for his last film, Female Human Animal , after his debut, Song of Songs , won awards at London and Edinburgh. And yet, both these Brits are beset by neuroses, as this frank film shows — or possibly exaggerates: the press notes describe it as being “on the cusp between auto-fiction and documentary.” Framed as a follow-up to their 2016 documentary The New Man , Husband is an uneasy and uncertain watch that provokes thought about relationships and feelings while occasionally amusing, in an uncomfortable sort of way. The key story takes place in the U.S., where Baum is promoting a book she has written about dealing with feelings such as guilt, paranoia, envy and self-hatred. With two small children in tow, … [Read more...] about Edinburgh Film Festival Review: Devorah Baum & Josh Appignanesi’s ‘Husband’