Documentary: LOST GODS: The Future of Christianity and Paganism in The North

 

While I was filming “Sagas of the Raven Land” my colleague Matt Eng of North Hugr was making his own film called Lost Gods. It’s truly brilliant. It includes interviews with me as well as a Danish Lutheran theologian and the TikTok influencer Ian Byington. 

It's is a philosophical exploration of the problem of disenchantment in the West, with a focus on Icelandic and Norwegian nature to tell the tale. Highly recommended viewing!

Sagas of the Raven Land: Viking History Documentary

To gain a deeper understanding of medieval Icelandic stories called sagas, historian Tom Rowsell journeys to Iceland, immersing himself in the landscapes that inspired these tales. He rides native horses across the fells, bathes in hot springs, and traces the footsteps of legendary Viking heroes like Eirik the Red and Egill Skallagrimsson.

The Noble Savage in The Valley (Obscured by Clouds)

A review of an important film with insights into the myth of the noble savage.

"Aguirre, the Wrath of God" Film Review

watch it on Bitchute here

Documentary: A British History of Ceylon Tea

Valhalla Rising

Valhalla Rising Explained

Death has dominion over this nauseating Nordic blood bath of a movie.

Just as last year's Bronson was a huge step forward for Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn, from his Pusher trilogy, so too is Valhalla Rising a definitive progression in the forging of his identity as an auteur (Drive really confirms his skill). The tension of this slow moving story, punctuated with explosions of ultra violence and fountains of blood, is heart stopping. The dialogue is sparse; the protagonist is a mute Viking slave who has killed his masters and is accompanied only by a young boy who speaks on his behalf.

The film is set against dark and ominous Scottish Highlands occupied by Nordic pagans whose way of life is threatened by the spread of Christianity. A group of Christian Vikings find the pair and see the benefit of bringing the one eyed slave bezerker on a journey to Jerusalem for the first Crusade. After they embark, the Christians suspect that a mysterious fog that impairs navigation is a curse brought upon them by the pagan slave. He is too powerful to kill and at any point in the film when he is challenged there follows a gory scene with lashings of crimson and the barbaric sounds of axe cleaving flesh and splintering bone.

Without a background knowledge of the subject matter, the plot may seem far fetched and the violence gratuitous. It is remarkable that in fact every aspect of the film; from the decapitation of a chieftain whose head is then placed on a pole (a magic rite to pagan vikings), to the accidental discovery of Canada hundreds of years before Columbus, were things that actually happened. All the activities of these fictional characters are based on archaeological and mythological sources.

The linear story of an escaped slave finding salvation amongst Christians is brought into question. The slave never confirms his beliefs and is content to kill the Christians at the first sign of aggression. The name of the pagan protagonist is One-eye, a Viking nickname for their God of war Odin. When questioned by the Christians as to the origins of the slave, the boy responds, "he was brought up from hell." It seems that One-eye is more symbol than character. His emotions and intentions are never made clear. He is a source of fear for the Christians who mistake Canada for Hell, believing the pagan slave has led them there using magic. But he is also a guardian figure who takes the boy under his wing after killing the rest of his tribe.

The film explores the complex issues of cultural and spiritual conflict that were being played out in Europe 1000 years ago. The Christianisation of Europe, the slaughter of the pagans, followed swiftly by the first crusade and the slaughter of Muslims in the holy land are all addressed. While in Europe the pagans are said to live on "the edge of the world," hunted and killed in their thousands, in Canada the tables are turned and the pagan Indians hunt the Christians. The Viking landings in the new world ended badly and foreshadowed the colonisation of the Americas 500 years later. The repeating shots of crosses from obscure angles cut with One-eye's premonitions of extreme violence seem to be a message of the danger of Christianity. The Christian Viking leader's maniacal screams about "My new Jerusalem!" echo those of the early Christian settlers of America who made similar declarations before slaughtering native Americans.

The appeal of this movie for most will not be the spiritual message nor will it be the un-hurried cinematography and beautiful shots of the Scottish highlands. It will be violence. There is no denying the violent scenes are shockingly graphic, but they are too sparse to hold the attention of the average sociopathic gore-hound. Some sections are extremely drawn out and confusing, including a scene in which one viking inexplicably rapes another whilst under the influence of a hallucinogenic narcotic. Nothing is explicitly explained in the film. For some this will make the challenging story more intriguing, for others it will be simply bewildering.

Dead Snow - Film review

With their black leather jackets and death’s head badges, there’s no denying that the Nazis looked kind of cool, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are a symbol of all that is wrong with humanity and a cinematic villain that audiences love to hate. That may explain why three Nazi killing splatter fests are being released this summer; Iron Sky, Inglorious Basterds and from Norway the ridiculous Nazi zombie flick, Dead snow. Set in the desolate mountain regions of Norway, a snow sports holiday goes horribly wrong for a group of young friends when they encounter an army of undead Nazis from WWII.

This film is a composite of cheesy horror clichés. But the film is conscious of its own predictability and features a character named Erland, a zombie film fanatic who points out the obvious plot technique of opening a film with a group of friends heading to a remote cabin. Even going so far as to name drop the movies that writer and director Tommy Wirkola felt it necessary to plagiarise. The character is later disemboweled shortly after a bizarre toilet sex scene, thus fulfilling the tired conventions of a genre that desperately requires creative innovation to remain relevant.

