(Framing Agnes ● BFI Flare GBTQ London Film Festival ● Wednesday 16 March 2022 00:01 ● 27-03-2022 11:59 pm ● BFI Player Sunday 20 March 2022 20:45 ● BFI Southbank, NFT3 Monday 21 March 2022 18:30) "Framing Agnes" Agnes (Zackary Drucker), the pioneering, pseudonymized transgender woman who participated in Harold Garfinkel’s gender health research at UCLA in the 1960s, has long stood as a figurehead of trans history. In this rigorous cinematic exercise that blends fiction and nonfiction, "Framing Agnes" explores where and how her platform has become a pigeonhole. Framing Agnes endeavors to widen the frame through which trans history is viewed, one that has remained too narrow to capture the multiplicity of experiences eclipsed by Agnes’s. Through a collaborative practice of reimagination, an impressive lineup of trans stars take on vividly rendered, impeccably vintage reenactments, bringing to life groundbreaking artifacts of trans health care. The films signature form-rupturing style radically re-envisions the imposition of the frame on the cultural memory of transness through his communally driven excavation. This reclamation tears away with remarkable precision the myth of isolation as the mode of existence of transgender history-makers, breathing new life into a lineage of collaborators and conspirators who've been forgotten for far too long. Agnes approaches the UCLA Gender Clinic with one very specific goal, to have gender confirmation surgery. To accomplish this task, she produces an impenetrable narrative of self that does not allow for a fluidity or revision of experience. She's in a long-term committed relationship, and works as a secretary. Georgia (Angelica Ross) is a trans woman from the South who's looking for help, from the Church, the military, and now the gender clinic. Due to the racist climate in Los Angeles at the time, she faces constant scrutiny by police and is unable to find a job. Though far from her birth family and community, Georgia is happily married and eager to find new pathways for her future. Barbara (Jen Richards) is located in the heart of a sprawling underground network of trans people in 1950s Los Angeles. As a community ambassador, Barbara is often responsible for educating doctors about the more intricate details of trans life and organizing meet-ups where people share resources about transition. Denny (Silas Howard) is an affable, working class man who finds himself occupying the borderlands between what we might now call butch lesbian and trans man. Uninterested in pursuing surgery, as he doesn’t want to lose access to the lesbian community. Denny is partnered and employed. Henry (Max Wolf Valerio) lives a solitary life, reclusive writer isolated and alienated from the world around him. Denied medical care, unable to get a job because his legal documents don’t match his gender, Henry (Max Wolf Valerio) is experiencing a pervasive hopelessness about his tenuous position in the world. Jimmy (Stephen Ira) is a 15 year old kid who approaches the UCLA Gender Clinic feeling confident about his identity as a boy, even while his parents and doctors continue to tell him otherwise. Jimmy is playful and easy-going, often joking about himself and others throughout the interviews. to tell him otherwise. Jimmy is playful and easy-going, often joking about himself and others. "Framing Agnes" features preeminent trans culture-makers breathing new life into those who redefined gender in the midcentury. In the late 1950s, a woman named Agnes approached the UCLA Gender Clinic seeking gender-affirming surgery. The film wants to disrupt the relationship between authorship and authority. There's no group of people more ubiquitously tied to our current decade’s politics than trans people. TIME’s Transgender Tipping Point in 2014 was just that, the catalyzing moment that brought trans people into the mainstream consciousness in a way we hadn’t been for nearly forty years. The documentary is grounded in a commitment to using experimental and performative methods to put pressure on culture-making moments that impact the trans community, from animating medical technologies to tell a story about the institutional surveillance of gender, to a performative and satirical response to invasive and imagined questions about minoritized identities. "Framing Agnes" is born out of these fundamental beginnings which are rooted in a belief that trans people should remain leaders of the trans movement, and narrators of trans stories. This project is uniquely positioned to address critical questions that are being illuminated by the current spotlight on trans issues. The recent proliferation of stories on transgender rights and figures in popular media has resulted in unprecedented attention on gender non-conforming communities. Presenting one person’s story, rather than