Global South at the London Film Festival
Daniel Nelson
A selection of films from Africa, Asia and Latin America, or dealing with migration issues, from this year’s BFI London Film Festival (4-15 October 2023).
The list is not complete. Check out the full programme here.
* Cobweb, electric meta-comedy about the turbulence of South Korea’s film industry in the 1970s
* Dear Jassi, a Romeo in Punjab and Juliet in Canada go against family and clan in this epic saga, based on true events.
* I Am Sirat, a trans woman living a double life as a man in New Delhi continues to express an identity against all odds
* Self-Portrait: 47 KM 2020, 11th installment in Zhang Mengqi’s self-portrait series details the minutiae of daily life in the filmmaker’s ancestral village during 2020
* In Camera, Naqqash Khalid’s debut about a struggling British Asian actor confronts film industry prejudice and social hypocrisy head-on
* Mambar Pierrette, Rosine Mbakam’s feature debut focuses on a week in the life of a working-class Cameroonian who strives against all odds to make ends meet
* Penal Cordillera (Prison in the Andes), a group of high-ranking Chilean military officers serving long prison terms for their human rights abuses find their privileges challenged in this atmospheric thriller
* The Queen of My Dreams, against the backdrop of grief and obsession with Bollywood fantasy, a queer Canadian Pakistani and her mother experience their coming of age across two eras
* Tiger Stripes, nothing is quite as scary as puberty in this exuberant feminist pre-teen body horror from first-time Malaysian director Amanda Nell Eu
* Bye Bye Tiberias, Lina Soualem’s deeply personal and joyful exploration of her relationship with her mother, the acclaimed actor Hiam Abbass
* Celluloid Underground, poetic, dexterous film manifests Ehsan Khoshbakht’s intense and multifaceted relationship to cinema
* Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano, documentary about a film being made at the time of Beirut’s massive 20230 explosion
* The Klezmer Project (Adentro mío estoy bailando), playful docu-fiction brings to light the beauty of klezmer music and its links to vanishing Jewish communities from Buenos Aires to Eastern Europe
* The Taste of Mango, three generations, spanning London to Sri Lanka, are woven into this poetic, meditative film that flows through time and cracks open secrets with bold vulnerability
* Àma Gloria, a French girl is heartbroken when Gloria, her nanny, returns to her own family in Cape Verde, in this acutely sensitive study of grief and growing up
* Banel & Adama, love story set in Mali, Banel and Adama’s relationship is tested by a devastating turn of events that challenges their village’s way of life
* The Eternal Memory (La Memoria Infinita), memory and the power of love are tenderly explored in this moving documentary about a Chilean couple learning to live with dementia
* Girl, Déborah Lukumuena and Le’Shantey Bonsu give stunning performances as a deeply connected mother and daughter in Adura Onashile’s tender drama set in Glasgow
* Unicorns, a celebration of culture, sexuality and love, Sally El Hosaini’s third collaboration with James Krishna Floyd is a potent portrait of modern London
* Goodbye Julia, Sudanese filmmaker Mohamed Kordofani’s impressive drama, in which a woman seeks redemption following an incident that threatens to destroy all she holds dear
* Four Daughters (Les Filles d’Olfa), the mother-daughter relationship is explored by director Kaouther Ben Hania to cathartic effect in this complex and poignant hybrid documentary about a woman and her missing daughters
* The Mission, martyr or a deluded foreign invader? Animation and archive combine in this compelling portrait of the life and death of young missionary John Allen Chau
* Shoshana, a young Jewish woman’s relationship with a British policeman stationed in Palestine has lasting consequences for the region in this historical thriller
* Youth (Spring) (Qing Chun (Chun)), Wang Bing captures the daily dramas of young migrant workers in the Chinese textile industry
* Asog, set in the wake of a destructive typhoon in The Philippines, this witty combination of road movie and docu-drama is a marvel of trans cinema
* The Practice (La Práctica), the break-up between two yoga teachers in the Chilean capital prompts a droll series of encounters in the latest black comedy from Argentine filmmaker Martín Rejtman
* Shortcomings, a trio of young Asian-Americans try to figure out their (love) lives in a funny and touching adaptation of Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel
* Terrestrial Verses (Ayeh Haye Zamini), a series of vignettes capturing Iranians in daily life gradually builds into a compelling portrait of societal restrictions
* Animalia, Sofia Alaoui’s feature debut featuring a breakout central performance by Oumaïma Barid takes aim at Morocco’s wealthy elite
* Behind the Mountains (Oura el Jebel), a father tries to reconnect with his son and show him a fascinating discovery, in this social drama set in Tunisia which revels in magical realism
* Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, Thien An Pham’s debut locates us in stranger-than-fiction places in bustling Saigon and the picturesque Vietnamese countryside
* Omen (Augure), Koffi’s epileptic seizure, before a trip home to Kinshasa, acts as an omen for the turbulence that awaits him, in rapper-turned-filmmaker Baloji’s Cannes winner
* Power Alley (Levante), queer sisterhood and collective power lie at the heart of this Brazilian debut, in which a promising volleyball player faces an unwanted pregnancy
* Red Island (L’île rouge), a searching exploration of memory and politics, in a boldly conceived story of boyhood in 1970s Madagascar
* Samsara, award winner Lois Patiño’s third feature transports us to magical places in Laos and Zanzibar, where the visible and the invisible merge
* Only the River Flows (He bian de cuo wu), prolific writer-director Shujun Wei skilfully constructs an unusual slow-burn noir, drawing us inexorably into its mysterious psychological journey
* Stolen, worlds collide when two siblings find themselves drawn into the kidnapping of a tribal woman’s baby in a rural Indian town, in a grippingly tense thriller
* The Bride, Rwandan scholar Eva’s childhood is abruptly cut short when she is snatched away from home to become a stranger’s bride
* The Echo (El Eco), Tatiana Huezo’s achingly beautiful portrait of a remote Mexican village
* Expats, writer-director Lulu Wang delves into the complex dynamics of Hong Kong’s wealthy expat community in this adaptation of Janice Y. K. Lee’s best-selling novel
* Inshallah a boy (Inshallah Walad), the challenges of single motherhood in an oppressive society are exposed in this gripping Jordanian drama, anchored by an empowering central performance
* Ramona, a teen actor’s quest to gain authenticity in her performance as a pregnant runaway becomes a rich documentary study of Dominican girlhood
* The Settlers (Los colonos), masterful revisionist Western tackles the genocide of Chile’s Selk’nam people and probes the unsettling relationship between myth, truth and history
* Shayda, an Iranian woman in Australia attempts to cut her abusive husband out of her life and retain custody of their daughter, in Noora Niasari’s compelling drama
* Croma Kid, in a quirky 1980s-set coming-of-age tale set in the Dominican Republic, 13-year-old Emi must figure out how to rescue his magician parents from another dimension
* They Shot the Piano Player, animated political thriller and investigative narrative about a Brazilian musician forcibly disappeared
* The Spectre of Boko Haram (Le spectre de Boko Haram), have you ever wondered how war looks from a child’s perspective? Cyrielle Raingou’s documentary captures life for young refugees
* The Dupes (Al-Makhdu’un), Egyptian director Tewfik Saleh’s uncompromising film, banned for decades, still has the power to unsettle audiences in this striking restoration
* The Stranger and the Fog (Gharibeh Va Meh), a Holy Grail of the Iranian New Wave, Beyzaie’s strange, challenging, densely symbolic film is utterly absorbing and one of the restoration revelations of the year
* Pressure, Britain’s first Black feature is a groundbreaking depiction of second-generation experience in 1970s London