Directed by Carlos Marques-Marcet, this is a romantic comedy with a difference. No home comforts or soft lights, but a cramped London canal boat which offers a delightful visual backdrop and setting for the story. The central lesbian couple who live on the boat face a conflict which challenges their visions for the future. Eva, a salsa teacher, desperately wants to have a child, while Kat, her girlfriend, is not keen. Enter Roger, Kat’s dear Spanish friend, who is enlisted as the sperm donor and unexpectedly for a lothario, warms to the idea of fatherhood. What makes the film so charming is the lively, loving banter between the trio, enlivened by wine and laughter. But the underlying emotional turmoil threatens to end in heartbreak and unravel their free-spirited aspirations. Playing mother and daughter are Geraldine Chaplin and Oona Chaplin—Charlie Chaplin’s daughter and granddaughter.

UK 2017 (113 minutes)

This engrossing coming-of-age thriller was shot in the little leafy town of Pemberton in Western Australia. Teenager Charlie Bucktin, shy and bookish, is drawn into the chaotic world of Jasper Jones, a mixed-race Aboriginal outcast who comes to him for help.  The twists and turns include a dead body, race and class divisions, puppy love and the power of doing the right thing. The young actors, Levi Miller and Aaron McGrath, are convincing and Toni Colette turns in a gutsy, gritty performance as Charlie’s unhappy mother.  Hugo Weaving looms large as the town’s outsider. Set in the late 1960s in the fictional town of Corrigan, the film reminds us of how social mores were rapidly changing, even in remote places. It was adapted from Craig Silvey’s acclaimed young adult novel that’s been called the Australian “To Kill a Mockingbird.’’

Australia, 2017 (101 minutes)

Maxine Peake (appearing in person at Mostly British) kills as they say in the comedy trade, playing the title character with unflinching boldness and grit that absolutely mesmerizes. As a female standup comic trying to make it in the northern working men’s clubs of the 70s, she confronts the unrelenting sexism and violence surrounding working class women in Northern England. Through a collage of flashbacks, we learn how resilience was knocked into her by an abusive father, husband, and broken alcoholic mother. Funny Cow stands a vibrant, firebrand dressed in red with corkscrew blonde hair and bright red lips, using comedy as her lifeline, amid a dreary, harsh, grimy cityscape. She has a fur coat and fancy sports car for comfort but they can’t erase the deep hurt in her soul. This film makes us uncomfortable. We may not laugh but we will think. Remember Archie Rice in The Entertainer – he was “dead behind the eyes”. Funny Cow calls herself “a monster behind the eyes”.  But no, she is just trying to survive and we applaud her for it. Miss Peake and board member Tony Broadbent will introduce the film and participate in a Q & A following the screening.  

2017 UK (92 mins)

GUEST OF HONOR:  MAXINE PEAKE
English actress Maxine Peake will join us at the festival with two of her new films, which she will introduce and participate in a Q & A following the screenings. She stars in “Peterloo,” as the mother of a young British conscript in this story of the infamous 1819 massacre at Peterloo. In “Funny Cow” she plays a female comic attempting in the 1970s to find a place in England’s comedy circuit. The Guardian wrote of her performance “Peake rises magnificently to the challenge of the role, her face flickering between a practical smile and a silent scream.” She is a regular on the Hulu show “The Bisexual” and is known in the UK for lead roles in the TV series “Dinnerladies” and “Shameless.” She has also appeared in “Black Mirror” and the movie “The Theory of Everything.” Her stage work includes the title characters in “Hamlet” and “Miss Julie” and as Blanche in “A Streetcar Named Desire,” a performance The Guardian described as “exquisite” and “breathtaking.”

This South African crime thriller, set in a notoriously dangerous area outside Cape Town, stars Irshaad Ally as Randal, a bitter paraplegic crook desperate to pay off a sadistic loan shark (Danny Ross).  A wonderful Monique Rockman is  Randal’s long-suffering girlfriend. Co-directed by first-time feature director Nosipho Dumisa, the film is cheerfully derivative of Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” emphasizing Randal’s immobility and use of binoculars.  Although focused on lives shaped by chronic poverty, “Number 37” avoids social commentary.  Cinematographer Zenn van Zyl draws richness from the grungy setting, resulting in a film the New York Times calls “crackling with its own lowlife energy.” 

South Africa 2018 (100 minutes)        

Directed by Rohena Gera, this gentle Indian drama focuses on Ratna, a young woman from a poor rural village who works as a live-in maid to a wealthy young man, Ashwin. Both seem lost with dreams that have been thwarted. But this is not a story about the docile, downtrodden Asian woman, although Ratna is quiet and guarded among the sophisticates of the Mumbai elite. Despite the careless disdain from Ashwin’s family and friends, she maintains her dignity and determination to make her own way in life. The film explores these two young people reaching through the stultifying barriers of caste or modern-day social class to the humanity and compassion they share. It is beautiful to watch.

India, France 2018 (96 mins)