a story about a group, is a common storytelling method in medical and media histories of trans people. For example, the 1993 murder of Brandon Teena, as depicted in Kimberley Pierce’s "Boys Don’t Cry" (1999), remains a touchpoint of both news media and Hollywood attention. Trans people are positioned in isolation, untethered from community and family. In reality, trans communities have been navigating and world-building together behind the scenes since before 'trans' was a thing. Isolation is, in fact, a narrative produced and patrolled by medicine and the media. Representation of trans and gender nonconforming communities has changed dramatically in the last decade. "Framing Agnes" emerges as an incisive opportunity to both acknowledge social transformation and remember the formative, often flawed makings of history. Our project is emboldened by a team of artists motivated to blur the lines between fiction and nonfiction, past and present, in pursuit of a more expansive and nuanced future. The film is a labour of love that has relied upon the grit, talent and endurance of so many. We can imagine and enact social change. Indeed, Agnes survived by breaking frames of interpretation and understanding. "Framing Agnes" aims to show us how this may be one of the few arenas where our lives and our histories have been well-documented and linked to the contemporary times in which we find ourselves living, dying, and sometimes thriving. Are we evidence of the sexual revolution’s victory? Or a disconcerting evolution of the tech era? Are we a fundamental threat to heterosexuality? Or glamorous entertainers giving thrills to bored housewives? Examining and upending these narratives, as "Framing Agnes" aims to do, will illuminate not only how media narratives about trans people have changed over time, but also how the concerns of an era are read onto the bodies of some of the most marginalized in society without their consent. The film becomes an important object of study for those interested in popular culture, media studies, and the history of race, class, and gender. There’s extraordinary value in imperfect histories. They help us recognize where we're now and imagine new possibilities for our future. As society wrestles with the legacy of histories told and buried, "Framing Agnes" offers something urgently relevant to help us move differently towards a more equitable future. Written by Gregory Mann

(Watch Compartment No. 6 Online ● Curzon Home Cinema ● Available 1st April ● Curzon Acquires Compartment No.6. Winner of Cannes' 2021 Grand Prix) "Compartment No. 6" The film is based on Rosa Liksom's novel, first published in 2010. It's an interesting story, but it’s a book. So the story spreads in many different directions, and for a film adaptation, that creates the question; which direction to take? The final film is more inspired by, rather than based on Rosa Liksom’s novel. The script changes the route, the decade and with that, the country changed from the Soviet Union to Russia. The film changes the age of the male character and his name from Vadim to Ljoha (Yuriy Borisov), The film begins with romance, including it's challenges and failings. But then moves in a completely different direction. In a way, the film starts when Laura (Seidi Haarla) steps on the train, but the film shows the complicate situation that she's escaping from. It's not about a narrative turn, it’s more about contrast. In the beginning she's disconnected, in the end she's connected. Basically in the beginning she would like to be like Irina (Dinara Drukunova), intellectual, a Muscovite. The hero takes a long train ride to visit some ancient petroglyphs. She quotes a man she meets! To know yourself, you need to know your past. She would like to be an archaeologist who gets fulfilment out of these kind of things, petroglyphs and such. But is she really that person? Or is this just a stolen dream from a person she would like to be. Petroglyphs are enduring marks from the past. Laura thinks that by seeing them she could make contact with something permanent. In a life that's nothing but a series of vanishing moments, she thinks this could make her feel good. But petroglyphs are just cold stones, you can’t really feel any connection through them. All we've is those fleeting moments, everything that matters is temporary. If we chase something eternal, we might lose what we've now. On the other hand, petroglyphs also represent a fear of death. We don’t want just to vanish forever, we want to be remembered. People make crazy statues and carvings to leave a mark on the world as proof that they existed. On the train she meets Ljoha, an annoying Russian miner who follows her like a shadow. She wants to know her past, and Ljoha is the embodiment of it. It’s unpleasant and banal, but it's what it's. Laura and Ljoha