The only original aspect of this horror film is the inclusion of Nazis, but watching the film one can’t help but wonder at the meaning of it all. Are the Nazis rising from the dead a metaphor for a revival of right wing politics that needs once more to be put to death? Or is it simply that Nazis are the only human villains who it is acceptable to depict being torn asunder by chainsaws and machine guns? Whatever the reasoning behind the ludicrous plot, it has more holes than a bullet ridden zombie corpse. The Nazi resurrection is attributed to the fact that the group of youths find some stolen Nazi gold. Kind of a curse of the Mummie’s tomb deal. Personally, I always find the nuclear radiation or voodoo magic explanations of zombism easier to swallow.

Those who want nothing more than a blood soaked, brain splattered orgy of violence peppered with a few cheap jokes will be thrilled. The cinematography and building of suspense is at times more mature and intense than the infantile plot warrants. The bleak, featureless, snow covered peaks of Norway provide a superbly atmospheric setting for a horror film, and Wirkola knows how to get the best from the landscape. But breathtaking imagery cannot excuse a plot this lazy, or such brief and shallow characterisation. I find myself caring less and less for the fate of the two dimensional Nordic youths as they are killed off one by one until ultimately I just wish I was watching Evil Dead instead.

Beautiful Losers

Interview with the director of Beautiful Losers, Aaron Rose

Before beautiful losers, before you were producing films for Mtv, How did you begin making films?

I got my film education from watching skateboard videos, pretty much. I grew up doing that, and that’s where a lot of my influences in terms of technique and style came from. A lot of the videos that were being made by kids were actually quite innovative, particularly the early ones, now it’s become quite formulaic.

Were there any in particular you were inspired by?

There was one called future primitive from the early 80s, which was like an art film. Then there was a film called memory screen, alien workshop did in 93 or something. There are so many, that’s what got me into film because I realised how easy it was, it was just kids making those films, not big production companies and studios it was just kids with cameras. The Mtv thing happened randomly because I met a producer one night in a bar, which is kind of hilarious. She wanted to start doing collaborations with artists, she was like, “would you be interested in putting together a series for us?” and that resulted in me producing and directing for them for like three years. I did a project with Tobin Yellend who was our DP in the film, and that was the first time we worked together, that was how I learned about editing and how an avid works and how to shoot film. It was like a mini film school I guess, on the job training.


But they didn’t use your videos for Mtv, is that right?

Ha! Yeah actually I think they were a little bit ahead of their time. The first series we did was called visual mafia, they only ran it at like 1 or 2 in the morning. The second group we did was called Kids in America and that was all like cinema verite style interviews with kids all across the country just talking about music and that launched MTV2, and those ran constantly for like 3 years, we made 40 commercials for them. But the first batch, the artist’s ones, went a little bit over their heads.




Are you still emotionally affected when you watch beautiful losers? Even though you know the subjects personally and have watched this footage over and over.

Yeah, I watched the first 25 minutes the other night at the first BFI screening, and I found myself laughing even though I knew every millisecond, every cut, I was still able to become an audience member. It’s nice that I can do that still.

I think the film helps to define the nineties skate punk generation who appreciated and were inspired by the artist’s involved in the film, how do you think that youth movement was different from those that preceded it?

In the broader sense of things, I don’t think it’s any different. Generations have their own aesthetics, you know what I mean? In the fifties there were beatniks, the sixties had the hippies and the seventies had the punks, the nineties was this. It’s like a generation comes up with it’s own set of symbols and influences and filters that through all aspects of their culture not just their art, music and fashion it also filters into media and advertising, so I think it’s more about that. In terms of aesthetic it’s very different, I mean totally different from the hippy aesthetic but that’s just because it’s a different set of symbols. I think every generation comes up with its own language, lets put it that way. This was our language, the language of that generation. Street culture.

Are there any artists of any kind that are influencing you at the moment?


There’s an animator named Devin Flynn, he is one of the most incredible animators I have ever seen. He does this show called y’all so stupid; it’s all on the internet.
It’s genius. I’ve watched his stuff thousands of times. There are all kinds of contemporary artists like that, I live in LA and I’m very involved in the music scene there, and there’s this new wave coming out of the all ages scene in Los Angeles with really experimental musicians and really young bands. It’s really exciting and has that same feeling of like something new, not just a rehash, the bands don’t just sound like some band from the sixties, they got their own thing.


Have you got any thing planned for the future? I heard rumours of you starting up a school? Is that going to happen?

I hope so, I’m researching it now, If I do a school, I want it to be at a credited university so that people can transfer credits from other schools, so it doesn’t just become this thing that you can’t do anything with. In America the accreditation process is super-complicated, it’s through the government so I was going around blabbing like “I’m opening a school!” then I started talking to people and they’re like “it’s not quite as easy as that, to do it properly.” I could do a private school. But I think it’s still probably in the works, I can see it happening.

Why do you think the whole skate punk culture and art and that whole movement which was very American in origin, took off so well in Europe and England.

