The Shepherd and The Bear

Beautiful documentary on a dying occupation on the French-Spanish Border

Yves, is the elderly eponymous hero of the story. An ageing shepherd in the hills of the Pyrenees who is in the twilight of his career and life - the two are hand in hand. His life has been one of simplicity, but now being upended by an old foe. It could read like an old west narrative, and yet this is more of a tale of mortality. As it seems the bear of the title could very well be the death of him and his occupation.

This is a clash of order and chaos; the shepherds are the order of the land whilst the bears are the chaos - unabashed, unregulated. Yves and his community are pining for help amidst the clouds.

The clash of the old with the new; shepherds have their means of working the landscape whilst the introduction of an old method which was removed and now returned brings hardship to a traditional method. Coupled with an ageing work-force with little or no apprentices following in their footsteps, the younger generations having moved to urban landscapes. 

Yet for all the wide shots of misty mountains, sun-kissed hills and verdant forests, perhaps the most telling image is a close-up of the weathered lines on Yves’ face. They say every picture tells a story and you can see in the weathered face of Yves as he looks into another fire, the light upon his face shows the years worked and how the last embers of his being and belonging.

Visually arresting and ravishing in the cinematography by director Max Keegan and Clement Beauvois; they capture the natural world in all its beauty. This coupled with a delicate score by Amine Bouhafa evokes the passing of time mixed with an appraisal of tradition and community.

The Shepherd and The Bear is out from Conic Film on limited release from 6th February.

My thanks to them for the review opportunity.

Rebecca Schiffman - Before The Future

New York born singer-songwriter, Rebecca Schiffman, releases her fourth album on 25th July entitled Before The Future.

Born and raised on the East Coast, Schiffman has seemingly found her musical home on the west coast and the city of Los Angeles. This album features a multitude of guest artists and collaborators ranging from Deerhoof's Chris Cohen and Tim Carr (Perfume Genius) to name a couple. These new collaborative forces also changed her style of recording from the ten day relocation to the studio as she did with her first three albums; instead this album was recorded in more piecemeal due to the input of others. 

Starting with the title track and another with Cohen, creating this euphoric and anthemic sound for said title track that runs to nine plus minutes (an usual feat to front end an album with a long track). That track is about the grief from the untimely death of a childhood friend. It is the difficulty of grief and understanding of that emotion that is the underlying theme of the album throughout, as heard on 'Rudy's Song' which is about her bereavement for her beloved dog.

Schiffman has a gorgeous lilting voice, a soft delivery that works well with the pleasant melodies being played. Reminiscent of Margaret Glaspy in terms of singing style and Lori Anderson from yesteryear; Schiffman has crafted an album of a sunny disposition but with a more serious undercurrent to proceedings.

And yet there is joy such as 'Little Mr. Civility' about her two year old son, the new life in the world can change your outlook on many things. For Schiffman she did not want to become demonstrative in terms of making the rules and being strict, and this juggling of nature and nurture is the touchstone of the song.

All in all, this is an album of being aware of your feelings, expressing them the best way and how moments can channel or alter creative output. Schiffman is seeking balance between her long in the tooth East coast attitude and new found West coast sensibility; and in some ways she may have found it.

Before The Future is out on all platforms from 25th July

My thanks to OneBeatPR for the review opportunity.

What The Dark Whispers - MJ Lee

 

Book 11 in the DI Ridpath series released 3rd July from Canelo

Having had the pleasure to read the DI Ridpath series from its genesis in the years prior to the global pandemic, it is the first time in my long tenure of reading that this reader has followed such a new detective series and character from its inception to the present day. Following, enjoying and anticipating.

Lee returns along with Ridpath in a Halloween set tale that sees the maverick Ridpath again having to uncover the truth behind a series of recent murders in the Greater Manchester area which may or may not be connected. A man sets himself on fire at a petrol station, a family is brutally murdered in their home and a single mother is strangled by her daughter.

Ridpath under his guise as policeman and assistant to the Coroner, has to battle familiar office politics - those who have been promoted ahead of him - with his embatteled support staff who endeavour to do the right thing despite the best efforts of those to merely tick a box. 

This along with his daughter, Eve, going through the tumultuous period of hormones and school coupled with the conclusion of the last book - What The Dead Want - where she was attacked by a male teen; with the two navigating their life together without mother, Penny around. 

A familiar experience when reading Lee's series (and this can be said for his contemporary Marion Todd) is that the books start off sprightly with the problem laid out before our hero in the first act. Only when he starts investigating and is at loggerheads with a superior officer, does the narrative gain pace and reads at a clip that is enjoyable as this reader digests with aplomb.

The last act of the book as the answers become clear to Ridpath and his team - a credit and salute to the leg work and diligence of police work - before the murderer can kill again, is pulsating and heart racing. The last quarter of the book flies past with a mixture of thrill and enjoyment as the plot unravels

Written with flair, pace and tension, Lee again has written a thriller of exceptional quality that in time may well rank as one of the best in the series overall. Lee like Ridpath has done it again.

