Category: GFF24

cinema · DVD & Digital · GFF24 · Interviews

Jericho Ridge Interview: Will Gilbey & Chris Reilly – ‘I’d never worked on an independent film that got so much bang for its buck’.

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After working for years as an editor and a screenwriter, filmmaker Will Gilbey has sat in the director chair for his feature debut Jericho Ridge. An intense survival thriller, the film stars Nikki Amuka-Bird as police deputy Tabby Temple who comes under attack at a remote Sheriff’s office.

Ahead of its UK premiere at Glasgow Film Festival 2024, I sat down with Will Gilbey and supporting actor Chris Reilly to chat about their experience… (Mild spoiler alert towards the end for Slow Horses S3)

You’ve got huge experience in the industry as an editor and a writer. What was it about this script that made you think it was time to direct a feature?

WG – You’re always sort of trying to think when you’re trying to do a film. Your first one out the gate is going to be pretty low budget and you’re just looking for something which you can control. When you’re going to be in one place for as much as possible, you can spend time concentrating on shooting it as well as you can.

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cinema · GFF24

Film review: Opponent

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Writer-director Milad Alami grapples with heavyweight themes in his sophomore feature Opponent. The social-realist style thriller centres around mild-mannered Olympic wrestler Iman (Payman Maadi) who enjoys a quiet life his wife Maryam (Marall Nasiri) and their daughters Asal (Nicole Mehrbod) and Sahar (Diana Farzami). After he is outed as a homosexual by one of his close friends from the local gym, he is forced to flee his home. As this carries a penalty of execution in his native Iran, he desperately escapes to Scandinavia to start afresh, leaving his life behind and reluctantly turning his back on the sport. However, when it proves too difficult to seek asylum without the promise of a steady career, he returns to the ring to compete for the Swedish national team.

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cinema · GFF24

Film review: Disco Boy

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 German actor Franz Rogowski is a captivating on-screen presence and can impress with turns across many different languages, and his latest portrayal sees him take the lead in the feature debut from Italian director Giacomo Abbruzzese.  A war movie of sorts, Disco Boy is loosely inspired by real events and characters in the filmmaker’s life and tells the stories of troubled Foreign Legion combatant Aleksei (Rogowski) and fearless guerrilla warrior Jomo (Morr Ndiaye) as their paths intertwine by chance in battle.

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DVD & Digital · GFF24

Film review: Jericho Ridge

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British filmmaker Will Gilbey has taken his talents across the pond for survival thriller Jericho Ridge, marking his directorial debut after years in the industry as a screenwriter and editor. Set in a remote town within the mountainous landscape of Washington state, the plot follows Deputy Tabby Temple (Nikki Amuka-Bird) en route to start a graveyard shift at the local station with her teenage son Monty (Zack Morris) in tow.

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DVD & Digital · GFF24

Film review: Restore Point

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Taking us into a not-so-distant future where unnatural deaths can be cancelled out by innovative back-up hardware, ambitious sci-fi thriller Restore Point comes from Czech director Robert Hloz. The action follows detective Em Trochinowska (Andrea Mohylová) as she investigates the suspicious deaths of the David Kurlstat (Matej Hádek), who happens to be the developer of this restorative science, and his wife. Meanwhile, a mysterious organisation known as the River of Life are rebelling against the new technology by committing heinous acts of terrorism to bring about natural order.

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cinema · GFF24

Film review: Bleeding Love

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In the mid 1990s, Ewan McGregor burst onto the scene with iconic roles in Shallow Grave and Trainspotting and was the picture of fearless, reckless youth. Now, around thirty years on, his daughter Clara is following in his acting footsteps. In Bleeding Love, the feature debut from Dutch director Emma Westenberg, they star together as an estranged father and daughter en route to rehab after a near fatal overdose. Travelling through the American Southwest, they have various pitstops and attempt to mend their fractured relationship.

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GFF24 · Interviews

Tummy Monster Interview: Ciaran Lyons & Lorn Macdonald – ‘There was a real energy to the shoot – you could feel it’.

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Have you ever had a bad experience when asking a celebrity for a selfie? Glasgow-based filmmaker Ciaran Lyons explores the dark side of this idea in his debut feature Tummy Monster, a psychological black comedy set entirely in a tattoo studio. Rising star Lorn Macdonald plays Tales who gets embroiled in a twisted game when a musician turns up at his parlour to get inked in the middle of the night.

Ahead of its World Premiere at Glasgow Film Festival 2024, I jumped at the opportunity to sit down with director Ciaran Lyons and actor Lorn Macdonald to discuss their inventive new film…

I note that you’re both credited with writing the screenplay along with Orlando Norman. What was your process around collaborating? I guess that there was some improv involved…?

CL – Yeah, it’s partly the improv element. I wrote the first draft and it was always my intention that it would be a very actor led piece. I really wanted to give both Lorn and Orlando scope to flesh out their characters and contribute to the script and they did. They both brought an awful lot to it and they crafted their roles into the characters you see on screen.

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cinema · GFF24

Film review: Tummy Monster

Garry Arnot1 Comment

 Just how far would a desperate person go to get a selfie with someone famous? Scottish filmmaker Ciaran Lyons explores this in his impressive feature debut Tummy Monster. Fusing psychological thriller elements with jet black comedy, the plot centres around tattoo artist Tales (Lorn Macdonald) who is living out of his studio following a run of misfortunes. When an American pop star (Orlando Norman) and his security guard (Michael Akinsilure) turn up at his shop in the dead of night, he thinks his luck might have changed. After giving him the ink that he desires, Tales asks for a quick snap as a memento because his ‘niece is a big fan’ but when the musician surprisingly declines, their spat starts to spiral out of control.

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