There’s pissed off kids everywhere, I don’t think it’s just England; it’s all across the world now. Any city you go to. Even outside the cities, its spread to the suburbs. Everywhere. I think the more media driven our culture becomes… like it’s just like the media is getting bigger and bigger and it’s like this bubble that alienates people even more from feeling like they have a voice in the world and so you see a rise in people trying to express themselves in that way. So yeah, I mean I guess you could say it originated in America but graffiti was around long before the gangs in the seventies in New York. It’s really old, and I think it’s the same kind of thing, it’s global.

Do you like coming to England?

Yeah! London is one of my favourite cities, I haven’t been here in 5 or 6 years so its been nice to come back.

I heard you used to be a mod and you were in a scooter club called 96 tears named after the ? and the mysterians song, is that right?

Yeah still am! Good research!


So did that get you into the whole London culture?

Yeah well as a teenager I was obsessed with it, I ordered all of my clothes from Carnaby Street and I was on the phone with my mom’s credit card. 13 years old, calling the Carnaby cavern ordering suits and stuff! Then I kind of….you know, you get into different stuff, but the mod thing never really left me, then recently when I moved back to LA from New York, I started getting scooters again.


Do you have a lambretta or a vespa?

Both, I have an LD150 from 1957 and a P200 for the racing and shit.

Yeah I got a p200 too

Yeah, me and Barry McGee and a bunch of the guys from beautiful losers are really into scooters. Our club is all those same dudes.

Did that come out of your interest in punk rock then?

Kind of. Here it was all defined groups and subcultures whereas in America, punks, mods, skinheads and Goths, it was all like one thing. There weren’t so many of us, so those subcultures all kind of melded together a lot more.

Your band the Sads did a European tour recently right?

We’re on one right now.


So you’re tying that in with the Beautiful Losers thing? How’s it going in Europe?

Yeah well, we played all weekend at the ICA, we’re going tomorrow to Paris and doing Palais du Tokyo, then we’re going to record in Berlin for a week at studio East. It’s fun!

Other than art and film what’s occupying most of your time right now?

Art isn’t occupying so much of my time right now, I do a magazine with Ed Templeton and Brendan Fowler called ANP quarterly, artist network project. So I’m doing the magazine, playing music, I got a couple of film projects coming on, I’m doing a short documentary that we shoot November 20th, just a 30minute film. I’ve been working on a feature for 5 years now, it’s gonna take some time to pull it all together. There’s a lot of stuff going on. Because of Beautiful Losers, I sometimes get pigeon holed as an art person, but I like all of it, I think it’s all tasty!

Did the BFI film festival screening of Beautiful Losers go down well?

Yeah, good audience. It was cool because, I said this when I introduced the film, it’s the same with The Sads, we come over here and we do better here than we do in America. With the art as well, we were coming to London to do shows. James La Velle from Mo wax was really supportive of us back in 1995, before anyone cared in New York, we were in London doing shows, because something about the British people, or the British scene really took care of us with its forward thinking. They’re like ‘oh that’s interesting, lets bring them over’ so it was kind of nice to show it in London because of all the gratitude, I was like wow, this city embraced us long before our own country.

Thanks a lot for the interview Aaron, have you got anything else you can tell me about your film projects?

I’m very interested in this artist named sister Corita Kent, who was a Catholic nun in the 1960s and was a pop artist in the vein of Andy Warhol. She was in America and was a staunch anti-Vietnam war activist, and she was kicked out of the church for her political views at the time. Her work looks so modern that it could be hanging in this Shoreditch gallery, it looks like a 21 year old kid did it, it’s all neon, insanely contemporary. That documentary I’m working on is about her life. I’ve been working with her foundation; they opened up the archive footage opportunities for me. Mainly interviews, a lot of the people who knew her when she was alive are very old now, so it’s good to talk to these people now before they die so we can get her story. She was kind of quite famous for a minute but then faded out so I wanted to make sure we got something on film to maintain the memory of her. It’s hard to explain visual art with words, but if you saw it you would be like ‘wow! A nun made this?’ because it’s really punk, psychedelic, political! It doesn’t look like a nun made it at all. She is really amazing.

Do you think the way the back story behind an artist’s work affects people’s opinion of it is a good thing?

I think so. I think for the artists I tend to be interested in and associated with, I’m as in love with their story and them as people as I am with the work they create. I see that it all inter-relates in a very dramatic way. Those tend to be the people that I’m drawn to, people that have lives that are as interesting as the work they create.

Andre Williams - Senile, Mobile, Hostile

Tragic, yet hilarious doc on Andre Williams explains his rise to fame, and his fall from grace.

An elderly man stands on a cold Chicago bridge. His worn face betrays years of drug and alcohol abuse and his jaw quivers as he charms passing strangers into filling his hat with change. Those familiar with the legendary reputation of Andre Williams may be shocked by the opening scene of Tricia Todd and Eric Matthies’ documentary, ‘Agile, Mobile, Hostile: A year in the life of Andre Williams.’ But Williams is just acting out a scene from a difficult time in his life. In the 50s and 60s he was a star. By the 1980s he was a panhandler and a crack-head.