What The Dark Whispers is out from Canelo on all formats from 3rd July 

Paradise Is Burning

 

Swedish Debut Festival Award Winner released 30th August in UK/Ireland

Winner of the BFI/LFF Sutherland Award for best debut feature at the 2023 London Film Festival, this debut by Mika Gustafson is highly touted and expectation is high for its release from Conic Films on 30th August.

Following a storyline, that is tried and tested, we follow three young Swedish girls who are trying to navigate a summer without parental guidance as a mother is absent from their lives.

We follow the girls get into scrapes and fights, steal food from supermarkets and play truant from school. Their lives are so entwinned that one doing something has a direct impact upon the other two, for instance the middle sister, Mira (12) gets into a fight, prompting the eldest, Laura (16) to intervene forgetting to put in her forged signatory letter in the relevant pigeonhole. This leads to a phone call from Social Services wanting to come and visit their house leading to some desperation from the eldest to make sure they and Steffi (7) do no lose their home.

An embracing film about sisterhood and the power of summer, how that affects your mood shifting from joy to despair, Gustafson has crafted a film of quiet craft featuring three amateur actresses (Bianca Delbravo, Dilvin Asaad, Safira Mossberg) who all conveying unexpexted performances beyond their young years.

Filmed with a real clarity, eliciting those fine performances from that trio of youngsters this is a film of real power and modesty. Filmed during the summer, it is a marriage of a coming-of-age film with that memory of a memorable summer; it calls to mind such films as My Summer of Love yet the parallel to Regan's UK feature Scrapper is so striking.

The children have to learn quickly that with glory there is pain, with unity there is loneliness and with youth there is the fear of growing up, when society can come crashing down on you exponentially rapidly. 

Gustafson cleverly mixes the elements of humour and tragedy - a powerful marriage in Swedish cinema from Bergman to Roy Andersson - with a deftness even mixing different photographic styles from quiet poetic moments to the rave-filled vibrancy of all night parties.

Also a winner of Best Director and Screenwriting at the Venezia 2023 Festival; Paradise is Burning is a film of immense promise from a young filmmaker with a unique voice and vision to share with the world. 

Paradise is Burning is released from Conic Films on 30th August

The Eye of Horus - Ken Lussey

Fifth book by Ken Lussey released by Arachnid Press released 18th June 

Ken Lussey returns with another tale in his RAF series featuring Bob Sutherland and secret agent Monique

Starting the series in 2019 and based around the true story of the mysterious death of King George VI's cousin, Duke of Kent, Lussey took historical fact and weaved in an interesting premise of a detective with life skills imperative to tracking down the truth and one not without his obstacles to overcome. Bob Sutherland our loyal captain and main protagonist was a fine pilot with many messerschmidts as notches on his belt, yet a flight one night during the Battle of Britain cost him the sight in his left eye grounding him permanently from the war effort but still able to fly in daytime. 

Sutherland found his calling belonged in the Military Intelligence Service, and so the series of books have found him investigating cases amidst the rich Highland landscape with his now wife, Monique for company.

The problem any writer of a series would attest to, is the restrictions of their limited landscape has upon a character's growth, the confinement of war and the familiarity of problems may restrict other writers. However, Lussey has overcome this with great initiative. 

One book in the series was entitled, The Stockholm Run, where Bob and Monique took on the guises of Mr and Mrs Cadman to take over 

The new book starts us off with the couple in good spirits having just got married in secret. They are in the midst of enjoying their honeymoon - time away from work, relaxing as best you can during a war - yet that tranquility gets disrupted when an old friend of Bob's tells him of a missing relative on the island of Malta. Having been missing for nearly a week with no rhyme, reason or body to show; the colleague asks Bob and Monique to go to the island via Gibraltar and investigate.

Combining elements of war-time set films such as The Guns of Navarone and The Third Man; Lussey weaves another welcome addition to the Sutherland Series. Lussey's eye for historical period detail gives the reader a history lesson (such as the note that a third of young children died in Malta in 1942 due to the aerial bombardment and lack of medical supplies entering the island - sounds familiar as war carries on in the Middle East) and a reminder of how privileged we are to live in peace time in our country currently.

By the book's end, Lussey has again concocted a thrilling cat and mouse thriller helped by the limitations of the small island's geography and the ever impending threat of an aerial attack by the German air force.

For fans old and new, my hope is that these books do find the larger audience they so richly deserve.

The Eyes of Horus is out from Arachnid Press on Tuesday 18th June on all formats. 

Sorcery

 

Feature length film from Christopher Murray

Based upon actual 19th century witchcraft trials in Chile, Sorcery features a stunning lead performance from Valentina Veliz Caileo, a young girl using the title of the film to avenge her father's brutal death.

A wonderful premise of a film featuring enigmatic mystery and a key lead performance from a young adult, there is so much potential for this film to succeed and yet it fails to land unfortunately.

The use of landscape as a mystery to itself does not evoke the required atmosphere - long moments of quiet elicit feelings of monotony instead of haunting. 

