LFF Education: School Group Bookings

For the first year in 2015, the LFF offers School Group Bookings for selected screenings in the LFF public programme. This is a limited offer! Tickets are available for schools to book on a first come first served basis until Fri 25 September.

· The films are weekday matinees at BFI Southbank and Vue West End, Wed 7 – Sun 18 October. These films are not specifically chosen with education audiences in mind. For films chosen for education audiences, please see LFF Education programme at www.bfi.org.uk/Lff/education.

· Tickets are £5.00 per student (accompanying teachers free) for a minimum 10 students per group. What to do:

1. Choose your film. This document includes synopses for the 19 films on offer to school groups; please contact the LFF Education team if you have any questions regarding content and suitability for the age group you will be bringing (tel/email below)

2. Get promotional code from LFF Education (tel/email below)

3. Book and pay for seats at BFI Southbank Box Office 020 7928 3232 (10:00-20:30 daily). Tickets will be posted to you.

LFF Education 020 7815 1344 (10:00-17:00 Mon-Fri) [email protected]

Films available for school bookings (in alphabetical order):

BEING EVEL Monday 12 Oct, 15:15, Vue West End (Screen 5) With his Elvis-inspired jumpsuits and reckless stunts, Robert Craig ‘Evel’ Knievel cast an indelible shadow over 1970s pop culture. He cheated death so many times and in so many ways he seemed almost immortal. Presented by Johnny Knoxville, this often mindboggling documentary reveals the real Knievel – the frequently shocking truth about a petty criminal- turned-household name who became America’s flamboyant motorcycle hero, throwing himself into the show-off business without a minute’s thought. The stakes were astronomically high – his insanely ill-judged 1974 rocket-powered leap over Snake River Canyon in Idaho is especially nail-biting to watch –but the charismatic Knievel makes it all seem so effortless. For a time, Evel appeared to lead a charmed life. Then things stop going his way. For older audiences this is both a nostalgia trip and the ultimate cautionary tale, but for the Jackass generation it’s a warts-and- all portrayal of the genius grandaddy of devil-may-care. Damon Wise Dir Daniel Junge (USA 2015 102min)

CHRONIC Wednesday 14 Oct, 15:15, Curzon Soho Vue West End (Screen 5) In 2012, Michel Franco’s searing portrait of a bullied schoolgirl, After Lucia stunned and disturbed LFF audiences in equal measure. He returns with his latest uncompromising study of grief and isolation, which focuses on David, a full time care-giver for the terminally ill. Seemingly altruistic and entirely devoted to his work, it becomes clear that David’s dedication to his patients comes at the expense of his own personal life and with each new client his attachment to them veers increasingly toward the unhealthy. Chronic is an intimate and often uncomfortable piece of filmmaking, filmed in long, measured takes, meticulously framed and almost clinical in execution. Tim Roth’s portrayal of a man displaying subtly sociopathic tendencies is nothing short of revelatory. He brings a sense of empathy and humanity to a complex, often challenging character, providing an unconventional heart to a gratifyingly unconventional film. Michael Blyth Dir Michel Franco (Mexico-France 2015 92min)

COWBOYS Friday 16 Oct, 15:15, Vue West End (Screen 5) Best known as co-writer of Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet and Rust and Bone, Thomas Bidegain makes a striking directing debut with this timely twist on a classic Hollywood theme. A French family obsessed with country and western is thrown into crisis when teenage daughter Kelly suddenly disappears. Stetson-toting father Alain (François Damiens) heads off in pursuit, later accompanied by his son ‘Kid’. As time passes and we move into the uncertainties of the 21st- century, this twisty, provocative drama-thriller offers a modern variant on John Ford’s The Searchers, with Alain in the John Wayne role as a man forced to confront his own prejudices – not about Native Americans, but about Islam and its transformation of the contemporary world. With terrific performances from Damiens, up-and-comer Finnegan Oldfield, and John C Reilly Cowboys combines real-world commentary and classic French cinephilia to potent effect. Jonathan Romney Dir Thomas Bidegain (France-Belgium 2015 114min)