Andre started singing in the fifties, recording over 50 songs for Fortune records, including ‘Bacon Fat’, ‘Jailbait’ and ‘The Greasy Chicken’. He went on to become a producer, working with the likes of Ike Turner and Stevie Wonder. Andre’s songs have been covered by everyone from Ray Charles to The Cramps. He even worked as an A&R man several times for Barry Gordon at Motown. In 1996 he cleaned up and released a come back album. Now at the age of 72, with sex, drugs and rum all making a come back in his life, Andre’s health is starting to deteriorate.

Todd and Matthies always work as a team, it’s a formula that helped them in the creation of ‘Ayamye’, their documentary about making bicycles in Africa, and it helped with ‘Agile, Mobile, Hostile’. Tricia also has experience working as production manager on several DVD-extras menu documentaries for films including 300, a Scanner Darkly and The Matrix Revisited. She and Eric have been fans of Andre for over 10 years. “Both of us have a life-long involvement with the underground; be it punk or garage, blues or jazz.” She explains, “Andre personifies all of it.”

Seeing Andre being so self destructive is alarming, during one live performance in the film, Andre is so weak, he can barely perform. On another shocking occasion he is arrested for possession and another he is hospitalised and told by his doctor he will die if he doesn’t make some life style changes. “It was difficult to balance perspectives between being his friend and wanting to remain objective as filmmakers.” Tricia confesses. “Don’t tell Andre but we always watered down his bottle of Bacardi.”

The film starts as a biography, explaining Andre’s history and achievements with the aid of interviews and archive footage, but ends up focusing on how today’s Andre finds it difficult to tour and perform in his old age and is a difficult man for his band mates to get along with. There is a depressing contrast between the success of his early musical career and his being brought out to perform like an old bear at the circus in his twilight years.

Tricia and Eric do not regret documenting the vulnerable side of the music legend, “My only regret is Andre not getting the success he deserves during that year!” Tricia says. The documentary is as much a critique of the way the music industry exploited gifted black musicians in the early days, as it is a window into the life of Andre Williams. “The system in which young song writers and performers worked, especially African American artists, in the 50s was very advantageous to the businessmen who ran the show and very disingenuous to the naïve young men and women with the talent. Andre is certainly a victim of this, like so many others.”

The tragic element, although moving, does not dominate the documentary. Andre has a terrific sense of humour and is relentlessly optimistic. Despite having so little to show for his remarkable career, he rarely lets his bitterness show. Andre's magnetic character and determination, ultimately, make the film very uplifting.

The 16th Raindance Film Festival Review

The Rain Dance film Festival had it's 16th year this month, and as usual it was host to an international selection of challenging independent cinema. I interviewed festival organiser Elliot Grove, a couple of directors and have reviewed a few of this years offerings. Enjoy!



Hi Elliot, you must be very busy this year! What have you enjoyed most at this year’s festival?


Elliot: The big story this year is the attendees, the box office is up 40% which is astounding, and having done it for so many years it’s gratifying to see that people are finally getting out to find us, which proves that independent cinema is alive and well! Very much so!

So you think the future is bright for independent film And British cinema?

Elliot: Yeah, independent cinema is not for everyone, but it is definitely for people who want something a little different from the normal Hollywood fare, that you get at the multiplexes and the normal fare that you get at other film festivals. Our programming is much more underground and extreme than you’ll see elsewhere, certainly more extreme than you’ll see in the multiplexes.

Could you possibly pick a favourite?

Elliot: I don’t like picking favourites because all the films are favourites, but there is something that’s happened this year which is a bit different, there were three excellent films from Canada, one is ‘production office’, another is ‘Who is KK Downing’ a hilarious comedy and the actors are coming over, this is a comedy troupe from Montreal that feed into second city, the stand up club in Toronto which feeds all the big names to TV show Saturday night live, and is the route taken by all the big people like Jim Carey, Dan Akroyd, Martin Short, Mike Myers and so on so that film is great. And on Sunday Jeremy Podeswa, the great auteur, is attending with a film called ‘Fugitive Pieces’ which is a harrowing account of the holocaust, so those are all very different films, but I would heartily recommend any one of them to anyone, they have to be my personal favourites because I’m Canadian!

Congratulations on receiving the honorary doctorate, what kind of people do you think most benefit from your lectures?

Elliot: Anyone who wants to write a film, make a film or direct a film.


What will your next film be about?

Elliot: I’ve put all that aside for the past year while I’m working on the launch of raindance.tv our web distribution portal, so none right at the moment although I have some ideas, but I don’t really want to talk about them.

What things will be different at next year’s festival?

Elliot: I think what will be different is, we’ll have to address our infrastructure because we just can’t cope with all the people wanting to come, most things are sold out and people are damned lucky, if they don’t already have a ticket, to get a ticket which is unfortunate. So what we’re trying to do now is to address that issue and see if we can get larger screens and make the wonderful films we have from all over the world available to an even wider audience.

Did your Amish background affect your style of film making or your attitude to cinema in general?

Elliot: Yes and no, no in the sense that cinema and acting are my natural topics, but the yes is as a child I was exposed to all the story telling that you do in my community, that certainly affected the way I look at films, from a storytelling point of view, I love great stories, and the fact that there’s cinema means everything I grew up with has been enhanced. The storytelling I grew up with has made me particularly receptive to the visual storytelling of cinema, and wow! What a great way to tell stories.