When the trailer was issued of this title, it was sold as a forebearer and successor to Pan's Labyrinth - a mythical parable where a young girl must overcome the adversity of the German settlers amidst the Chilean landscape maintaining the truth to herself in her quest to avenge her father's passing. And yet when the moments of action come not as a shock to the system but a welcome change from moments of stillness that instead of offering moments of resonance instead make for an unwanted plodding to proceedings. 

Imagine all the council meeting scenes of Killers of the Flower Moon for an hour and a half, when a lot is said and not much done, and you would rather return to the threat and menace put upon the indigenous people to help thrust the momentum of the narrative which stagnates and treads water when it should be flourishing.

The intention is there but it just fails to match expectations of the trailer, and that is a shame as there are so many elements to make a great statement here on the Chilean spirit. However, the end product is lacking that one element of the spell to be magical.

Sorcery is distributed by Sovereign Distribution and on limited release from Friday 14th June

Here

New film by Bas Devos out 7th June from New Wave Films

The story revolves around a Romanian construction worker in Brussels, Belgium who is considering going home until he encounters a Chinese specialist in moss. This unexpected connection between two wondering souls sparks the possibility of new beginnings for both in this 

The film was winner of the 2023 Encounters at the Berlin Film Festival and Best International Film at the 2023 Galway Film Festival

The film takes its time in bringing the two people together - they have a brief encounter about half an hour into the film, but the true connection does not take place until nearly an hour into proceedings. The attention to detail and our maintaining of attention upon the two leads is partly down to the restrained and nuance both convey. Stefan Gota has such an expressive face in the same vein as Matthias Schoenaerts, one that can be vacant yet also say so much with his presence alone.  Liyo Gong provides a performance of assuredness and calm nature.

The film, reminded me of Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem 'Nature' where Emerson relays about the essence of transcendentalism and gaining a divinity through nature, you can only understand reality through studying nature. Both of these souls like for instance Bob and Charlotte in Lost in Translation, are seeking answers in this mystery of life and find each other in this fleeting moment.

However, the star of the show is the director Bas Devos, a deliberate and methodical director, who is able to film wonderful images and allows the film time to breathe and not rush proceedings, much like the moss which as the forefront of the narrative for both of our protagonists.  These things take time.

But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile. In the woods, is perpetual youth - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The film is about connection and finding a place in this world that you can call home, when faraway from the first one; it will remind you of films you have seen before and yet is unlike anything you may have seen before. Reminiscent of the Dardennes naturally, a smidgen of the methodical technique of Tarkovsky and yet something of its own making and minute uniqueness.

Here is released by New Wave Films on Friday 7th June, my thanks to them for the review opportunity.

A House in Jerusalem

 

Enticing feature set in Jerusalem produced by Wellington Films

Directed by Muayad Alayan, this is a telling and delicate tale about how the past is always with us no matter how far we run from it

Young Rebecca, with her father, relocate to Jerusalem following the tragic death of her mother in a car crash that she survived. Their move into an old family home in the Valley of the Ghosts which becomes the setting for mysterious events and a friendship between Rebecca and Rasha, a young Palestinian only she can see. Following the template of young females becoming more of themselves by delving into mysterious gardens and households, this tale slowly becomes a ghost story being lived in now.

As the friendship grows, is Rasha a figment of Rebecca's imagination and the film makes a statement upon how grief is processed as the two young girls are binded by tragedy. Poignant and delicately handled in its production, A House in Jerusalem is a film for today but about yesterday and the days ahead.

Rebecca seeks solace in the ghostly apparition of Rasha, partly because they have a shared language or understanding, as she struggles to learn Hebrew in her new school. The friendship grows due to a fear of authority - for Rasha it is the police, for Rebecca the military - but never her father who is vulnerable and grieving himself throughout and traversing the single parent wasteland he finds himself in. 

Featuring performances by veteran stalwart Johnny Harris as the father, Michael, and featuring the up and coming Miley Locke as Rebecca, this is a talent to watch out for in future years. Showing maturity beyond her years in moments such as dishing up a plate for her departed mother at dinner time and listening to voicemail to hear her voice, Locke channels such as Ivana Baquero from Pan's Labyrinth (2006).

On limited release from May, this film is an enticing enterprise with a great premise that will help viewers understand the notions of racism and how it takes hold upon those who allow it to manifest in society - similar to The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - a young protagonist interacts with someone from a different faith to better appreciate their background and become a better person themselves

A House in Jerusalem is produced by Wellington Films and released by Peccadillo Pictures from 31st May 

Shared Remains - Rachel Lynch

 

New thriller in DI Kelly Porter series out now from Canelo

Following on from last year's bestseller Silent Bones, Lynch returns to her ongoing series of DI Kelly Porter who surveys and polices the Cumbrian landscape with her team while balancing a new relationship when not on duty.

This story revolves around the discovery of a body in a quarry one morning and from there a can of worms very much gets opened involving a nearby elderly home. At the home, mysterious deaths are mounting up, and then the paper trail leads to the discovery that the funeral directors are the main beneficiaries of the recently deceased. The only snag is that the quarry body is the funeral director, Vince, and there-in lies a problem.