share something deeper than a sexual need. They're more like long-lost siblings. We like to think that they share the same unspoken feelings. It’s more like having the same kind of childhood than same idea of politics or whatever. And during this trip she realizes that she's actually more like Ljoha. Incorrect, clumsy, and lonely. They're connected on an emotional level, but not by sharing cultural touchstones. Laura’s journey speaks to a more universal, all-encompassing kind of love. What Laura and Ljoha experience during this journey, will also leave a deep mark in both of them. The film is interested in that hidden ground that lies behind our public persona. At the climax of the film these characters are free from these adult roles, they're like kids again. Encounters with the Other is absolutely one of the main subjects at the heart of this film. Who or even what is he? He's the Other, but he's also a mirror to Laura’s own image that she tries to avoid. The story is equally about the encounter with the Other and diving into your own inner self and attempting to understand and accept who you're. These are not two mutually exclusive themes, because when you meet someone new, there's the opportunity to re-start, to pretend to be something that you would like to be. Or a chance to open up, to learn something new about yourself. There's a certain kind of comfort in strangers. Depending on their gaze and presence of the Other, you either start to pretend or you might let go and finally just be yourself. We feel that, or parts of the world, are losing track of as a society. We're losing track on many levels, and this is one of those. This idea of meeting the Other and resigning our own pre-determined ideas we've about each other is definitely one key to a better world. It’s no wonder that the theories of the Other started to interest the world after the catastrophe of WW2 when we were also so strongly divided. The time when we encounter the Other is the time when we become most ourselves. "Compartment No. 6" is an arctic road movie, perhaps it could be seen as a clumsy attempt to find harmony and peace of mind in a world of chaos and anxiety. The core of the story lies in the notion of acceptance. It’s a hard duty to accept that you're part of this chaotic world, and that you exist as you do. Road movies are often about freedom. In a car you can go where you want, every crossroad is a possibility. But we tend to think that freedom isn’t an endless number of options but rather, the ability to accept your limitations. A train ride is more like destiny. You can’t decide where to go, you just have to take what it gives you. It’s easier to deal with your personal emotions when there's certain distance. You go towards something strange, something that's only but a glimmer. It stays a mystery for quite a long time, but when you keep going, you start to find something that resonates in your soul. It’s a really unconscious process. When it’s ready, you might understand what's there that keep you going. Nostalgia is the emotional experience, always momentary, always fragile, of having what you lost or never had, of seeing people you missed seeing, of sipping coffee in the storied cafés that are now hot- yoga studios. It’s the feeling that overcomes you when some minor vanished beauty of the world is momentarily restored. The film also establishes a different kind of on-screen couple. Audiences are overly conditioned to expect on-screen romance, or some kind of sexual tension. Romantic love stories are often too narrow, do they fall in love? This kind of storytelling is more about abusing the viewers voyeurism, it sells tickets, but is it really interesting. The film is more interested in those complicated feelings behind different kinds of relationships, We've to understand why we feel like we do. If it involves sex, fine, but that’s not the place to set the camera. It’s the darkness, the coldness of this part of the world. We don’t know. But there are the same dark souls everywhere in the world, and they like to laugh as well. Written by Gregory Mann

(Showtimes London Wed 11 May Thu.12 May Fri.13 May Sat 14 May Sun 15 May Mon 16 May Tue 17 May, Ritzy Cinema and Cafe, 5,2 km·Brixton Oval, Coldharbour Lane, LONDON SW2 1JG, United Kingdom, 19:00) "Vortex" The story of the film is very commonplace, it’s just something that happens quite naturally for people aged 80 and over that their children must manage. And these situations are so heavy day-to-day that most of those over 50 carry them like individual curses that they’re almost ashamed to talk about. The film emphasizes the shared loneliness of the father (Dario Argento) and the mother (Françoise Lebron). We realize that when one of the characters leave the frame, leaving us alone with the other, we really want to continue to