You have a lot of contacts in the film industry but can you still get star struck?

Elliot: Yes, every time. Faye Dunaway came, on the one hand, I’m able to speak to her as I’m speaking to you now on the other hand I’m pinching myself thinking can this be real? I’m having dinner with Faye Dunaway, like wow! Its quite an experience that, in itself. And taking her through all the paparazzi and seeing all the pulling power she has, the pulling power that Adam Yauch of the beastie boys has, that Peter Greenaway, that Michael Winterbottom, that Bill Nighy, that Liz Smith the wonderful actress, that they have. They can do something that I can not, and I am forever in awe and respect of them. It’s a bit like going to the private show that Prince was doing at the O2, where he would play after the main show for 4 hours, he had done an energetic 2 hour set for 20,000 and then going with a few people and playing for 3 or 4 hours, My god, that’s something special. How does he do that? How does she do it? Amazing.


Heavy Load – Jerry Rothwell

A documentary film about a punk rock band from Lewes near Brighton called Heavy Load, the majority of it's members are disabled. The film begins with the director explaining his depression and shows how he uses the optimism and perceived happiness of the band as a vehicle to pull himself out of his misery, but as the film progresses and the band run into problems, he wonders whether by making the documentary he is taking away from their happiness. The band starts off playing only at disabled events, then progress to pubs and finish by playing at a festival alongside the Levellers and the fun lovin’ criminals. The disabled members of the band are very likeable and although the film is in no way patronising, it is slightly too sentimental for my tastes, and seems somewhat self serving, drawing no conclusions about the lives of the subject matter only that of the director. The drummer Michael’s expanding ego is one of the most entertaining aspects of the film, despite having barely mastered the drums after decades of playing, he becomes convinced he is too good for the band and threatens to start a new one. The director covers the subject skilfully and with sensitivity, he also uses the Sussex coastline to great atmospheric effect, ultimately this is no better than a feel good TV documentary about what strong little soldiers disabled people are.

The Blue Tower- Smita Bhide



The Blue Tower is this year’s winner of best UK feature at the Rain dance film festival. What I presumed to be a straight forward inter-racial romance story set in Southall, is in fact so much more as producer Jamie Nuttgens explained to me “the romance isn’t problematic like Romeo and Juliet.” In fact the sexual relationship the protagonist Mohan (Abhin Galeya) has with his wealthy aunt’s white care worker Judy is in fact the only thing that doesn’t directly create problems for him in this film, His wife is distant and unfaithful and her family particularly her brother do not respect him because he has no job and has not yet fathered a child, his mates are chancers trying their luck at get rich quick schemes and he is hoping desperately that another unreliable friend will come through for him with a job. His wealthy aunt doesn’t suspect her nephew and care worker of anything, even when they start stealing from her; she is too concerned with her vanity, which is exasperated by her creepy sycophantic neighbours and their plans to take her money. To escape from the mess of his life, he and Judy conceive a desperate plan. As his marriage and hopes of work look more and more bleak, Mohan becomes delusional and desperate, Director Smita Bhide skilfully uses the prominent red and blue towers that dominate the landscape of Southall as symbols of the security of Mohan's life and the menacing reality that lies behind the illusion.

The symbolism of the blue and red towers is very striking, where did you get the idea from?

Smita: When we were scouting the locations, looking for interesting landmarks, I just noticed them; they were sort of organically integrated into the plot. They are such amazing structures that we couldn’t really film there and not include them somehow. The shot where the blue tower emerges from behind the red tower is how it actually is, and that’s how that came about.


And was a lot of the plot developed organically in this way?

Smita: Well some of it was, I had an idea that we should make a short story featuring the three main characters, and I wanted to set it in Southall because that’s a place I know quite well. We wanted to make something that was set in that kind of Indian landscape, that’s also very suburban.

By the three main characters do you mean the lovers and the auntie?

Smita: Yes, I had a story that revolves around that, a bit like the Honeymooners, I love that 1950’s feeling.

So the secondary characters were developed later?

Smita: Yes, I wanted to expand Mohan’s life, to explain why he is the way he is, and why he is so protective of the old woman. Both of the other themes developed from this.

Is Mohan your favourite character in the film?

Smita: I really like Judy, she’s the one that I think is most interesting. In fact we had much more storyline involving her, but when we were editing, it was too long, and we ended up having to focus more on Mohan. Alice O’ Connell was brilliant as her, I think she was the character with the most layers.


Did Alice bring a lot of that to the character, or was this already created in your writing?

Smita: Well I wrote the part very much with Alice in mind, it’s such a shame more of the scenes with her in weren’t included, but you have to be discriminating when editing.