Falsifying death certificates, grave digging and fraud all come to head for Porter and her team. This macabre set of narrative junctions lead to a less than breezy feel to the reading of the story that stops and starts on occasion with some emphasis put upon the domestic situation for Kelly at home which at times is a bit distracting.

As ever with Canelo Crime reads, the final quarter of the book - when the evidence comes to the fore and exhumations begin - is when the book kicks into gear with a gratifying conclusion for this reader.

The atmosphere of the book with the greys and dismal weather of late summer becoming that unimpeachable autumn is evoked effectively by Lynch, with the old adage grim up north ringing true.

And yet through the gloom, there is a ray of sunshine coming to the surface for Kelly with the hopes of a new relationship ready to bloom as snow falls on the ground

SHARED REMAINS is out now from Canelo

My thanks to them for the pre-approval on NetGalley for my review 

Nezouh

 

Double winner at 2023 Venice Film Festival released 

Written and directed by Soudade Kaadan, it tells the story of a family wanting to stay put in their house in war torn Damascus, rather than flee as refugees. While devastation and danger surround them, love and idealism keep them grounded and safe, even as a bomb hits them directly and their roof comes crumbling down. As they are held captive by their situation, they somehow find personal freedom.

Shot by celebrated cinematographer Hélène Louvart (La Chimera, Happy as Lazzaro, The Lost Daughter), the film contains a magical realism in its look and feel, that suspends reality while also never shying away from the atrocities that surround them. Co-cinematographer Burak Kanbir contributes to the authentic sense of time, place and space.

The film is in Arabic and stars Syrian actors Samer Al Masri and Kinda Alloush, alongside newcomers Hala Zein and Nizar Alani.

Kaadan says of the film and of her own experience: “It is only after the bombing started in our neighbourhood in Damascus that I left the house with my sister. Damascene society was conservative, even in liberal families. With the new wave of displacement, it became normal (for the first time) to see young Damascene women living alone and separating from their families. Myself, and many of my friends, started to make decisions we would never make before. Now, sadly, there is no more society, something new has occurred.” 

Kaadan’s filmography includes feature documentary Obscure (CPH:Dox 2017), narrative feature The Day I Lost My Shadow (Lion of the Future award for Best Debut at Venice Film Festival 2018) and short film Aziza (Sundance Grand Jury prize 2019).

She adds: “The word ‘nezouh’ means in Arabic the displacement of souls, water and people; it is the displacement of light and darkness. NEZOUH tries to talk about this inevitable invasion of light and hope in the midst of this chaos.”

Filmed in a style reminiscent of documentary and hand-held cinema, the film is a celebration of life and valuing that which you hold dear within that life; in this instance the father (Samir Al Masri) will not vacate his home despite the bombing, he is too proud of the legacy he has created in his home as Zeina says, 'my father is ready for anything, except leaving'

The film tellingly, in the magical realism mentioned previously, acts as it is upon a different spectral form, the clever device of the bombing essentially breaks down the wall for the characters - by expanding their space more story is available and the world is now open to them.

Incorporating styles such as Kiarostami who consistently balances that line between fact and fiction and the eccentric work of Roy Andersson, the Swedish absurdist, there is always life in dull moments of existence; this is a film that tells so much about the human condition.

Screenings can be found here

NEZOUH is out from Modern Films on limited release from 3rd May around the country

That They May Face The Rising Sun

New Irish award-winning film based upon the novel of the same name by Irish author, John McGahern's final novel

Patrick Collins, an audio-visual poet who has created works of quiet solitude set against the picturesque setting of the lush Irish landscape has found the means to create a faithful adaptation to McGahern's work and a love letter to that beautiful countryside reflecting upon a simpler time without mobile phones and other modern day distractions.

Joe (Barry Ward) and Kate (Anna Bederke) have returned to their homeland to live the good life - to borrow from a late 70s cultural artefact - and what we would describe nowadays as off the grid. Joe is a writer (a conduit for McGahern himself), experiencing the place he lives in and soaking that into his daily writing. Kate owns and runs an art gallery in London, a reason for her to still return to the capital on occasion to visit friends. Yet they are living at a pace of their own making, with no children on the horizon seemingly, they are content to live in this happiness - the building of a shed or timber outhouse painstakingly over the year with little or no progression indicative of a life being lived slowly.

The couple, who would be described as bohemians I suppose, have an open door policy welcoming visitors, neighbours and family whenever ready for a cup of tea and sympathetic ear. These interactions with the community works as a sort of social currency, in exchange for information and conversing, the couple are thought of highly in that community.

This is Collins' third feature film and he is a vaunted documentarian, his keen eye of observation and minute detail works in perfect harmony with that of the relationship of the couple who fit perfectly within a suburban setting yet are finding solace with their lot in life, a path that they have made for themselves. The film is finding that balance between the rituals of life and work along with the passing seasons; we bare witness to one year in the life of this couple but it could be any year over a ten year period with the added fork in the road moments of someone's passing - world events do not occur in this world of County Galway, where principal photography taking place near the Mayo border.