see what he or she's at the same time. Reality is the sum of the perceptions of those who make it. And since there’s nothing more boring in cinema than this artificial tv movie language that almost everyone uses. Guy (Alex Lutz) is interested and deeply moved by time. He turns around and tries to move forward. We've the impression that he moves in different worlds, he has rather the image of a comedian. He only thinks about making unique objects, which don’t resemble each other. The character was into drugs or if he had given up. He had taken himself in hand, that he worked in some organization. We suggest that the character get some help from a social worker (Laurent Aknim), that he worked in editing to have a schedule that allowed him to get high. He’s into drugs without being into drugs, it’s the eternal problem of the addict who knows very well that; that’s what he’ll be all his life. In the script he's.closer to his mother, while he has had fights with his father in the past, a father who has had to scour police stations and clinics for his son. Old age involves very complex survival issues. People who suffer from Alzheimer’s often have problems with speech and don’t always respond when they’re spoken to. It generates overwhelming situations in which those who've protected you most revert in turn to their childhood. It's a film with an extremely simple narrative, with one person in a state of mental deterioration losing the use of language, and her son who has not yet mastered it, as two extremes of this brief experience that's human life. It feels like we’re following two tunnels that evolve in parallel but never meet, two characters irrevocably separated by their paths in life and by the image. The camera language is a bit complex, and, as usual. "Vortex" describes a very common situation, which most people are or will become familiar with; it’s the toughest. The film scared people, turn them on, make them cry, in life as at the cinema. Tears really do have a sedative effect when they come into contact with the membranes of the eyelids, which makes them one of the most pleasurable substances there's. It’s a provocative, violent film. Gaspar Noe is the son of a painter, and he works like a painter, he prepares his frame like a painting. He’s very meticulous with the composition of the image. Still, he's seen as a provocative director, with scenes that venture very deep into violence or sex. It's also a very radical, desperate film, in any case not very Manichean. It’s just the story of a genetically programmed disintegration, when the whole house of cards collapses. The film probably refers to the emptiness that surrounds us and in which we float. The mess you've left behind. That’s death, the objects of a life you leave to others and that disappear in a garbage truck as quickly as memories that rot along with the brain. In any case, since the hand of destiny gives us some joyful extra time, We've also been told that it recalls 'Enter the Void' in the sense that it's subject is the great emptiness that's life and not death. We feel that we're more serene with these two concepts we call life and death. In addition, the convalescence that's imposed on us, followed by this fabulous collective experience of confinement linked to a virus, allows us to spend time discovering the greatest melodramas of Mizoguchi, Naruse and the unjustly forgotten Kinoshita, whose melancholy, cruelty and aesthetic inventiveness reminded us what truly great cinema could be. Culture is one of the last sanctuaries where it's a duty not to be afraid. To paraphrase Pasolini, what we do is more important than what we say. Written by Gregory Mann

Last Friday evening, the cast and crew of Marvel Studios’ Ms. Marvel gathered for a virtual press conference less than a week before the series’ debut. Notable moments discussed the process of adapting such a popular comic character to live-action and the changes necessary to integrate her into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), as well as some of the stars’ backgrounds in Marvel fandom long before being cast in the series. MS. MARVEL CREATOR ON ADAPTING THE CHARACTER TO LIVE-ACTION Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan in Marvel Studios' MS. MARVEL, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved. During Friday’s press conference, Bisha K. Ali (Head Writer and Executive Producer) spoke about adapting Kamala to the small screen and working alongside Sana Amanat (creator of the Ms. Marvel character) to produce and write the series: “[Kamala is] live-action in the first instance. I think it was an incredible process, and the thing that felt like such a gift is the fact that Sana was involved in this project from the go, and having Sana around really felt like, ‘OK. There are borderlines and things we can do