THE END OF THE TOUR (BSL SCREENING) Friday 16 Oct, 12:00, Vue West End (Screen 7) To David Foster Wallace, the brilliant American writer who cut his own life short in 2008 at the tragically young age of 46, talent was a ‘dark gift’– something that haunted him as much as Hal, the central character of his breakout novel Infinite Jest. It is also the subject of this low-key twohander by James Ponsoldt (director of the LFF2013 hit The Spectacular Now), which documents the five days that Rolling Stone writer David Lipsky spent with Wallace in 1996, following a national tour to promote Infinite Jest. Based on the many hours of taped conversations that Lipsky recorded, Ponsoldt’s film creates an intimate portrait of the man and his art, anchored by an intuitive performance from Jason Segel as Wallace. Pursued by the dogged Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg), Wallace is portrayed as neither tragic nor profound, but more as a gifted satirist with a sharp eye for modern life’s absurdities. Damon Wise Dir James Ponsoldt (USA 2014 106min)

GOLD COAST Thursday 15 Oct, 12:00, Vue West End (Screen 7) In 1836, young botanist Wulff Joseph Wulff is dispatched to the Danish colonies in Guinea (present-day southeast Ghana) to establish and oversee a coffee plantation. He is fuelled by naïve optimism and what he believes is a progressive mentality, but his troubling experience of colonial life radically challenges his very European complacency. Based on fact, but far from a traditional historical drama, both in style and content, writer/director Daniel Dencik’s story evolves through a series of richly textured dreamlike vignettes. Dencik employs a creative collision of fact and imagination to build a mesmerising picture of Wulff’s moral compass, thoughts and inner life. And Jakob Oftebro (Kon-Tiki) delivers an extraordinary and extreme performance as Wulff, by turns visceral, conflicted and heartbreaking. The addition of Angelo Badalamenti’s ethereal contemporary score further helps to bring a distinctive freshness to this powerful and ambitious feature debut. Sarah Lutton Dir Daniel Dencik (Denmark 2015 114min)

JAMES WHITE Thursday 8 Oct, 14:45, Vue West End (Screen 7) Following hard on the heels of previous LFF selections Martha Marcy May Marlene and Simon Killer, Josh Mond – the last member of New York’s three-strong Borderline Films collective to direct his own film – delivers his coup de grace, an elegant and unforgettably powerful meditation on a tumultuous mother-son relationship. The soulful and engaging Christopher Abbott, who appeared in the first two series of Girls, plays the title character. We find him coping badly with the recent death of his estranged father. His hedonistic attempts to escape his pain give the film its lightest and most surreal moments, but the story is more concerned with what happens next: diagnosed with both cancer and – because of the drugs – early-onset dementia, his mother Gail (a terrific Cynthia Nixon) becomes the centre of James’s unravelling existence. This is a quiet yet devastatingly emotional two-hander about love, life and the inevitability of death. Damon Wise Dir Josh Mond (USA 2015 85min)

JANIS: LITTLE GIRL BLUE Thursday 15 Oct, 15:15, Vue West End (Screen 5) Like Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin was a skinny white girl with a big soulful voice and a deeply felt connection to music rooted in African American culture. Both also famously struggled with addiction and died tragically at 27, just as they were hitting their peaks. Oscar-nominated director Amy Berg (West of Memphis) draws extensively on stunning archive footage, contemporary interviews and a wide range of the singer’s own personal correspondences. What emerges is a portrait of a hugely witty and talented free spirit who rebelled against her own youth in a town populated by bigotry, where she was targeted for her boyish looks and for being pro-integration. Janis tore down barriers for women just by doing what she wanted, whether openly dating black and white women and men, or leading a rock band with a voice that could take a little piece of anyone’s heart. Before Amy, before Kathleen, before Chrissie and Patti… there was Janis. Tricia Tuttle Dir Amy Berg (USA 2015 106min)