Who is KK Downey? – Darren Curtis




A Canadian comedy critique of the easily deceived, attention seeking hipster culture. The story concerns two failing creative artists, a musician whose band is laughable and a writer who can’t get his book ‘truck stop hustler’ about a drug addled trans-gendered prostitute, published on the grounds that he is too middle class to release such material. Together they create a fictional character named KK Downey who is presented as the author of the novel, but things go a bit pear shaped when their web of lies comes unstuck. The film is a hilarious spoof of the artistic and creative youth community that is done in an original and at times surreal way with all too familiar characters who despite their hopelessness are very endearing. There is a lot of very basic and vulgar humour, but the film never pretends to be anything it isn’t, taking the piss out of pretentious indie types rather than trying to entertain them.


Flick – David Howard


A rockabilly zombie comedy bonanza. The plot is feeble at times, and the character’s motivation unconvincing but the flawless style of the movie more than makes up for it, including the teddy boy clothing, zombie gore and classic comic book style framing with actual illustrated comic panels used in place of montages for the plot links. The cast is also very impressive including the Oscar winning Faye Dunaway as Lieutenant McKenzie , the one armed American cop partnered with detective sergeant Miller played by Mark Benton (The fat bloke from the Northern Rock ads) who had her flown in to catch a rockabilly serial killer in the dark decrepit environment of a modern Welsh city which lends itself well to the horror genre. There are some great one-liners and amusing Monty pythonesque blood squirting wounds that provide the comic relief from the rampaging zombie teddy boy murderer Johnny Taylor, whose insane mother played by Liz Smith (Royle Family) is the best part of the film.

Hollywood star Faye said she was happy to work on what she described as an innovative film, saying “I was very taken with this little piece, it was an honour to work with all of them.” Mark Benton added “I think Faye learned a lot from me.” Despite not yet acquiring a distribution deal, Director David Howard has high hopes for the film, saying “hopefully it’ll get a cult following!” I asked him where he got the inspiration to draw together the different elements that gave the film it’s style, he replied “We were aiming for a B-movie feel, also a comic book feel in terms of the framed sequences. I already had an idea to make a low-budget movie, then I heard ‘Teenager in love’ on the radio and I thought about killing a man in a record shop, as well as that song things like Roger Corman, American International pictures and all those B-movies that have enduring appeal and an innocence which I think is appealing, I also love David Lynch and Alfred Hitchcock!”

Watch Out - Steve Balderson



Disturbing comedy about loveless self obsessed narcissist who is looking for work as a lecturer at a small town college, it features a hilarious scene where he tapes a picture of his own face on a blow up doll then fucks it. The subject is compelling and the parts with dialogue somewhat intriguing, but the film is mostly comprised of shocking yet tedious sequences showing the protagonist masturbating. The violent ending is somewhat predictable but quite satisfying; I think the whole film could do with being cut down by ditching a few of the numerous wanking scenes. The subject of a cold, almost inhuman narcissist who reads German philosophy and hates humanity is somehow compelling, but not enough to endure this very boring film.


Mao-ce-dun – Besnik Bisha

An endearing comedy about a roma gypsy named Hekuran who lives on a gypsy camp in Albania during the reign of the 1970’s communist government, he names his ninth child Mao-ce-dun, at first he is met with anger by the party as it is not a conventional Albanian name, but after he writes to the Chinese embassy, they show an interest and the party, eager to maintain a good relationship with China, award Hekuran with luxuries he has never before experienced. He learns to manipulate the party, but takes a greater interest in communism as the film develops, it is never clear whether he is manipulating the party for his own means, or he has just misunderstood the way communism works and merely wants to be a functioning member of communist society. By bringing his family into the world of politics, he puts himself and the security of his gypsy community in danger. Not just a critique of communism but also of hypocrisy and international political relations in general. The simple characters are easy to love, and their uncertain future weighs heavy on the mind of the audience, but the ending is unremarkable, unskilfully portrayed and would have benefited from a different pace of editing, or perhaps a different final scene.


Adrift in Tokyo – Miki Satoshi

Adrift in Tokyo is a heart warming comic drama about luck, a common theme in Japanese cinema, but interesting nonetheless. The film’s protagonist Takemura is a law student with a debt to pay off, a debt collector named Fukuhara who visits his house and threatens him, offers him a way out, all he has to do is walk the streets with him. The untrusting relationship changes as the two learn more about each other, it has the feel of a road movie, with the friendship developing between the two men, with the underlying theme of luck shaping their futures, Fukuhara lost his child and Takemura was abandoned by his parents as a child, they end up posing as Father and son and gradually Takemura realises his luck is changing. This sentimental and somewhat obvious male-bonding plot is held aloft by hilarious secondary characters, unlikely comic scenarios and the beautiful cinematography that captures the full range of Tokyo’s landscape and atmosphere. Uplifting, thought provoking and at times very amusing.


