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Film festival offers hidden gems

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Annual film festival ‘reel’s in’ another fantastic selection of must-see movies, writes Susan Welsh

 

If anyone deserves a pat on the back for a job well done it’s Paul Taylor, festival director of Inverness Film Festival, which runs from next Wednesday, November 5, until Sunday, November 9.

It’s down to sheer determination on his part that the festival, which is now in its 12th year, continues to punch above its weight, attracting an eclectic collection of local, national and international movies.

“Since I took over programming, about four years after it first started, I’ve used a thread of getting films that might never be seen here again, along with previews of films which will be coming to Eden Court later on,” said Paul, 36.

“It can take months of talking, trying to persuade film companies to let us have the films first.”

A quick look at this year’s lineup shows his mixture of charm and tenacity works, as the festival includes 34 films from 21 countries, 17 Scottish premieres, five UK premieres, three award-winning films, two movies with live musical accompaniments, 16 shorts – and a rare appearance by celebrated Scottish singer Edwyn Collins, who lives in Helmsdale.

“Edwyn’s wife, Grace, produced the film The Possibilities Are Endless, which is about the incredible journey Edwyn made after he had a stroke,” said Paul.

The film looks at how Edwyn submerges himself in a landscape of memories as he tries to unlock the story of his past. More than a story of determination against all the odds, it’s an intimate and life-affirming tale of rediscovery. The film will be screened at 5pm on Sunday, November 9, after which Edwyn will take part in a short Q&A before performing a couple of songs with his wife Grace Maxwell.

The opening-night film, a taut and claustrophobic drama set in the 1950s, is The Silent Storm, which was filmed in Mull and stars Damian Lewis, of TV’s Homeland, who plays a fierce minister who lives there with his wife, who is a bit disaffected by island life.

Other premiers include Leviathan Leviafan, The Imitation Game starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Once In Your Lifetime, which is based on the theory that every fisher should come to Scotland at least once to fly fish in the remote hill lochs and famous rivers, and Winter Sleep, winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.

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Once In Your Lifetime

“The Tribe is my pick of the festival. It’s a unique and original film from Ukraine without words or subtitles or translation and is the most exciting and powerful film that you will see all year,” said Paul.

“It’s a true one of a kind, which, after 120 years of cinema, doesn’t happen very often.

“I’m personally excited by some of the smaller films, such as The Tribe, Healing and Victoria, as these are the sort of films that don’t have UK distribution, so otherwise might not be seen in Scotland.

“The films that have won the festival Audience Award in the last couple of years are films that didn’t have UK distribution and wouldn’t be screened in Scotland again, which shows what sort of audience we get coming to the festival. They are interested in seeing different and one-of-a-kind films.

Films with a Highland connection include Peat Reek, which is about an illicit whisky distillery in the 19th-century, filmed in the Highlands, and A Time of Freedom, which is about the Goat Man Festival in Morocco and the characters who inhabit it, directed by Douglas McDowall who works part-time front of house at Eden Court, while the cinema photographer is Michael Webster, one of Eden Court’s resident film-making tutors.

Other highlights include the screening of two silent movies with live music courtesy of Forrester Pyke, who has years of experience providing piano accompaniment for silent films.

“We’ve been screening silent movies for a couple of years, building an audience for them, and have been asked several times to screen a Lon Chaney film,” said Paul.

“So we’re screening The Unknown, which is about a criminal on the run who pretends to be an armless knife thrower in the circus and falls in love with Joan Crawford. It’s a wonderful, dark, gothic film, definitely a spine-tingler.

“The other silent film is The Adventures of Prince Achmed, a German film from the 1920s that’s really beautiful.”

Public demand has also seen the return of a mystery movie.

“We last screened a mystery film in 2007 and got a very good audience. People still speak to me about it now,” said Paul.

“The thing about film festivals is that it offers a chance to discover new things and see ahead of time films that will not be out for months and short films you might never otherwise see.

“With the mystery film, it’s an opportunity to see something new, different and wonderful, but you come to it without knowing anything about it. People will just have to take a shot in the dark and trust that we’re going to show them something fantastic, which we will.”

Contact: Eden Court box office on 01463 234234 or visit www.invernessfilm festival.com or www.eden-court.co.uk