in how to stay true to the character in the comics on the pages and still add something new, add a freshness, add a vitality and a contemporary edge to what we’re going to see onscreen.’” THE "GROUP DECISION" BEHIND MS. MARVEL'S POWER CHANGE Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan in Marvel Studios' MS. MARVEL, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved. A note of dialogue among many fans since the very first look at the series was Ms. Marvel’s altered powers, appearing to differ from her Inhuman powers in the comics. Many theories were proposed as to the purpose of this, but Bisha went on to resolve the questioning among fans and explained the reasoning behind the deviation in Ms. Marvel’s powers for the series, noting the “group decision” to better fit Kamala into the MCU: “That was really a group decision talking through how she’s going to exist in the MCU, how she’s going to fit into this web of storytelling that Marvel Studios has done in live-action over the last decade and putting all those pieces together while staying true to this beautiful, incredible character that Sana had created over on the publishing side.” As Bisha explained, the change in powers appears to be a decision made to better gear her for a future in Marvel’s storytelling, and it may be important to note her upcoming appearance in next year’s The Marvels, a crossover movie between Kamala, Captain Marvel, and Monica Rambeau, all of which have “energy-based” powers in the MCU. I believe the writers have an opportunity to use this connection to their advantage, as Kamala is famously a huge fan of Captain Marvel, and acquiring similar powers to her hero may feed into her growth. RISH SHAH HID HIS MARVEL FIGURES TO AVOID ALARMING MS. MARVEL CREATOR Rish Shah as Kamran in Marvel Studios' MS. MARVEL, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved. Having been asked about his reaction to receiving the call that he got the role, Rish Shah (Kamran actor), after being nudged by Sana, revealed he was in his kitchen, surrounded by the Funko pops he had been collecting for years and was worried his fanaticism would shock Sana: “Oh my god, all my Funko pops [LAUGH] that I've been collecting and arranged in my mom's kitchen in, like, a specific, you know, all the battle sequences over the years.” Rish divulged. “Yeah, I was worried I was gonna freak Sana out” Sana then revealed that Rish was so anxious from the call that he actually hid some of his Funko pops from her: “He hid some of them.” Sana joked. “He's like, “Yeah, but there's, like, more behind my computer. I just felt embarrassed.” [LAUGH]” Rish then revealed his life-long connection with Marvel and how that informed his decision to audition for the role of Kamran, as well as his reaction to finding out he got the part: “Yeah, so obviously I was freakin' out,” Rish recollected. “I mean the first toy I ever received from my dad was an Incredible Hulk action figure. You know, so it really was something, yeah, like all of us have grown up with. So, to be able to play Kamran, I immediately… When I was at university, I used to go to the comic shop called Forbidden Planet in London and I'd see the comics. And when I found out this was happening, I begged to get into the room, and so yeah, I was basically crying with tears when I found out.” Of course, Rish is not the only cast member who is obsessed with Marvel. Fans will be delighted to know that just as Kamala is engrossed in a room full of Avengers memorabilia, so too is the actress, Iman Vellani. In an interview with the Toronto Sun, Iman went into depth about growing up with the MCU, and the obligations of being a fan: “I grew up with the MCU, but when I was in seventh grade, something clicked,” Iman said. “Marvel fandom is demanding. We’re 34 projects in, and you need to keep up with everything. There’s the subreddits, the fan forums, fanfic, cosplay, and fan art. Then there’s breaking down the trailers, frame-by-frame, and breaking down the posters, inch-by-inch. That’s how I grew up and that’s how obsessive I was over Marvel.” THE POSSIBILITY OF A FUTURE AVENGERS CONVENTION Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan in Marvel Studios' MS. MARVEL, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved. After being asked by an audience member whether Marvel would consider hosting a convention in the near future, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige confirmed that the filming of the Avenger-Con event in the series actually inspired Marvel to seriously consider a real-life Marvel convention, speaking to how crew from Spider-Man: No Way Home (which was filming next door) would sneak over to see Ms. Marvel’s Avengers Convention: “We were definitely talking about that on the set. We shot that right, you know, in the middle of COVID