Glasgow Film Festival 2023: The best of the rest of the fest
Here are six other movies from this edition of the Glasgow Film Festival that are well worth keeping an eye out for.
Tropic
It’s twenty years in the future, and twins Tristan (Louis Peres) and Lazaro (Pablo Cobo) are among the many in their class competing for a spot on a decades-long mission to space. When star student Tristan is grievously wounded by a piece of fallen space junk, the relationship between the brothers is tested to breaking point.
Tropic grounds its interstellar scope in a fraternal bond drawn with wrenching intimacy. Inventive, mesmerizing and deeply affecting, it’s a remarkable effort from writer-director Edouard Salier.
Dear Memories
Three years after his Alzheimer’s diagnosis, acclaimed photographer Thomas Hoepker’s wife Christine Kruchen decides to take him on a road trip across the US, to revisit the scene of some of his most iconic pictures, and some old friends.
Taking place over the peak of the Covid pandemic and the election of Joe Biden, Dear Memories serves as a real time capsule of a tumultuous era. More than anything though, the documentary is a characterful, moving tribute to a life well lived.
Safe Place
Following Damir’s (Goran Marcović) unsuccessful suicide attempt, his brother Bruno (Juraj Lerotić) and their mother (Snježana Sinovčić) rush to be by his side. Facing an uncaring Croatian bureaucracy, Damir’s loving family do their very best to keep him alive.
Based on the real life experience of writer-director-star Juraj Lerotić, who is playing himself here, Safe Place is an astonishingly raw, formally adventurous study of grief, as well as a searing indictment of medical callousness. Truly devastating.
Nightsiren
After a long absence, Šarlota (Natalia Germani) is summoned back to her rural mountain home village to collect her inheritance. When she arrives, she discovers a traumatic incident from her past may have turned out differently than she’d thought, and the fall-out will change everything for both her and the village.
Eerie and sensual, Nightsiren – from Slovak writer-director Tereza Nvotová – is an unforgettably bewitching (pun very much intended!) feminist folk tale.
Victim
Igor (Gleb Kuchuk), son of Ukrainian immigrant Irina (Vita Smachelyuk), is hospitalised after an incident in their Czech apartment block – thanks to local prejudices, and confirmation from Igor, the blame is swiftly placed at the feet of the local Roma population. When Igor admits it was an accident, Irina finds herself caught in a lie spiralling dangerously out of control.
Taut and gripping, Michal Blaško’s tale of discrimination run amok inspiring an unstoppable mob feels unnervingly timely. Vita Smachelyuk delivers an engrossing, nuanced turn as the film’s tormented anti-heroine.
The Civil Dead
Clay (Clay Tatum) is surprised to see his old acquaintance Whit (Whitmer Thomas) turn up out of the blue one day. The two spend a night drinking and reminiscing. The next day however, Whit refuses to leave Clay’s house. It turns out he’s a ghost, and Clay is the only one who can see him. Neither man is sure what to do with this information.
An immensely funny mumblecore buddy ghost comedy (when was the last time you saw one of those?!), with intriguingly melancholic underpinnings, The Civil Dead is an exciting debut from filmmaking team – and real life best friends – Clay Tatum and Whitmer Thomas.