The Daisy Chain – Aisling Walsh

Female directors are too rare, particularly those willing to approach the horror genre. Walsh uses the beautiful Western Irish coast to create a bleak atmosphere of isolation and vulnerability. The plot is somewhat obvious, a young couple move away from the bright lights of London to raise a family, the wife is pregnant, and the husband has inherited his childhood home in Ireland, but the neighbour’s child Daisy is suspected of being a fairy changeling, born in a fairy ring on Halloween. The Neighbour’s son is killed under mysterious circumstances and the parents are soon to follow, the child is then adopted by the London couple, the motivation for this aspect of the plot is addressed but remains unconvincing. The superstitious locals become increasingly scared of young Daisy. The film lacks originality but has some redeeming qualities, the child actress Mhairi Anderson who plays Daisy is exceptional, providing a genuinely disturbing performance, the cinematography and score combine to give the film a unique character that is tense and engaging. The theme of fairies and the supernatural remains frustratingly unresolved, it is never made clear whether the girl suffers from autism, is very disturbed or is really a fairy changeling, a question left unanswered deliberately by the director, but in a clumsy way, that doesn’t encourage the audience to feel sympathy for the girl, who is properly identified neither as victim nor as aggressor. Despite the flaws The Daisy Chain, a combination of Straw Dogs and the Wicker Man, is a visually appealing and at times moving addition to the horror genre.

Fine, Totally Fine – Yosuke Fujita


This is a delicate Japanese comedy about how life can be disappointing, it features three main characters approaching 30, none of whom are satisfied with their lives. A nervous, shy girl with an unusual affection for fish sausages who aspires to be an artist but is too clumsy to hold down a job, a hospital manager who never confronts anybody and commands no respect because he is always trying to be nice out of fear that people won’t like him and the most compelling and amusing of all Teruo an obtuse, sadistic but dim-witted part time park keeper who likes scaring kids and dreams of one day building a super-ultra-haunted-house-deluxe, which will literally scare people to death. There is a brief sub-plot where the two men compete for the affections of the girl, but this is never resolved as she finds love with another man. None of their dreams are realised, and there are no scenes where emotional or hopes are addressed, or aspirations resolved. This is not a fantasy film, but a film about fantasy, and it’s stark contrast to reality. The film is charming, set predominantly in a second hand book shop belonging to Teruo’s father, despite the lack of a conventionally satisfying plot resolution; there is a poignant message about the pleasure that can be taken simply by enjoying each other’s company and being thankful for it.

The Tour – Goran Markovic

Based on Markovic’s award winning play of the same name, his anti-war comedy is a film about a group of failing actors living in Belgrade in 1993, depressed and drunk. They embark on a reluctant tour to the frontlines to perform for the Serbian soldiers, but they are constantly manipulated by different forces of the Bosnian war, over the course of the film they perform and socialise with doctors, writers, generals, Serbian soldiers, Croats and Muslims and they come to realise that the different sides are hardly different, the actors feel removed from the whole business of war, but learn that most of the people directly affected feel just as far removed from the horrific events. Markovic’s script is a fine example of his literary and comic talent, he also unflinchingly recreates the gritty, snow, blood and mud streaked landscape of former Yugoslavia. The comic addition of a somewhat ridiculous sounding folk score adds to the impression of the ridiculous nature of the war despite the tragic and horrific reality. I found the film a bit long, but the script never failed to entertain, as a script writer, and a storyteller Markovic is a highly experienced and accomplished artist, but he would benefit from fine-tuning his film making skills with attention to pace and structure.

Outlanders - drama about illegal Polish labour in London

could you choose between love and blood?

Outlanders is a very well written film, with the plot falling like a blade aimed directly at the heart of the issue of cheap illegal labour in Britain, without drawing obvious conclusions or shying away from the complicated reality of the phenomenon. The plot focuses around a Pole named Alex who goes to find his brother Jan who moved to London illegally years before, and has become involved in the exploitation of illegal immigrants. The direction features some wonderful obscure shots that help to depict an unseen part of London but the film suffers from a poor script, dodgy sound quality and lack of decent lighting at times. All the elements for an engaging drama are in place, a great plot, good lead actor and a director with an eye that appreciates the appealing nature of the obscure, and can construct atmosphere with impressive skill. But the failings of the film can detract from the plot, when script is barely audible and some scenes so dark that you can barely see the actor's expressions. I spoke to director Dominic Lees and lead actor Jakub Tolak who plays Adam Jasinski.



Dominic: It’s easy to market the film for the polish community in Britain, which is huge, and it’s an opportunity for the UK audience to discover new stars.

Were you very conscious of the different national markets when making the film?

Dominic: No, I didn’t think about it in market terms, it’s a film about brotherhood, but it’s set against the background of East European migration to London and Britain, so the universal story is about the relationship between the younger brother Adam, who is the hero and his older brother Jan who has been here a long time, he came when Poles were having to work illegally, so he’s worked on the black economy and has become a corrupt character. Essentially it’s just a film about brotherhood, but because I lived and studies in Poland and speak Polish, it was natural that the story was going to be about two Polish brothers coming here.

How do you anticipate the film being received in the two countries? I know you said you don’t think about it in market terms…

Dominic: Now it’s going to be really interesting because it’s one of the first films that’s going to be marketed at two sides of the British audience, the cine savvy UK audience who love independent film, they’ll have a natural interest in it, and festivals and so on it’s been getting a good reaction from those kind of audiences and separately there is a marketing effort to get Poles in the UK, I mean there’s what a million people, to be interested in a British film that can reflect their experience. That’s a kind of voyage of discovery, because no one has really done that yet. It may be a whole big new section of the British community that will come into film watching through that, you never know.

Jakub, how did you go about preparing for your role?