protocol, so there hadn't been a convention for a very long time. And it was very cathartic for all of us to see that. And we were shooting Spider-Man: No Way Home on the stage right next door, believe it or not. Actually, the scene with the three Spideys,” Kevin recalled. “And a lot of that crew kept sneaking over to see, and attend Avenger Con, walking around. So, I think that might be fun to do it sometime,” Beyond the crew, a special guest from the Spider-Man set took a keen interest in Ms. Marvel’s convention: “Tom Holland came back to come and see Avenger Con,” Adil El Arbi (Series Director and Executive Producer) said. Will we get any version of this convention soon? Kevin revealed that fans may soon be able to get a taste of the convention Kamala attends in the show: “There might be a few places you can go and visit the Ms. Marvel version of Avenger Con,” Kevin teased. I strongly suspect that Kevin is referring to an upcoming addition to Disneyland’s Avengers Campus in the near future, considering how promptly the attraction has been integrating material from Marvel Studios’ most recent releases, including Disney+ releases such as Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Moon Knight. In fact, Sana let slip that she believes some of the show’s props will circulate among the Disney campuses: “Some of our props, I think are going to be circulating, I think on the Disney campuses” From all accounts, it sounds like everyone involved in the series, both cast and crew, are huge fans of Marvel, as well as the Ms. Marvel comic series in particular. From casting a real-life Kamala Khan, to bringing in the creator of the character as a writer and producer, it sounds like Marvel Studios endeavours to make this series faithful in spirit to the source material. Adil echoes these sentiments, stating: “[Viewers] can see the show, fall in love with Kamala Khan with her friends and her family. Because you know, she has superpowers, but her real powers are the love and the care from the friends and the family. So, this magnificent cast here that brought these characters to life, that's the real main reason to watch the show. And I hope, you know, it's gonna be their family, the same way that we all became family.” Ms. Marvel is available weekly on Disney+, starting Wednesday, June 8th.

(Genesis Cinema, 93-95 Mile End Road, Tue 19th Jul @ 18:30) (London, Curzon Soho, 99 Shaftesbury Avenue, Thu 21st Jul @ 18:00) "She Will" "She Will" is a psychological horror about ageing actress, Veronica Ghent (Alice Krige), who travels to a remote retreat in Scotland with her nurse, Desi Hatoum (Kota Eberhardt), to recuperate from an operation. Once she's there, she discovers the dark history of the land and in doing so unravels her own past with vengeful consequences. The film explores the story of Veronica Ghent who after a double mastectomy, goes to a healing retreat in rural Scotland with her young nurse Desi. Her intention is to recover from the operation, but once there she discovers that in order to heal completely, it's also necessary for her to psychologically meditate on her existence and certain traumas from her past. Veronica establishes a special bond with a young nurse named Desi, and together they discover mysterious forces related to dreams. She discovers that the process of such surgery opens up questions about her very existence, leading her to start to question and confront past traumas. The two develop an unlikely bond as mysterious forces give Veronica the power to enact revenge within her dreams. The stay in a secluded spa full of eccentric characters turns into a nightmare for ex-acting star Veronica when mysterious forces take possession of her. With what aim though? "She Will" is a psychological horror about a woman’s expunging of her trauma through dreams. It’s about revenge, the power of nature, the unconscious, the way we carry within us the muscle memory of all those who came before and all those who will come after. The story has themes we've always been interested in within our practice and within our life. How trauma blurs our experience of reality and time, how nature holds so much solace, how we carry a psychological DNA, how the infinitely small, like a cell, contains the same patterns as the universe. How meaning and perspective and reality and time are all such fragile constructs that can break at any time. The genre of psychological horror seems to allow more artistic freedom than drama. It also at it's heart fittingly captures those existential feelings. It’s the type of project that’s always seemed to have a will and life of it's own. It's amazing to see the different characters that congregated in the story. It seemed to attract a specific type of wandering soul who's interested, not necessarily in the occult, but more in the boundaries or the frontiers of where reality lies; the edge, just beyond what's visible. The process is simultaneously like being pulled face down behind a truck and also like dancing on the moon. Both those extremes every day. Love and war. Everyone united in this incredible sense of purpose and camaraderie. Like a journey together into the unconscious, for the viewers and the makers. And it's magic in both cases because it’s so unusual to dream together..There’s so much faith involved it feels a little mystical. And the spirits of women past are thanked in the credits as perhaps they're the ones to whisper this dream or nightmare to us. Written by Gregory Mann