Credit for the film's feel and look goes to Richard Kendrick, who has shot both of Collins' first two films Silence (2011) and Song of Granite (2017), there are moments when Joe and Kate are embracing and the film looks like an Austen adaptation per excellence and that is the general feel of the film as something approaching a comfort watch like All Creatures Great and Small or Doc Martin; a lovely teatime viewing that is nostalgic without feeling cheesy with a tone of maturity that is not patronising.

Collins in conjunction with Kendrick and the score by Irene and Linda Buckley which is soft and ambient yet very much in keeping with Irish heritage has crafted a film that is intelligent, adult and beguiling.

The film has just won Best Irish Film at the Irish Film and Television Awards this month, and is about to have a limited release at select repertory cinemas across the country. This is recommended viewing for those who miss those slow paced films that teach us a lot about the world we used to know, love and mostly miss; a film that rewards its audience for its patience. A virtue lacking in today's age. 

That They May Face The Rising Sun is out from Conic Films on 26th April

The Lavender Hill Mob

 

Ealing Studio classic THE LAVENDER HILL MOB

 rereleased in 4K Restoration from Studiocanal

Originally released in 1951, Ealing Studios' veteran Charles Crichton with a script by T.E.B Clarke and starred Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway and Sid James as the most unlikeliest of gold bullion robbers.

Guinness plays Henry Holland, a faithful bank transfer agent of 20 years who has never put a foot wrong and is non-descript to his employers. He dreams of the perfect gold bullion heist, yet does not know what to do with the bullion when stolen. Holland befriends new housemate Pendlebury (Holloway) who as a smoulder, they happen upon the idea of forging the gold into miniature Eiffel tower paperweights smuggling it from England to France.

The pair hire two professional criminals Lackery (James) and Shorty (Alfie Bass) and together the foursome put the plan into place full of unexpected twists and turns.

To think this film is over seventy years old is how swift and economical the script is and it is not surprising that the film won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

Yet the x factor of the film is Alec Guinness, whose chameleon like ability to become an character he inhabits is to the fore again in the role of Henry Holland. When we first encounter Holland he is in some Caribbean island flaunting his wealth and fame around the resort, flirting with a young Audrey Hepburn and giving money to the help around the hotel. He promptly tells the story to someone sitting with him and so the story is told in flashback as all good heist films tend to be. Guinness up to this point had been the supporting player in such works as Oliver Twist and Kind Hearts and Coronets, yet this was the launching pad for his leading man career garnering a Best Actor nomination from the Academy Awards.

Shot at Ealing Studios but also embracing the post-war London with real-life locations for chases near London landmarks, the film is a breath of fresh air throughout. One note of criticism would be that once the heist is completed, the hapless pair running around Paris is somewhat not wanted but that is merely a slight note to be forgotten.

The moral integrity remains by the film's end and all you can remember is that the smiles elicited by the cast are real, the story is well told and Crichton deploys an even hand across proceedings.

The new 4K restoration is being released in cinemas from 29th March (Easter weekend) and will garner a 4K UHD and Digital release from 22nd April. Kind Hearts & Coronets will be released on UHD from 22nd April also.

The release offers a treasure trove for the British film lovers. Essays and Q&A's by Benedict Morrison and Paul Merton. An introduction by Martin Scorsese, audio commentary by film historian Jeremy Arnold, stills, two posters, four pop-art artcards by Art and Hue. Pre-order here

My thanks to Studiocanal UK for the review copy

The Assassin - Tom Fletcher

 

Sequel to The Ambassador by Tom Fletcher, out March 28th from Canelo

Tom Fletcher had a great success with his debut novel The Ambassador which told the tale of Ed Barnes, ambassador in Paris, France who survives an assassination attempt at his diplomatic household. The sequel shows Ed taking up a new position in Nairobi, Kenya.

The book starts breakneck and deals with two duelling narratives that eventually co-exist. Barnes must deal with a hostage situation at a major shopping mall in the city centre, where a Somali terrorist group take over and unfortunately his daughter, Stephanie, is amongst the captive group.

Having foiled those terrorists, Barnes returns to London to talk with the female Prime Minister Hermoine, who will attend a climate conference all amidst the wave of political assassinations taking place around the globe by the pseudonymous assassin who may or may not know Barnes.

The kills of the assassin are perhaps the best parts of the book - a real joy for the writer to throw caution to the wind eliciting different deaths for not very nice people in grand surroundings. 

It is the general narrative with the balance of family dynamics and climate change political wrangling that forces the book to sometimes slow down when the pace of terrorist attacks and surprise kills is where the excitement is.

Typical of books this reader has read lately, where the foundation and building blocks of the book in the first half are critical to the cut and thrust of the second half when tension is ramped up and pays off.

Credit to Fletcher who as a former foreign policy advisor has the legitimacy of knowledge to convey and commit to the story and in Barnes he has a genuine hero who wants to do the right thing despite the political climate around him.

The Assassin is out on 28th March from Canelo 

My thanks to them for the review copy via NetGalley.

