Glasgow Film Festival 2020

The Head Scratcher Recommends

26th Feb - 8th March

Glasgow’s Film Festival is a mere 15 years old (compared to Edinburgh Film Festival’s upcoming 74 years) but it has quickly become one of the UK’s most important film festivals screening a diverse selection of modern and classic films. This year’s program is typically massive and for many, figuring out what to see could be quite daunting. To try and make that a little bit easier we’ve picked 10 films that we think are worth checking out.

#GFF20

Valley of Souls (Tantas Almas)

Sat 28th Feb @ 5.45pm / Sun 1st Mar @ 12.30pm

Cineworld

Valley of Souls, set during the Colombian Civil War, follows Jose, a simple fisherman returning home from a long night’s work to discover his village destroyed and his two sons murdered, their lifeless bodies discarded in the river by AUC paramilitaries. Heartbroken, Jose sets out on an arduous quest to recover his sons’ bodies and give them the proper burial they deserve.

Contemplative and beautifully shot, Nicolas Rincon Gille’s debut fiction feature is a visceral and thoughtful reflection on the torturous cruelty of mankind and the hopelessness of war.

Train to Busan

Sun 1st Mar @ 7.30pm

Argyle St Arches

Divorced fund manager Seok-woo and his estranged daughter Su-an catch the train from Seoul to Busan just as a viral outbreak begins to turn people into ravenous, murderous zombies. Seok-woo, Su-an and the rest of the passengers aboard the train must battle their way through the zombie hordes to safety.

With loads of great action set pieces Train to Busan is tense, violent, tender and sometimes even quite funny. It’s not perfect but it’s surely destined to be a future cult classic.

Train to Busan previously made our list of “5 Horror Films You May Not Have Heard Of Which Are Absolutely Worth Your Time (and one that's not)” so make sure you check out that list for some more horror recommendations.

The Twentieth Century

Sun 1st Mar @ 8.45pm / Mon 2nd Mar @ 1pm

CCA Theatre

The Twentieth Century is a faux biopic charting the rise to power of the real-life Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King who was in power from the 1920s to the 1940s. Beginning in 1899 with an ambitious young King declaring he was born to be Prime Minister, it’s a surreal and hilarious farce shot in an intriguing retro visual style, evoking the classic era of Hollywood films and mocking the early 20th century’s high society.

Full of madcap characters, political insanity and a rather unusually fetish for ladies footwear… The Twentieth Century is frankly unmissable.

Millennium Actress

Mon 2nd Mar @ 9.00pm / Tue 3rd Mar @ 1.45pm

GFT 1

Millennium Actress will turn 20 years old in 2021 and ahead of this milestone it’s set to hit theatres with a gorgeous new 4K restoration. In this ambitious Japanese animation, a film crew sit down with a legendary actress to unpack her entire career spanning three decades. As the interview progresses they literally enter her consciousness, living through her memories as they unfold.

A winner of countless awards since its release, Millenium Actress is absolutely essential viewing for fans of anime and everyone else too.

Les Miserables

Tue 3rd Mar @ 8.45pm / Wed 4th Mar @ 1.30pm

GFT 1

A Cannes Film Festival winner and 2020 Oscar nominee, Les Miserables is a pulsating piece of French cinema set in the gritty Parisian suburbs amid a period of extreme racial and ethnic tension. The film is inspired by the real-life police brutality personally witnessed by Director Ladj Ly and centres on the extreme practices of a group of officers as they work their beat.

It’s an Amazon Original, so worth checking out if you’re a subscriber, but if you want a chance to see it on the big screen, this is it.

Ghost Master (Gosuto Masuta)

Tue 3rd Mar @ 9.15pm / Wed 4th Mar @ 1.45pm

CCA Cinema

Much like the recent, and brilliant, One Cut of the Dead (check out our review here) Ghost Master is another delicious slice of uniquely comic and horrific Japanese genre cinema. Riffing on classics such as The Evil Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a production crew, filming a romantic drama, are systematically and brutally murdered after a demon possesses the film’s star.

Ghost Master is funny, clever and delivers the goods with bucket loads of blood and gore.

Children of Men

Thu 5th Mar @ 10.30am

GFT 1

Part of #GFF20’s sci-fi retrospective, also screening classics like Brazil, Total Recall and Planet of the Apes for free (yes, for free), Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men is hands down one of the best science fiction films of the 21st century.

In a near-future where humanity can no longer breed, a former political activist is tasked with protecting a young woman amid the chaos of a crumbling and violent world.

Full of unexpected twists and turns, heart-stopping action sequences and with a pulsating story (set in a broken world that seems much too close for comfort) Children of Men is not to be missed.

Deerskin (Le Daim)

Fri 6th Mar @ 6.30pm / Sat 7th Mar @ 2.45pm

Cineworld

Fancy watching a film about a guy who buys a ridiculously expensive Deerskin coat? Well, then this one is for you! But this isn’t just a film about a coat, it’s a film about a man showing off his coat…but not just that, he’s also now a filmmaker after getting a camera free with his coat.

Yes, it sounds bland but Deerskin is actually an absolutely bonkers thrill ride, full of awkward laughs and brutal violence.

You’ll never look at a Frenchman in a fancy coat the same way again…

Butt Boy

Sat 7th Mar @ 6.30pm

GFT 1

I imagine the reaction of most men to a prostate exam would be to aspire to never have anything shoved up their bum ever again… However, this is not so for Chip Gutchell whose routine inspection awakens within him a dark obsession to devour anything and everything with his ravenous sphincter. After a young child goes missing, local detective Russell Fox must use his anal powers of deduction to thwart Chip’s behind and throw his butt in jail.

Cleary this film is totally mental and part of the reason it succeeds is that it plays it straight for the entire run-time. Butt Boy is ultra weird, extremely unique and truly special.

Three Summers (Tres Veroes)

Sat 7th Mar @ 6.15pm / Sun 8th Mar @ 1.45pm

GFT 3

A charming Brazilian comedy following the life and experiences of housekeeper Mada over three holiday seasons as she caters to every need and whim of a wealthy family in their luxury holiday home. Mada’s reactions to the problems she faces and just her general attitude and eye for a hustle are what makes this an endearing watch.

The comedy is light and gentle but Three Summers keenly satirises class structures and is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

Enjoy the festival!

Peace.