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)        

Due to technical difficulties at the Vogue Theater, Black ’47 will be played at the Balboa Theater (3630 Balboa Street, San Francisco) on Sunday, February 17 at 7:30 PM.

Irish filmmaker Lance Daly takes on the Great Famine and its worst year, 1847, resulting in a powerful revenge tale the Guardian calls “harrowingly effective.” Australian actor James Frecheville ( “Animal Kingdom”) gives a coldly terrifying performance as an Irishman who deserts from the British army and returns to his homeland to discover the truth about how his family has been tyrannized and allowed to die in squalor and misery. He is pursued by disgraced English soldier-turned-policeman (Hugo Weaving), a drawlingly arrogant officer (Freddie Fox), and a tracker-guide (Stephen Rea from “The Crying Game”). The superb cast is rounded out by Jim Broadbent as an evil absentee landlord. This viscerally tough, insightful film contains lively historical detail concerning the exploitation of Irish Catholics, including a riveting scene showing “Souperism,” wherein evangelical Protestants offered a meal to poor, starving Catholics in exchange for conversion. A huge hit in Ireland, the film benefits from the majesty of cinematographer Declan Quinn’s wide vistas. Irish 2018 (100 minutes)

Called Ireland’s “most maverick moviemaker” by The Irish Times, Director Liam O Mochain’s third feature is an omnibus film, comprising seven interconnecting tales, each inspired by a true story, with the director himself at the center as a likable loser working the Lost & Found at an Irish country rail station. An older man begs for train fare to Dublin. A cranky pub owner with wild ideas keeps refurbishing his unpopular pub. A marriage proposal at an airport goes hideously wrong. On her deathbed, an old woman recalls valuables left behind when fleeing the war, inspiring her grandson into an unlikely treasure hunt. One ambitious “bridezilla” is determined to keep her booking at a wedding venue, even though she no longer has a willing groom…or does she? The breezy vignettes weave these characters and others into and out of each other’s lives bringing deeper meaning and ingenuity to the movie’s title. A truly independent film filled with humor and humanity, this low-key charmer will leave your heart warmed and your spirit lifted. 

Ireland 2017 (92 minutes)

Please observe the film’s new date and time:

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)

Directed by Shekar Kapur, this lush period extravaganza stars Cate Blanchett in the role that announced her as a star as Elizabeth 1 during the early years of her reign. She was a Protestant monarch in a Catholic country, reason enough for the instability surrounding her reign. Conspiracy and intrigue created her steely determination to survive and rule, with betrayal eventually causing her to relinquish the one man she loved, the dashing Joseph Fiennes as Sir Robert Dudley, and become “the Virgin Queen”. Fabulous sets and costumes combined with a stellar cast (including Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Christopher Eccleston and Richard Attenborough) led by Blanchett who enthralls as the passionate young princess adopting the merciless mantle of the Queen of England during a tumultuous period in British history. Rightly garnered 7 Oscar nominations.UK 1998 (124 minutes)

This atmospheric drama set in a glittering Sydney is reminiscent of the Ethan Hawke-Julie Delpy “Before Sunrise” series in portraying two eminently likeable characters who are each willing to risk exploring where a chance encounter will lead them and the effects of fate. As Viv and Jasper, stars Emily Barclay (“The Light Between Oceans”) and Benedict Samuel (the TV series “Gotham”) literally collide in a busy intersection in Sydney, damaging Viv’s cellphone. The accident requires her to delay her return to her fiance in London while her phone is repaired. A contrite Jasper offers her use of his phone and company as the two share a series of adventures that lead them to shed their initial reserve. They happen upon numerous bizarre characters while roaming deeply into Sydney’s nightlife. Australia 2018 (85 minutes)