The Red Hollow - Natalie Marlow

Second novel of Birmingham Noir by Natalie Marlow 

out 28th March from Baskerville

Natalie Marlow's highly anticipated sophomore novel set in the fracitious 1930s Birmingham backstreets made more relevant to people by the astronomical success of Peaky Blinders, Marlow has crafted a fascinating protagonist in William Garrett, a private detective who resides out of Needless Alley (title of the first book). Garrett has daily dalliances with the ne'er-do-well's of Birmingham's backstreets and he must maintain his head above the parapet as he always deals with problems.

While the first book became a gripping whodunnit, in this second novel Garrett and his now wife become entangled in what can be described as a what-dunnit. They are called to the titular stately manor on the outskirts of Warwickshire countryside to oversee a mysterious sequence of deaths in this house that now operates as a male-only sanatorium, overseen by Dr. Moon whose patients are leaving premises.

On the wettest day of the year, local flooding makes it hard for Garrett and Queenie to arrive at the site, and the tale of the mysterious mermaid who may or may not be responsible for the murder that has occurred. Disturbances that appeared to be pranks are now being claimed upon the ghost of the Red Hollow, a girl who seeks revenge upon the men who killed her. 

The placing of the narrative in a bottle format or self-contained environment is a clever tweak and acts as a homage to the works of Agatha Christie especially The Mousetrap. This is in stark contrast to the debut novel where Garrett was discovering different landscapes, traversing those places that do not exist anymore with Marlow/Garrett acting as our guide. 

In this novel, the limitations of the narrative by restricting it in one setting does a disservice to Garrett's potential as a character, one who needs to discover due to his job title and by restricting him to one location is a shame.

This reader hopes that Marlow returns Garrett to the cobble streets of the second city - the different districts encourage different cultures and language. In this setting, you have Garrett always being the smartest person in the room where you always felt he would overcome the problem he faces eventually in this instance. 

That is only a small note of criticism, credit where it is due, the professional relationship Garrett has with Phyll Hall, a fresh detective, is a winning one. They are a platonic pair who finish each other's sentences and the pain he feels when trouble arrives at Phyll's feet is clearly felt and well handled along with the precarious nature of the situation Garrett/Phyll have gotten themselves into.

Marlow also cleverly melds the influences of Gothic influences of British literature with the back and forth dialogue that effortlessly flies off the page, a book of atmospheric pressure that resonates creating a taut and scary tale. Marlow a self-confessed film fan brings those influences of the Haunting and The Innocents to her advantage in creating the eerie environment.

William Garrett is back and he will return. This is a character you cannot wait to see more of the future.

The Red Hollow is out on 28th March from Baskerville/John Murray Press

BALLYWALTER

Brand new Northern Irish film written by Prassana Puwanarajah , starring Seana Kerslake and Patrick Kielty.

Located in Northern Ireland, Ballywater tells the story of a young woman who has returned to her hometown of Ballywalter after a relative failure of making it work in London. She finds herself a bit arrested in her development while the rest of her family and life has progressed without her; her sister is expecting a new baby and she is struggling to keep down part-time work in cafes. This has led to her landing a job driving a taxi to make regular income. 

During this role, she happens upon a regular fare of Shane (Kielty in his first acting role) a man being driven to a stand-up comedy workshop as he embarks upon a new chapter in his life. The film is the bond these two forge together during their regular cab journeys to and from Belfast back to the eponymous town.

While the first half of the film is firmly Eileen's story, an unfortunate accident leads to her spending more time with Shane through consequence and we get to learn more about Shane's backstory and history, from his separation from his wife to his seeking for solace in comedy.

The film is a wonder to watch helmed by two great lead performances that anchor the film that could easily waiver if not for them and the sure-hand direction by first time director Puwanarajah with a well observed script from Belfast writer Stacey Gregg. A film of fleeting moments and those people who come into your life and just as quickly, leaving an indelible impression upon you and the rawness with which it addresses the character's emotions especially in Shane's final stand-up routine where he opens up about his depression. This is derivative of the film's low production budget which if it had a larger scale might have come across as pompous, yet the close-ups utilised help garner a strong emotional connection to the film.

The film is beautifully shot, depicting Northern Ireland not through a rose-tinted lense but proudly displaying the greyness of it all. Yet the actors embody their two lead roles with great relish with Kielty (enjoying a purple patch in his career as he is now host of The Late Late Show in Ireland) is quite the revelation delivering all the dramatic notes when required on point.

The employment of an ending reminiscent of Lost in Translation, says as much about the film's influences and its hope to appeal to an audience that is cine-literate and it is not a bad film to borrow film with this relationship that can go no further than being platonic yet it finds both leads embarking on second chances.

The confident direction by a new director married with two strong lead performances means this is a film that will reward the viewer in spades; its a low key wonder of a film that should be cherished.

Ballywalter is out on limited release in UK/Ireland from 22nd September

PARIS MEMORIES

The new film from Alice Winocour is out from Picturehouse Entertainment on August 4th

Paris Memories is a film that is at once still and about being alive, living but coping with death, Winocour's new film follows Mia (Virginie Efira) our lead protagonist who is present for an atrocious act of barbarity when seeking refuge from a torrential downpour in a Parisian bistro. Her beau has had to return to work and she is alone when the attack happens, she hides under a table holding an African man’s hand they remain safe and are connected by this moment.