LAND OF MINE Friday 9 Oct, 15:15, Vue West End (Screen 5) When Denmark was liberated at the end of the Second World War, over one and a half million unexploded landmines remained buried on its beaches. The Danish and UK governments took the questionable decision to task German prisoners of war with their removal. In Land of Mine writer/director Martin Zandvliet (Applause, LFF2009) explores moral responsibility in the aftermath of war through the story of a group of very young mine-clearing POWs under the supervision of a violently embittered Danish sergeant (Roland Møller, in a breakout performance). Brutal, believable and punctuated with gallows humour, this at times harrowing film focuses on the personal impact of policies of retribution and sensitively probes how reconciliation may (or may not) occur. Camilla Hjelm’s breathtaking cinematography ratchets up the tension by juxtaposing the apparent calmness of long stretching beaches with the knowledge of what lies beneath. Sarah Lutton Dir Martin Zandvliet (Denmark-Germany 2015 101min)

MOUNTAINS MAY DEPART Thursday 8 Oct, 15:15 , Vue West End (Screen 5) Jia Zhangke delivers a picture every bit as ambitious, astute and humane as his previous films, covering three time periods in the life of a group of friends who become family. We open on the eve of the new Millennium and Chinese capitalism is burgeoning. Tao must choose a suitor between flashy Zhang, with his fancy motor and stoic worker Liangzi. The film then jumps forward, catching up with the characters 15 and 25 years later. As always, Jia is perceptive and analytical about how societal and economic forces affect lives and values, but the film avoids any schematic contrivance. From its audacious opening dance sequence to The Pet Shop Boys’ Go West, to an imagined Australia in 2025 (the section marks Jia’s first foray into English language), Mountains May Depart presents a sympathetic portrait of its characters. This is humanist cinema with a powerful political core. Kate Taylor Dir Jia Zhangke (China-Japan-France 2015 131min)

THE PEARL BUTTON Friday 16 Oct, 15:15, BFI Southbank (NFT1) Whereas in Nostalgia for the Light Patricio Guzmán used the stars and the sands of the Atacama Desert as both starting point and leitmotif for his illuminating meditation on Chilean history, his likewise lyrical new film – clearly a sequel yet wholly comprehensible in itself – begins with water. Exploring the country’s long indented coastline – with Katell Djian’s gliding camera making the most of massive mountains, volcanoes and glaciers – Guzmán investigates the fate of Patagonia’s indigenous tribes: nomadic boatpeople who are now, thanks in no small degree to the arrival of European colonisers, extinct save for a few survivors. (The title alludes in part to one ‘Jeremy Button’, who in the 1830s was brought, disastrously, to Britain to be ‘civilised’.) Like its predecessor, the film proceeds to consider more recent disappearances – of those tortured, killed and dumped in the ocean by Pinochet’s regime. Curiosity, compassion and righteous disgust meet to powerful effect. Geoff Andrew Dir Patricio Guzmán (France-Chile-Spain 2015 82min)

THE PEOPLE VS. FRITZ BAUER Wednesday 14 Oct, 12:00, Vue West End (Screen 7) Attorney General Fritz Bauer was a courageous man and a hero of the post-war era. Deeply distrustful of the German justice system, he asks Mossad, the Israeli secret service, for help when he finds evidence that Adolf Eichmann, who was responsible for the deaths of millions of Jews, is hiding in Argentina. But by doing so, he commits treason and in deciding to pursue the Nazi he finds himself in a difficult struggle against invisible opponents. Director Lars Kraume offers up an emotional and gripping story about a man who fought for truth and justice at a time when the young Federal Republic was desperate to leave its Nazi past behind. Excellent performances by Burghart Klaussner (White Ribbon) and Ronald Zehrfeld (Phoenix, Barbara) draw us into this world of intrigue, which also presents a startling insight into the harsh reality of gay rights in post-war Germany. Juliane Grieb Dir Lars Kraume (Germany 2015 105min)

