The Edinburgh International Film Festival is back for its 77th edition and its first under director Paul Ridd. Given the ‘summer’ we’ve had so far, we can’t think of a better way to spend a week in August than in the warm and dry confines of a cinema. We’ve picked out some of our highlights from a programme flush with debut talent, impressive retrospective fare, and premieres from around the world.
IN A VIOLENT NATURE
The Cameo 15th to 21st August
Featured in the returning Midnight Madness series, In a Violent Nature (dir. by Chris Nash) is an indulgently gruesome – and beautifully shot – display of animal vengeance in human form. In the woods of Ontario, a group of campers unwittingly resurrect the corpse of local legend Johnny by pocketing a charmed necklace, and the film very slowly builds tension before the awakened, masked killer hunts them down to get it back. With some memorable gore and interesting sound design, this is a good choice for artsy fans of classic slasher flicks.
THE SUBSTANCE
The Cameo, 20th August and Inspace 21st August
Coralie Fargeat’s Revenge was an explosive and candy-coloured take on the rape revenge genre. She returns with The Substance – a body horror about beauty standards starring Demi Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle, a 50-year-old presenter of an aerobics programme looking for a way to stay relevant in a sexist and ageist industry. Critics seemed divided on this after its Cannes premiere, but it’s an inspired choice to close the festival’s Midnight Madness strand of late-night horror screenings. If Revenge is anything to go by, expect wince-inducing gore and visual bombast.
BIRDEATER
The Cameo 18th August
Elsewhere in the Midnight Madness strand, our interest has been piqued by Jim Weir and Jack Clark’s Birdeater. From classic Ozploitation like Wake in Fright to the documentary Hotel Coolgardie (and its fictionalised remake The Royal Hotel), the Australian outback has proven to be fertile ground for works about curdling, feral masculinities. Birdeater takes this well-worn trope and throws a stag do into the mix – what could go wrong?
GASPAR NOÉ PRESENTS: SUSPIRIA
The Cameo 17th August
With its psychedelic set design and lighting and Goblin’s mind-altering prog soundtrack, Dario Argento’s Suspiria was made to be experienced on a big screen. The influence of Argento’s supernatural giallo can be felt deeply across Gaspar Noé’s work, from its retina-scorching colour palette to its hyper-stylised violence. Noé, who will introduce the screening, even cast Argento in 2021’s Vortex. This is just one of an impressive selection of retrospective screenings at this year’s festival. Fans of Noé can catch the New French Extremity provocateur in conversation earlier in the day as well.
MONGREL
Summerhall 16th and 19th August
Wei Liang Chiang and You Qiao Ying’s Mongrel joins the likes of Complicity and Great Yarmouth in a slew of recent films looking at migrant workers and the industries they often find themselves hired in. In Mongrel’s case it’s Oom, a Thai care worker in Taiwan, whose undocumented status renders him as invisible as the disabled and elderly people he looks after. Elsewhere in the programme, Jack King’s The Ceremony follows migrant construction workers in Yorkshire.
SING SING
Summerhall 17th August
Named after and set in New York’s maximum security prison, Greg Kwedar’s Sing Sing looks at the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts programme that helped change inmates’ lives. Some of the programme’s former participants even star in the film, supporting a lead performance from Colman Domingo. A powerful story about how the arts can provide a transformative outlet in marginalised people’s lives.
ARMAND
50 George Square 20th August and Summerhall, 21st August
In Halfdan Ullmann Tøndell’s Armand, Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World) stars as a woman whose young son is accused of a troubling incident at school. A tense drama which pits family against family against faculty, Armand received the Caméra d’Or at Cannes and will likely go down well with fans of last year’s The Teachers’ Lounge.
