The Edinburgh Short Film Festival opens again on October 27th and It’s great to see that some very good comedies have made it onto the programme this year and we’re always pleased to light the mood on those dark November nights!
From USA, we are excited to screen, PACO by Catalina Jordan Alvarez, A wonderfully funny comic portrait of a catcaller, choreographed with a non-professional cast and captured with disarmingly intimate 16mm photography.
Simultaneously sweet and slightly disturbing, Paco engages and repels with equal force. Uniquely comic and brilliantly played and directed with panache and vision.
Winner of several awards including the Prix des Detanus, SERVAL AND CHAUMIER by Arthur Goisset is a charming and beautifully staged French period comedy. Set in 1896, in a small French village, Jules Chaumier, professional magician, runs into Marcel Serval, his former disciple who left 10 years ago, along with Jules’ wife Jacqueline. Their conflict and bitterness leads them to attempt the potentially lethal ‘Flight of the Phoenix’ stunt, which will determine who actually is the true “Master of Shadows”…
Fresh from the 29th Helsinki International Film Festival, one of this year’s favourite comedies THE DIJON STORY by Finnish director Mikko Myllylahti follows the misadventures of four Finnish hipsters who end up in a funky bar in Berlin. Kaarlo is trying to impress the girls by telling them what once happened to his not-so-talkative Lappish friend Toni, in another bar in Dijon, France.
A waspish satire on modern hipsterdom, some very funny performances and oodles of curvacious facial hair, cultivated to an extraordinary degree!
To mark our first satellite event, being held on Friday 10th November in partnership with Screen Tiree on the Isle of Tiree, we’re delighted to present a Screen Tiree classic, TRAINSPOTTING TIREE by Jack Lockhart. The film was created entirely by the Screen Tiree committee, filmed in only a couple of hours using a mobile phone. However, it has since been uploaded to social media and has now been viewed over 10,000 times through shares on social media and is possibly one of Scotland’s most popular viral films. It was even retweeted by the author of Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh, who simple commented ‘Love it!’
Downbeat comedy played with great panache by a cast on form, MARKY’S BAD WEEK by Daniel Holmwood is an edgy comedy brought up on the wrong side of the tracks! After having the worst week of his life, Marky reflects on everything that has gone wrong in recent days and looks to his last vice to help him through it all – a spliff. But when he realises that he has lost his last nodge of hash, he sets off to retrace his steps and find it. Unfortunately for Marky, things only start to go from bad to worse when he crosses paths with an old acquaintance.
We’re also pleased to screen GOOD GIRLS by Niamh McKeown, a darkly ironic comedy with shades of Wes Anderson, Edinburgh-shot GOOD GIRLS follows Bonnie, Pinkman’s finest student and head girl takes us on a tour of her school as she tries to round up the school captains in time for the school photo.
A comedy that defies description – but I’ll try anyway, it’s kind of like a Russian offspring of John Shuttleworth – RINGO ROCKET STAR & HIS SONG FOR YURI GAGARIN by Rene Nuijens is a dry tragic musical comedy (short) film about a gypsy guy who does think he can be famous by writing a song for the first man in the space ‘YURI GAGARIN’…he dragoons his long-suffering wife into taking part and armed with a rocket and a dated Bontempi keyboard, goes on tour!
Check them out at this year’s ESFF, you only have one chance to seem them!