RETRIBUTION Monday 12 Oct, 13:00, BFI Southbank (NFT1) Single location suspense is pushed to the limit in this ingenious thriller, which stars Luis Tosar as Carlos, an investment banker who is having second thoughts about his role in a plot to offload thousands of euros’ worth of junk bonds. During the family school run, a mobile phone rings and Carlos is informed that his car is rigged and will explode if the passengers attempt to leave their seats before a heavy ransom is paid. It’s the stuff of high-concept Hollywood action movies, yet firsttime director Dani de la Torre steers clear of the usual macho-man dramatics, often by having women take on roles usually played by men. The financial-crisis subplot is timely but never laboured; instead, Retribution is a superb vehicle – excuse the pun – for the charismatic Tosar, who convincingly plays a flawed and vulnerable man who will sacrifice everything to save his children. Damon Wise Dir Dani de la Torre (Spain 2015 100min)

ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS Monday 12 Oct, 11:00, Vue West End (Screen 7) Rocco is like an opera without the arias. A mother and her five sons abandon the poverty of southern Italy and head for the economic promise of Milan, only to find their relationships implode as the brothers battle over love, passion and morality. Rocco’s epic, emotional sweep is guaranteed to leave you emotionally drained by the end. It’s not just Visconti’s masterpiece, but also that of cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno. Whether he’s framing the fragile beauty of Alain Delon or the vistas of the city, his lustrous black and white camerawork is breathtaking. Here it could not be better served than by this magnificent restoration. And to cap it all, two scenes that were victims of the censor’s scissors have finally been reinstated. Robin Baker Dir Luchino Visconti (Italy 1960 177min)

RYUZO AND HIS SEVEN HENCHMEN Friday 9 Oct, 12:45, BFI Southbank (NFT1) Prolific Japanese auteur/icon Takeshi Kitano’s latest sees him switch beats from action back to comedy, with this droll farce about a group of elderly, retired Yakuza who reteam to take revenge on a younger rival gang after their leader Ryuzo (veteran star Tatsuya Fuji, In the Realm of the Senses) is duped by a phone scam. Though still legends in their own minds, these aging tough guys have to contend as much with their own physical and mental frailties as their adversaries’ strength; indeed, as much time is spent boastfully comparing former glories – ‘you can’t take credit for those murders committed by your henchmen!’ one grumbles – as current vendettas. It’s broad, easy going fun and, while Kitano himself only cameos as a hard-nosed detective (what else?), it’s hard to resist a film whose frenetic climax is inspired equally by Seven Samurai and Weekend at Bernie’s. Leigh Singer Dir Takeshi Kitano (Japan 2015 104min)

STEVE MCQUEEN: THE MAN & LE MANS Friday 16 Oct, 12:30, BFI Southbank (NFT1) In 1970, following the enormous success of films like Bullitt and The Thomas Crown Affair, Steve McQueen was unquestionably one of the biggest stars in the world. He exuded a particular strain of machismo, but also radiated an intelligence that allowed him to play rough-hewn cowboys and rich playboys alike. Utilising his power in Hollywood, he decided to produce and star in Le Mans, a project he hoped would be the ultimate racing car movie. However, what should have occupied pole position at the box office instead limped towards the finishing line. The incredible untold story behind the making of the film – the creative strife, studio power struggles, on-track drama that included tragic accidents, and the impact on McQueen’s life and career – is the subject of this gripping documentary. Featuring unseen archive footage, contemporary interviews and previously unheard commentary from McQueen himself, this is a must for fans of McQueen and motor racing. Adrian Wootton Dir Gabriel Clarke (UK 2015 100min)

