Glasgow Film Festival 2010
company Black Camel Pictures, shot on location in Dumfries and Galloway (where the interior of a town hall doubled as a New York apartment building) and which will receive its world premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival as the event’s closing night gala. Elba not only stars in the film, which concerns a Black Ops soldier suffering a mental breakdown and attempting to piece his life back together after returning from a botched mission in Eastern Europe, but he has also executive produced it. Why, then, did Elba single out this project with which to make his producing debut and use his current industry clout to get the film made? ‘The script was phenomenal,’ Elba says. ‘Halfway through reading it, I was convinced I wanted to do the film. The character of Malcolm Gray was not a walk in the park. We spend 90 per cent of the film with Malcolm in a hotel room and we watch him deteriorate on screen. But the role was very attractive, with complexities not typically offered in films today. We have seen schizophrenics, but he is a paranoid schizophrenic, and this is coupled with his journey of discovery. There are many themes in this film, but you are allowed to walk away at the end with your own idea of what you have seen – Thomas hasn’t spoon-fed the audience.’
It’s not hard to see why Elba has gotten behind Akimi. The young filmmaker made his feature debut in 2004 with Limbo, a noirish murder mystery with quasi-religious overtones, shot at the age of 23 while he
‘WHAT YOU’RE BASICALLY SEEING IS IDRIS DETERIORATE ON CAMERA’
was reading English Lit at Columbia University, New York. Apparently inspired by Dante’s Inferno, trade magazine Variety described it as a cross between The Matrix’s Wachowski brothers and Sartre. Limbo toured the film festival circuit, where it was lauded as a cult film-in-the- making, and brought its maker to the attention of Black Camel, which company was looking to follow up its own debut, the Scottish BAFTA-winning Nazi zombie horror Outpost.
‘This is Thomas’s second feature as a director,’ Elba says, ‘but he’s a very smart cat, very driven, adaptable, and knows what he wants. And Black Camel is a great team of filmmakers, with a great plan of execution. I was really impressed with them. Malcolm Gray would not be a walk in the park for any actor, but they had confidence in me. In the four weeks of filming, I was doing 12 to 14 hours a day, sleeping, then going back to being Malcolm. My life turned into Malcolm’s for the shoot. What you’re basically seeing is Idris deteriorate on camera.’ Seeing that from the man who played the seemingly invincible ‘Stringer’ Bell has got to be worth the price of admission.
Legacy, GFT 1, Sun 28 Feb, 8.30pm.
Screamadelica
Henry Northmore speaks to horror king, Adam Green, as he prepares to scare his fans stiff at FrightFest ‘10
‘FrightFest – Glasgow Film Festival’s horror strand – returns for two more days of scream-worthy screenings this February, with the usual array of devoted horror fans in tow. ‘The fans are like nothing else in the world. Have you ever heard of a romantic comedy convention?’ laughs director Adam Green, who’s Frozen (pictured, above) gets its UK premiere at this festival within a festival. ‘FrightFest is like Christmas to me, I go even when I don’t have a film in it.’
Frozen has a simple yet ingenious premise: three people are stuck on a ski lift as the resort closes down around them. The set-up proved gruelling to work with however, with the entire movie shot in situ. ‘If it feels like it’s on a sound stage or it’s on a green screen then the movie has failed,’ explains Green. ‘The whole movie was shot practically; the cast was really 50ft in the air, the cameras were really 50ft in the air, we shot though blizzards, hailstorms and the worst conditions anybody has ever shot in, except for maybe March of the Penguins.’
Currently working on the sequel to his breakthrough movie, Hatchet,
Green can’t wait to get to FrightFest. ‘I just hope I’m conscious because I literally wrap Hatchet 2 at 6am that morning, I’m on a plane at 7am, I travel for almost 24 hours and I get to Glasgow just three hours before the premiere of Frozen. Afterwards I will sign every autograph, shake every hand and meet everybody but I probably just won’t remember it.’
Joining Frozen on the programme this year are hillbilly horror 2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams, slasher flick Stag Night, an uncut screening of Lucio Fulci’s psychedelic 1971 giallo (Italian erotic horror) A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin, Amer, a homage to aforementioned Italian horror movement, Spanish zombie action feature [Rec] 2, genetic shocker Splice and Iceland’s first ever exploitation film Harpoon: Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre. Enough to give you bad dreams until next year. ■ Frozen, GFT, Fri 26 Feb, 7pm, with introduction from Adam Green.
GALA
WORLD WORLD
EUROPEAN
New York, I Love You Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo
City of Life and Death Lourdes
GALA I Am Love
Evidently following up on The List’s ‘We Love This City’ feature, this anthology showcases short films about the Big Apple from eleven international filmmakers. GFT, 3.45, Wed 24 Feb and 6.15pm, Thu 25 Feb.
Revealing and surprisingly poignant documentary about the Japanese fascination with insects – seemingly a national pasttime. CCA, 6pm, Wed 24 Feb. GFT, 3.30pm, Thu 25 Feb.
The rape of Chinese city Nanking by Japanese troops in 1937 is told in this epic and engrossing black and white drama, based on true accounts. Cineworld Renfrew Street, 6pm, Wed 24 Feb and 1pm, Thu 25 Feb.
Poignant and restrained drama about one wheelchair bound lady’s pilgrimage to the miracle grounds of French town Lourdes. Cineworld Renfrew Street, 6.30pm, Wed 24 Feb and 3.30pm, Thu 25 Feb. Masterful Italian familial drama starring Tilda Swinton set among a wealthy industrial family in Milan where all is not as it seems. GFT, 8.15pm, Wed 24 Feb. Cineworld Renfrew Street, 6pm, Thu 25 Feb.
18 Feb–4 Mar 2010 THE LIST 25