Jakub:It was kind of a process, at first I came to London just shooting for one week or more and I really wanted to feel abandoned so I went to the city a couple of times, walking around in the areas I didn’t know, and I wanted to feel totally lonely and I just wanted to feel the city, because I’ve been to London before, but I’ve never travelled just like that, I was always purposefully seeing something. The character comes here knowing nothing about the city so I kind of took the tube and just went somewhere, anywhere, got lost and watched different kinds of people, this was a very good part of it. The second part was a lot of talking, we had rehearsals, and we built up a back story which was pretty huge for this story.I knew what happened, I almost became the guy. I also tried to draw from my own experiences and put them into the character.

How does the atmosphere of London differ from that of Warsaw?

Jakub: In my opinion London is more alive, it has more different cultures, a mixture, it’s a bigger city. You enter London, and you enter London, there’s houses and houses, it’s huge, I can’t have a view of the whole city, it’s impossible for me. Despite the diversity it’s very much a whole, different races and languages, but the city is a whole, with the architecture, you can feel the spirit of the city. I think it’s on purpose, because I know English people really like the symbols of the city, red post boxes etc

How do you feel about the mistreatment of illegal Polish workers?

Jakub:I do have some friends who came here, to work or usually to study. But I didn’t have any experience with illegal workers which would have helped, but I knew that was a problem, and it’s a problem that is everywhere at the moment. In Poland we have people from the East or even the Far East coming to work illegally, I think that’s the normal way of history, usually when the country has better living conditions, people go there, the whole of America was made of illegal immigrants.

And have you any feelings with respect to the vulnerability of those immigrants?

Dominic: One thing the film does with these two brothers is compares their different experiences, because the older brother has already been here for 10 years, working on the black economy, he was really vulnerable and exploited. His back story is really sad and quite tragic and that compares with his younger brother who has turned up here after Poland has joined the EU and all he has to do is flash his passport and they let him in, he can work legally and he can do what he likes. Two completely different experiences of what it is like to come to this country. The older brother is corrupt in his own way and he now exploits workers from outside the EU, who he can get to work for cheap, illegally on construction site, repeating the same exploitation that he himself suffered.

Could you elaborate on the theme of the unseen “dark heart” of London?

Dominic: It builds on what Jakub was saying about the nature of London, it’s a beautiful city, its fabulously multi-cultural, it’s so varied but still has a unified soul to it. We have to be aware that a lot is built on the suffering of very vulnerable people, this film is about the way migrants from outside the EU are very vulnerable, and are ruthlessly exploited, and have no protection whatsoever. Every civilisation does this, from the Egyptians who built the pyramids with slaves and onwards, every civilisation has built itself on other people. That to me is the two sides of a great metropolis.

Jakub: I think netiher of us wanted to criticise the system or preach, just ask some questions about some general situations, some things that are going on, but we don’t want to answer we just want to ask. If people want to think about it they can, otherwise they can just see the movie.

Do you think the film will help to break you into Britain?

Jakub: I wouldn’t expect that, it would be naïve, my motivation to take part was neither money nor fame because it’s an independent movie, I wouldn’t expect that, we all knew that so that would be nice, but I just wanted to do such projects. I’d like to do more in England, as it’s very interesting for me as a pole, everything is new.

What attracted you to the role?

Jakub: I was attracted because it was an adventure, and the story is quite dense, a lot of things going on, interesting scenes, interesting emotions. I would say I treated this as an experimental thing because I was alone here; I purposefully cut contact with my family. Trying to find something more of myself.

Dominic: Jakub is being modest, one thing I’ve really enjoyed about the limited audiences that have seen it so far, people who don’t know the leading actors in this film, they say God! Who is that guy, the leading actor in this film!

Jakub: you didn’t tell me that!

Dominic: Haha! It’s really exciting because they have no preconceptions, this is an actor they haven’t seen, he’s come straight at them from under the radar, Jakub is very well known for his film work and television work in Poland. I was very excited to have him board.

Was the casting a difficult process?

Well I was certain I wanted Polish actors for the main two roles, twenty years ago Jeremy Irons played a Polish construction worker in the film ‘Moonlighting’ that today is absurd. You can’t have a British actor do that. Poland has a wealth of talent, but I needed to find two talented actors who could work English, which narrowed down my choices, in fact when it came down to it, there was only one actor I wanted to play Adam and that was Jakub and one to play his older brother and I was really lucky to get both of them.

You see Adam as being a hero? His role seems to be that of an individual with a difficult decision rather than a hero.

Dominic: when researching for the film, I asked my friends ‘if you knew you’re brother had murdered someone, would you shop them to the police or if they needed your protection would you protect them? And almost every single person said they would protect them. But they’re also thinking ‘I don’t like the fact that I’ll protect him even though I know I must’ that kind of tension is what the whole film is founded on. For me it’s a film of universal themes of brotherhood and morality, but set against very current phenomenon, but it’s not about that phenomenon, it’s opening questions about what it is to love and hate your brother at the same time.

Jakub: Many people ask if it’s a movie about Polish people in London, it’s not, it’s about immigration anywhere, I would like to see it this way. I wouldn’t treat the film as a story about Polish guys, but about brotherhood and immigration in general. The brothers do not represent their country.