A TALE OF THREE CITIES Friday 16 Oct, 14:45, Vue West End (Screen 7) Hitting the epic notes like a Chinese Gone with the Wind, this love story based on the lives of Jackie Chan’s parents is a sweeping and deeply satisfying grand romance set in turbulent times. Opium-smuggling widow Chen (Yang Wei) is stopped at a checkpoint by Fang (Liu Qingyun), a former spy, and stubborn meets stubborn as the pair face-off. With the Second Sino-Japanese War raging, neither is naive about love, and yet slowly a bond grows between them. But with both the Nationalists and the Communists after him, Fang cannot afford to stay in one place and the film charts the drama of their separation from each other and their children. Whilst evocatively capturing the dangers of China in the late 1930s, Mabel Cheung generates warmth andtexture with her emphasis on small, intimate moments, while pitch-perfect performances from Liu and Yang – who are, respectively, gruff and salty, and thoughtful and resilient – guarantee a heartrending climax. Kate Taylor Dir Mabel Cheung (China 2015 130min)

TAXI TEHRAN Thursday 8 Oct, 12:30, Vue West End (Screen 5) Winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlinale, Panahi’s latest is perhaps his most playful film yet. Riffing on the narrative structure pioneered in Kiarostami’s 10, it’s mostly set and entirely shot from inside a car: a taxi of sorts, with Panahi playing himself as an affable amateur cabbie. After giving rides around Tehran to a motley array of passengers – from a rabid reactionary and a liberal teacher to a man selling pirate DVDs and women heading to a shrine – he finally collects his niece, a sassy youngster making a little movie herself for school. Cue a discussion of how film should represent reality (or not!): a subject clearly close to Panahi’s heart, given his standing with the Iranian authorities. Despite its concern with ethics, aesthetics and politics, the film oozes disarming charm and mischievous wit, slyly reminding us that cinema, for better or worse, always trades in illusion. Geoff Andrew Dir Jafar Panahi (Iran 2015 82min)

TRUMANN Thursday 15 Oct, 14:45, Vue West End (Screen 7) A masterclass in acting, Truman brings Javier Cámara (Tomás) and Ricardo Darín (Julián) together in a character study of two old friends who are reunited, just as Julián is entering the final stages of cancer. Tomás flies over from Canada to Madrid to visit the ailing actor and his pet dog Truman, to whom Julián is devoted. Over four intense days, as the focus of conversation constantly reverts to the notion of mortality, the friends look back on their lives – their loves, successes and failures– and speculate on what the future holds. Cesc Gay’s intimate buddy movie gives two of the Spanish-speaking world’s finest actors meaty roles to play with. Darín is superb as the defiant Julián, while Cámara excels in a commanding performance as the responsible friend trying to do the right thing. Ultimately, Truman is a bittersweet comedy about the ups and downs of life and coming to terms with its limitations. Maria Delgado Dir Cesc Gay (Spain-Argentina 2015 108min)

VERY BIG SHOT Tuesday 13 Oct, 15:15, Vue West End (Screen 5) Lebanese director Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya’s debut feature almost defies categorisation. By turns a suspenseful crime thriller, social satire and laugh out loud comedy, Bou Chaaya displays a deft sleight of tone that befits as contradictory and seductive a land as his native Lebanon. Very Big Shot opens with a bang, literally, as three brothers find themselves in the middle of a struggle with an armed man. One of the brothers Ziad shoots the man dead. His brother Jad, however, takes the fall and is sent to jail. Cut to five years later. In the intervening years, Ziad has turned their modest family bakery into a drug dealing hub for a local gangster. With Jad’s imminent release, however, he wants to go legit, much to the chagrin of his boss, who asks him to do one last drop off as a personal favour. When that drop off is across the border in war-torn Syria, anything can happen. And it does, as Bou Chaaya defies expectations to create a memorable, hugely impressive and enjoyable caper. Ali Jaafar Dir Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya (Lebanon-Qatar 2015 107min)