(Release Info London schedule; November 19th, 2018, Curzon Bloomsbury, 21:00) "Shoplifters" Conflicting emotions and family ties lie at the heart of an exquisite drama. Shibata Osamu (Lily Franky) is the head of an impoverished family of thieves and fraudsters. Three generations are cramped into a dilapidated house stuck between anonymous apartment blocks. His wife, Naboyo (Ando Sakura), works in a laundry and steals whatever she can from clothes pockets. Young son Shota (Jyo Kairi) accompanies dad on shoplifting expeditions. Teenage daughter Aki (Matsuoka Mayu) works behind a mirror in a sleazy peep-show joint. Grandma Hatsue (Kiki Kiliu) is addicted to pachinko gambling machies. After one of their shoplifting sessions, Osamu and his son come across a little girl in the freezing cold. Yuri (Sasuki Miyu) is a neglected and frightened 4-year-old girl rescued from the street and informally adopted by the family. At first reluctant to shelter the girl, Osamu’s wife agrees to take care of her after learning of the hardships she faces. Everyone's happy, especially Yuri, but she's still a missing person and someone else's daughter. When authorities eventually come calling, Yuri's given a disguise and a new name, but this is far from the end of the matter. Although the family is poor, barely making enough money to survive through petty crime, they seem to live happily together until an unforeseen incident reveals hidden secrets, testing the bonds that unite them. When the young son is arrested, secrets are exposed that upend their tenuous, below-the-radar existence and test their quietly radical belief that it's love-not blood-that defines a family.   This is a family of misfits living in the margins of contemporary Tokyo. Making a life for themselves by shoplifting from local grocery stores and foraging food where they can, the film’s central family find their impoverished but tranquil life threatened when they take a young girl under their wing, and her abusive parents fight back for custody. On the margins of Tokyo, a dysfunctional band of outsiders are united by fierce loyalty, a penchant for petty theft and playful grifting. It's about incidents of families illegally receiving the pensions of parents who had already died years ago. The film depicts a family from a different angle. It's the story of what family means, a story about a man trying to be a father, and furthermore, a coming-of-age story of a boy. The impoverished family in the film reminds us of "Nobody Knows". "Shoplifters" might be similar to "Nobody Knows" in the sense that this film also explores closely the sort of punished families we regularly see in news reports. The film describes a poor family, or the lower levels of the social. The family in the film ended up gathering in that house not to collapse there. Shine a light on such a family from a different angle. The later scenes showing the family being split up are heartbreaking. We haven't seen such anger at social injustice shown so nakedly in Koreda's recent films. Maybe not since "Nobody Knows". The core emotion might have been anger. Since "Still Walking", Koreda dugs desperately deeper and more narrowly into the motif of personal things and after finishing "After The Storm", he puts the end to this approach of not broadening his vision to society, of minimizing as much as possible. The result is a kind of fable; poetry within reality. The music captures the fantasy side of the story. Only the crimes tied us together. In Japan, crimes like pension frauds and parents making their children shoplift are criticized severely. Of course, these criminals should be criticized but why people get so angry over such minor infractions even though there are many lawbreakers out there committing far more serious crimes without condemnation. Especially after the 2011 earthquakes, we didn't feel comfortable with people saying repeatedly that a family bond is important. The film explores it by depicting a family linked by crime. The theme of this bond is central and other elements are added to it. The film highlights sharp social and economic divisions in contemporary Japan while asking the question of what makes a family.

