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52 Films by Women Vol 6. 32. MAIXABEL (Director: Icíar Bollaín)

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  Contains significant plot detail Can an act of terrorism ever be forgiven? Justice is relative, based on concepts of injury and a legal system that determines intention, burden of proof and applicable tariffs. Forgiveness is outside the purview of any court. The bereaved assess the mental state of the perpetrator – the expression is ‘to look into their eyes to see what is in their hearts’. Then they decide. Sometimes forgiveness takes place in absentia, typically when religion is involved. Sometimes forgiveness is impossible, because the sense of hurt colours everything. Terrorism may be indiscriminate, but grief is personal. Director Ic í ar Bolla í n’s fact-based film, Maixabel , deals with a widow, Maixabel Lasa (Blanca Portillo) who agrees to meet with her husband’s killers, members of the proscribed terrorist group, ETA, short for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna or ‘Basque Homeland and Liberty’, under a scheme brought in by the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE). Most of th...
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52 Films by Women Vol 6. 31. ANAÏS IN LOVE (Les Amours d’Anaïs) (Director: Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet)

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  Anaïs (Anaïs Demoustier), the title character of writer-director Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s debut feature, Les Amours d’Ana ïs ( Anaïs in Love ), is a whirlwind. When we first meet her, she is snatching a bunch of flowers then running down the street to head for her apartment. She has a claustrophobic fear of elevators (as revealed later on) so dashes up the stairs to let in her landlady, who scowls at her sceptically. Anaïs offers the woman some juice but then finds that she doesn’t have any. She offers her some tea. The landlady refuses. Ostensibly, the landlady has come to install a smoke detector, one that has an adhesive back so you can attach it on the wall with ease. Anaïs does so. Halfway through the conversation, the smoke detector falls down. Anaïs jumps. We jump. She re-affixes it. Her landlady reminds her that Anaïs owes rent for March and April. Anaïs promises to pay. She wants to get someone to move in with her, though she has issues - as we discover, like not wa...
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52 Films by Women Vol 6. 30. PEACOCK'S PARADISE (Il Paradiso Del Pavone) (Director: Laura Bispuri)

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  Do film directors have an obligation to tell stories in an expansive, dramatic way? Not always. Relationships are messy, complicated and often unresolved. Italian co-writer-director Laura Bispuri’s third feature, Il Paradiso del Pavone ( Peacock’s Paradise ) explores this in an engaging way, with two gasp-making moments. The heavy metaphor in its title – reflecting one of the character’s pets – gives the film a distinctive edge. You may not remember the title, but you’ll recall the film as ‘the one with a peacock in it’, which is, as far as I know, not an episode of Friends . A peacock, otherwise known as ‘pavo’ or ‘Afropavo’ (thank you, National Geographic ) is the male of the species – its female counterpart is known as a peahen. Collectively, they are known as peafowl. Their feathers form a train that makes up sixty-per cent of their body weight. Blue peacocks – the variety featured in the film – are typically found in India and Sri Lanka. When they want to impress a peahen...
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52 Films by Women Vol 6. 29. ALI & AVA (Director: Clio Barnard)

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  I wasn’t really aware of the actor Adeel Akhtar until I saw him in British writer-director Clio Barnard’s Bradford-set film, Ali & Ava , in which his charismatic title character describes himself as ‘everyone’s favourite landlord’. Ali takes one of his tenant’s children, six-year-old Sofia (Ariana Bodorova) to school, where he meets Ava (Claire Rushbrook), a teaching assistant and grandmother to five children. Collecting Sofia from school, Ali boldly commits to giving Ava a ride home to the somewhat racist neighbourhood of Holme Wood. When his car is stuck at traffic lights, some local kids – young children, primary school age - throw stones. Ali gets out of the car and engages them, playing music loudly and inviting them to dance on his car boot, while Ava watches, expecting the worse. Finally, he drives them all home, piled as they are in the back seat. It is a credit to Akhtar and Barnard that the scene is utterly convincing. Ali comes across as simultaneously brave, optim...
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52 Films by Women Vol 6. 28. HERE BEFORE (Director: Stacey Gregg)

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  Making her feature film debut, the Northern Irish playwright Stacey Gregg directs the heck out of Here Before , a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, highly accomplished slow-burn Belfast-set psychological thriller with a knockout twist. Andrea Riseborough, who works with women film directors as much as their male counterparts, gives an unsettling performance as Laura, a mother whose daughter died in a road traffic accident and who becomes obsessed with Megan (Niamh Dornan), the young daughter of her new next-door neighbour, Marie (Eileen O’Higgins) who has moved in her tattooed partner, Chris (Martin McCann). Chris makes an immediate impact on Laura’s son, Tadhg (Lewis McAskie), a surly boy who attends Dunmurry Primary School along with Megan. They shoot hoops in the makeshift basket outside Laura’s home. Tadhg (pronounced Tie) wants to get a tattoo. ‘Not until you’re eighteen,’ snaps his mother. Laura’s husband, Brendan (Jonjo O’Neill) is less than impressed. He’s a blue-collar guy, ev...
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52 Films by Women Vol 6. 27. MARRY ME (Director: Kat Coiro)

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  Marry Me started life as a comic book, written by Bobby Crosby and illustrated by Remi ‘Eisu’ Mokhtar, that was spotted in 2008 by screenwriter John Rogers. 14 years later, it is Universal Studios’ big Valentine’s Day release, a vehicle for producer-star Jennifer Lopez, straight from her $100 million-grossing hit, Hustlers , and directed by Kat Coiro, who previously helmed the independent films, Life Happens and A Case of You . The premise of the comic book is ridiculously simple. An international pop star discovers that her husband-to-be has cheated on her and marries a fan instead. In the film, scripted by Rogers, Tami Sagher and Harper Dill, the substitute groom, maths teacher Charlie Gilbert (Owen Wilson) isn’t really a fan. He ends up going to the concert with his twelve-year-old, no longer daddy’s girl daughter, Lou (Chloe Coleman) to accompany a colleague, Parker Debbs (Sarah Silverman) after she had split from her girlfriend; gay best friends can be female as well as ...
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52 Films by Women Vol 6. 26. AMULET (Director: Romola Garai)

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  No one ever questions why first-time male writer-directors choose horror. It is unfair to ask this of actress-turned-writer-director Romola Garai. Garai has an eclectic CV, cast as the female lead opposite Diego Luna in the immemorable Dirty Dancing spin-off Havana Nights as well as appearing in the films Atonement , Suffragette and The Last Days on Mars . She most recently played the titular Miss Marx for Italian director Susanna Nicchiarelli.   Garai has not found the award-friendly or Hollywood-calling card role that will transform her into an A-lister, unlike her contemporary, Keira Knightley. From a career point of view, going behind the camera makes sense, a move she has cultivated for some years, having directed the 2012 short, Scrubber . Garai has written a number of as-yet-unproduced screenplays (including adaptations) for mid-range budgeted movies before penning the modestly budgeted Amulet , where most of the action takes place in a house and where Dartmoor do...
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