For Winocour this was a personal film as she states; 'My brother was at the Bataclan on November 13th. While he was hiding, I stayed in contact with him by text for part of the night. The film was inspired by my own memories of the trauma and by the account my brother gave in the days after the attack. I experienced for myself how events are deconstructed, and often reconstructed, by memory.” 

The Bataclan attacks occured in 2015 and much like the July 7th attacks in London, they are a constant reminder that a threat is around the corner but from the ashes of tragedy the power of healing and resilience can come to the fore.

An admired linguist who is renowned for her professionalism and a sort of rebel or outsider due to her riding a motorbike, she seeks solace following the event. Three months later, Mia is still unable to get her life back in order only remembering fleeting moments of the night, she attempts to investigate her memories to return to happiness. She attends therapy groups at the location as survivors tell their stories and yet she is met in opposition by one lady who accuses her of locking the bathroom door saving herself while others died.

Winocour is a director who engages with the milieu and mise-en-scene of the film, having her characters become one with the location and the location a part of the story. Tellingly the first shot we see post-siege is that of a Paris landmark with cars circling the monument, life goes on for everybody else in the major city yet for those who had to endure the attack the feeling of moving on is one that fills them with dread. A guilt of surviving while others were lost, she learns to cope through the struggle of daily work as anxiety grips her existence.

Winocour and Efira (as the focal point) have created a drama of quiet intensity and introspection about confronting the build up of overwhelming emotion that comes with witnessing a seismic event of tragedy; the film takes care to show that there is beauty in the world (a baby's cry) and yet there are those that will kill innocents willingly.

Yet Efira capably shows envy in her eyes at those who go about their business and how anything from the lighting of candles on a cake can illicit memories of the night. As Winocour mentions in press notes, she was more interested in the traces the attack left on the victims than attempting to explain the attack itself.

Efira deservedly won Best Actress at the 2022 Cesar Awards (French Oscars) for this performance is an actress who usually plays women who are unravelled or provoked (Verhoeven's Benedetta), her she plays Mia as a tightly wrought ball until the emotion finally comes to the surface. The empathy of her work here coupled with natural charm is a primer to the success of the film and how her every-person quality endears her to the viewership as she becomes a sort of detective in her quest for answers as she pieces together the fragments of her memory from that horrific evening.

Shot beautifully by Stephane Fontaine (A Prophet), the film is a message of hope in a sometimes mad world. Photograhed for the majority in medium and close up so that the intensity of the performance never waivers from the viewer and that comes from the quiet brilliance of Virginie Efira. This coupled with the same team of regular collaborators such as Julien Lacheray (Editor) and Pascaline Chavanne (Costume Design), this is a film of maturity and importance.

Paris Memories is the first time Winocour has filmed in her capital city and Paris itself becomes a character within the film wearing its scars for all to see while its inhabitants attempt to make sense of their position in the tragedy.

The recurring trope of hands touching and the need for connection amongst these souls, almost ghosts, is paramount and in Winocour's sympathetic and delicate handling the film touchingly attempts to make sense of the upheaval thrust upon Mia, Thomas and the others.

A film that is both resonant and emotional, touching and clear that there is hope within the world.

Paris Memories is out on 4th August in cinemas nationwide.

Silent Bones - Rachel Lynch

 

DI Kelly Porter returns with her new thriller

A gripping tale that is as much about the past as the present. DI Kelly Porter returns with a new tale about a cold case that brings back haunting memories for all involved.

Kelly was a good girl in school she stayed away from the cool kids, she kept her head down and did not rub people up the wrong way yet she remained approachable and knew when the cool kids went bad. 

In 1997, a young boy called Brian disappears and during a drought in the Thirlmere part of the Lake District, a body is found in a reservoir. The body is found to be that of young Brian who never came home one night.

The case spins on the discovery that some people are not letting on to know as much as they originally suggested. From the teacher, Mr. Thompson who hangs out with children at the weekend and may or may not been a drug supplier to those same pupils to Michelle the owner of a Holiday camp who took pity upon a local no-good Jason Cooper.

The discovery of a second body turns the case upside down with two murders to solve in a small town; coupled with accusations that Kelly's father, John Porter, renowned local policeman was not the salt of the earth he led people to believe.

As well as having to solve a case, Kelly also has a young family to look after and this follows familiar tropes of Canelo Crime releases from Lynch's contemporaries (MJ Lee and Marion Todd) who also have domestic routines to account for. This stable of writers make clear that law enforcement have problems at home to deal with as well as the crimes to solve - and this balance or openness of relationships certainly makes the characters more relatable and sympathetic. 

At times highly enthralling and page-turning, this is my first read of a Lynch crime thriller and certainly shall not be the last.

SILENT BONES is out on all formats from 27th July 2023 from Canelo Crime.