(Release Info London schedule; December 9th, 2018, Electric Cinema, 10:00) "Lizzie" "Lizzie" is a psychological thriller based on the infamous 1892 axe murder of 'The Borden Family' in 'Fall River', Massachusetts. The film explores Lizzie Borden’s (Chloë Sevigny) life, focusing on the period leading up to the murders and their immediate aftermath, and reveals many layers of the strange, fragile woman who stood accused of the brutal crime. As an unmarried woman of 32, and a social outcast, Lizzie lives a claustrophobic life under her father’s Andrew (Jamey Sheridan) cold and domineering control. When Bridget Sullivan (Kristen Stewart), a young maid, comes to work for the family, Lizzie finds a sympathetic, kindred spirit, and a chance intimacy that blossoms into a wicked plan, and a dark, unsettling end. This film is about America’s 115 year old classic unsolved crime. The what's a given. The who and the how badger our brains for a solution. Well, for some anyway. It's less a who-dunnit than a how-dunnit. The scene of Lizzie Borden's trial for the murders of her father and stepmother was a spectacle unparalleled by any previous American murder case. Reporters from all over 'The United States' flocked to 'Fall River', Massachusetts, to witness the best show in the country. Local reporters fortunate enough to have found employment in Bristol County sent exclusives to papers around the world. Well known columnists arrived with their entourages and took up conspicuous seats in the courtroom. Suddenly a mill town which had been of interest only in their newspaper's business sections became universally known through extended front page exposure. Similarly, a woman whose typicality was her most distinctive feature became notorious, and her trial, a cause crlbre. For 'Fall River' and most of America, the murders became emblematic of the perils of foreign immigration, social disorder, or feminine transgression. In contrast, feminists used the trial to call for a truly representative jury system which would enable women like Lizzie Borden to be tried by a jury of their peer. Over one hundred years later, the enduring popular fascination with 'The Borden' mystery and it's central enigmatic character convened a second inquest. Rather than looking for answers in a detailed analysis of the social context, the film invents fictitious characters or invest historical actors with new characteristics and imagined psychologicalor even neurological states. Indeed, the implications of Lizzie Borden's guilt remain sufficiently disturbing decades after the crime that even authors who believe she committed the murders nonetheless feel compelled to provide medical explanations for her guilt and her ultimate irresponsibility. Regardless of whether they embrace or eschew such scientific, rational explanations, all commentators seeking the definitive solution share the dilemma of Borden's contemporaries: reconciling the public image of the exemplary Miss Lizzie with their vision of a murderess. Unfortunately, they also respond by uncritically replicating nineteenth-century class and gender norms in their own representations of Borden. Instead of placing Lizzie Borden and the murders of her father and stepmother in the context of their lives in 'Fall River', the film describes the case against a generalized backdrop of dislocated and dehistoricized social experience. Lizzie Borden is a dark spark of inspiration in our attempts to terrify one another. The film explores the backstory to understand her in both a historical and psychological context, to explore the framework of her potential motivation, and, if she did in fact commit these murders, to question how such dangerous impulses might begin to manifest in someone. She was a sociopath. She was a broken soul forced to do what was necessary. The film brings the audience very close to Lizzie and her life, to put them in the room with her so that their assessment of her circumstances would feel almost first person rather than removed and dispassionate. To that end the film places an emphasis on Lizzie’s everyday routine, and the stillness and claustrophobia of her home, allowing the narrative to unfold with measured restraint and an escalating sense of dread. As a result, there's an intentional awareness of the camera that, at times, lingers in uninterrupted takes allowing the viewer's eyes to wander within the frame, observing details that might otherwise go unnoticed; encouraging introspection and the uncomfortable feeling that you’re invading the character's privacy. It's in the subtle, menacing, manipulation of the ordinary that our truest fears are revealed, when the circumstances, though awful, are grounded in realism.