A Steady Job (Il Posto) - Cinecitta Italia Docs

New documentary highlighting the plight of full time employment in Southern Italy, screening as part of  Cinecittà Italian Docs

A Steady Job (Il Posto) focuses on graduate nurses and healthcare workers in Italy who compete for just a few vacancies in their desperate search for job stability. Filmed largely before, but ultimately impacted by, the coronavirus pandemic, it provides a disturbing overview of the labour market in Italy – a portrait of a tragically broken system.

 

Filmed in the hand-held form focusing on those trying to find work for these graduates, travelling to job fairs on long journeys, the documentary has this unfortunate air of resignation about the downfall of government to give jobs in a vital industry.

As the film notes in the beginning, one in two adults in Southern Italy are unemployed and so they travel on coaches to these job markets in the hope of gaining employment abandoning family with dreams still in their hearts.

A telling scene is when the man who arranges the trips for these hopeful souls is driving home with his business partner and he stops saying is it worth it for him to do this anymore in this recrutiment industry - the weight of the world and the burden he feels weighs heavy upon his shoulders. This moment is shot as an excised scene from Michael Mann's The Insider.

The ending of the film which poses more questions than supplying answers for those seeking employment, shows the individuals walking zombie-like with a melancholic ethereal electronic score underneath - this is a generation of souls lost without a direction in this world.

Filmed largely before but ultimately more impacted by the global pandemic, this overview of the Italian health system is both sombre and tragic. This film grips the audience and becomes an alternative road movie of sorts.

A Steady Job (Il Posto) will have its UK Premier and screen as part of the Cinecitta Italian Docs season at London's Bertha DocHouse on Saturday 24th June with a Q&A with directors Mattia Colombo and Gianluca Mattarese

Electric Malady - Review

Debut film that was nominated for Outstanding Debut British Film at recent BAFTA's out March 3rd in cinemas.

A fascinating documentary into a life in remote Norway of a man diagnosed with electrosensitivity, a condition that effects approximately 3% of the world's population according to statistics from World Health Organisation.

Director Marie Liden who shoots intimately and with humility towards her subject, William aged 40. William has been diagnosed with the condition in his adult life, so we find him amid the turmoil of adjusting to the everyday abnormality he finds himself in - having to be cut off from the family in a man-made cave to stave off the threat of electricity. 

In essence, this shows how to live off the grid but when the grid is everywhere, the melancholy felt by the lead character is paramount you really get a sense to the loss of interaction he is feeling, his being alone hits home and for us who had to endure lockdown for a number of months for a great number of people that sense of not belonging and being cut off is an everyday occurrence and one that is real and haunting.

As William dons a blanket, he appears as a nomadic folk ghost wandering around his makeshift home, listening to an ever-burgeoning CD collection of music. He sits in a parking lot while his mother shops and his use of a meter to show the levels of radiation makes clear the pressure and fear of radiation upon him is.

This documentary is a real winner, full of charm and craft but also a message that perhaps we do take our life for granted too often. Think of those others who are less fortunate be it less in terms of monetary value but also the missing out on the everyday interaction with people.

Electric Malady treats William nobly and without judgment, it is tactful in considering his situation.

Out in cinemas from 3rd March, seek this heartfelt documentary screening at ICA London and DocHouse

En Attendant Ana - Principia

 

The third album from Parisian five piece, En Attendant Ana, out now from Trouble in Mind Records

Pre-covid, remember those halycon days. En Attendant Ana released one of 2020's best albums in the January of that year, Juillet. While a ray of sunshine in the winter months before the world went indoors, the album was highly recommended and appeared on many a critic's list come the end of the year.

The quintet re-emerge from a period of hibernation with their third album released on Trouble in Mind records, Principia is a fine album and extension of their work as they grow themselves as a band and as people.

Starting off with the title track, Principia is a work of observation at a world changing as we stand still. The dynamics of relationships are explored and the individual's place within this society. Fronted by a female vocalist - Margaux Bouchaudon - whose voice is at times both haunting but harmonious; the album swoons with this permanent mood of French cote warmth washing over the album.

Best track is Wonder, a near six minute single that probably wears the motifs of the band most proudly - rhythmical and repetitive with a probing bassline that worms into your ears and stays with you. This is indicative of the album opener also -  yet the song speaks to the artist fearing themselves as an imposter and that person's place in the world.

The album feels cinematic, and while many references have been made to Stereolab, the band they remind me of most is Belle and Sebastian - a band that is culturally aware, self-reflexive and intelligent.

The album speaks to the personal but expressed through the universality of finding a reason for existing following the uncertainty of this post-Covid world, where the world got a bit smaller and yet we all seem a bit more distant from each other. There is a yearning in some of the songs for simpler times, perhaps that of 2019 when they wrote the music for Juillet, and yet they know the band must know that they must move forward unknowingly in this new world yet sounding defiant and true to themselves.

For fans of indie pop with a European too-cool-for-school shoegaze, this album is a must and already one of the best of this year. Expect it to be around at the end of year round ups come December, but for now bask in the glorious sunny delights from En Attendant Ana.

Principia is out now on all platforms via Trouble In Mind Records

My thanks to them and One Beat PR for the review opportunity.