I was lucky enough to attend the Leeds International Film Festival for one jam packed Saturday of film watching. The festival hosts a wide repertoire of internationally renowned films, such as best picture shoe-in and Palme d’Or winner Anora and other notable award contenders like Conclave, The Seed of the Sacred Fig and Bird. I didn’t see any of those films however, instead filling my day with 4 less widely seen but no less interesting films.
Grand Theft Hamlet
The first film I saw at the festival was admittedly my most anticipated. Grand Theft Hamlet is a documentary film that follows two out of work actors, Sam and Mark, attempting to stage a production of Hamlet entirely inside Grand Theft Auto Online. Ever since seeing reviews from SXSW earlier in the year, I’ve been intrigued and was very pleased to see it on the Leeds line up.
This screening was in the lovely Howard Assembly Rooms, which made for a beautiful space to watch the film, although this space was definitely more Hamlet than Grand Theft Auto. On concept alone, it is pretty fantastic. It is entirely shot within the game and follows the whole journey of getting the play made, the audition process, location scouting, costuming and rehearsals, all within the game using as little outside communication as possible. Frequently, their attempts are thwarted by the game and its players and this is perhaps the most enjoyable part of the film.
In its early moments, Sam and Mark find a big stage and begin their soliloquies; they are promptly shot with rocket launchers by other players. Sometimes their scenes are stopped by the in-game police, other times they are interrupted by someone deciding to fly a plane into them. These particularly funny elements of the film were definitely enhanced by a very enthusiastic festival crowd who seemed to find almost every disruption hilarious. With a generally older skewing audience, the seeming unfamiliarity with the game itself made for a particularly fun atmosphere, with people being constantly surprised by the film and its in-game setting.
There are moments that feel a tad overly scripted, which is the film’s biggest flaw. This leaves the moments of conflict feeling a little inauthentic and forced. This may not have been so bad if the highlights weren’t so clearly the off-the-cuff moments that emerged through the scenario they put themselves in. But even then, Grand Theft Hamlet was an immensely entertaining and at times a genuinely emotional piece of filmmaking, using its ridiculous premise to the best of its abilities. Considering that the film was essentially made by 3 people, (Sam, Mark, and Sam’s wife Pinny who co-directed, shot, and edited the film), it is truly impressively put together.
Grand Theft Hamlet gets a release in UK cinemas via MUBI later this year, which is great to see for such a small, independent production. It will be well worth your time to track down and watch.
Universal Language
My only long gap between films was directly after this, which was a lovely excuse to wander round the city before returning to Howard Assembly Rooms for Universal Language. Directed by Matthew Rankin, Universal Language is a Canadian absurdist comedy/drama and ended up being my favourite film from the festival and one of the best films I’ve seen this year. It was an absolute gem, and was a film that I never would have found had it not been screened at the festival.
It was after this showing that the hectic nature of film festivals kicked into overdrive. Universal Language finished at 18:29 and the next film that I signed up to watch began at 18:30 and was at a different venue. As the credits rolled, I sprinted over to the Leeds Vue in order to catch the next showing. Luckily I made it in time and kept my reviewing integrity intact by managing to actually watch the whole thing.
When the Light Breaks
This screening was of When the Light Breaks, an Icelandic film that premiered at Cannes Film Festival earlier in the year. The film documents the events of a single day wherein Una (Elin Hall) begins a relationship with Didi (Baldur Einarsson) before his death. Una spends most of the day with a group of Didi’s friends and his girlfriend, who he was on his way to break up with in order to date Una when he died.
This dynamic was fascinating. On the surface you have the anxiety-inducing scenario of a new partner meeting an old partner times a thousand, but more interestingly it interrogates the idea of who gets to have reactions to certain situations. Many characters didn’t know Una and Didi were beginning a relationship, so she’s unable to have the same emotional outpour that his current partner does. The film questions the idea that some people get to have more of a right to feelings than others in a very interesting way.
Elin Hall’s performance is brilliant, her frustration and grief is so believable and really carries the film. The rest of the group is also very compelling, with Mikael Kaaber (who plays Didi’s best friend) being the other stand out. For the first half of the film Kaaber does a lot of crying, but you never get annoyed at the character because Kaaber sells it so well.
Despite these elements that really work, there are some hang-ups, like the pacing. A lot of scenes really linger, and this occasionally works as it allows the characters space in scenes – which can be a powerful tool. However, more often you end up feeling like you’re just watching nothing to fill up the runtime. The runtime is short, coming in at only 82 minutes, but even then it feels stretched beyond what it needs. It could easily be a 30 minute short and be even more effective.
My next (and last) film of the day was also in the Vue. In fact I was booked into the same exact seat I had just watched When the Light Breaks in so my stress was alleviated. When you’re in a chain cinema you could almost forget it was a film festival – almost as if you’re just doing a slightly deranged double bill.
The Girl with the Needle
With this last film, my day at the festival ended with a certified downer. Danish director Magnus Von Horn’s The Girl with the Needle is an unflinchingly grim and bleak film. Shot entirely in black and white, it tells the story of Karoline, a young woman who works in a sewing factory during the immediate post-war period of World War One, detailing the unending turmoil she faces.
The black and white cinematography is wonderful, paying careful attention to the lighting in order to make it still look dynamic despite the lack of colour, alongside effectively reflecting the dreariness of the story itself. The production design is similarly brilliant. The film was shot in Poland even though it’s set in Copenhagen, but the sense of place remains strong and authentic. Although this might be because I’ve never been to Copenhagen and don’t know any better. The set dressing makes the cobbled streets really fit within this specific era and expertly matches the tone.
It is the tone that exemplifies the problems I have with the film. As mentioned, the film is bleak, but I want to double down on quite how bleak it is. Karoline’s narrative only goes from one trauma to the next, whenever she finds some respite her suffering is doubled down on. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as you can tell upsetting stories and make it impactful, but the way The Girl with the Needle handles it doesn’t sit right with me.
Von Horn also cited his main influences in the introduction, the most prominent amongst these being David Lynch’s The Elephant Man. It’s easy to see this influence, especially in the very clear visual parallels. However, it was the mention of this influence that made what didn’t work about the film finally click. The Elephant Man is another bleak story that discusses human cruelty in a similar time period, but at the same time has deep empathy for its characters. Kindness is infused into Lynch’s film far deeper than cruelty, but The Girl with the Needle lacks this element. At every turn it refuses to show kindness or the interiority of its characters aside from their suffering. Thus the film’s narrative and character work fall flat.
This is perhaps a unique quirk of the festival setting. As all the films shown had introductions read before they began, meaning you go into the film with more specific expectations than you might have otherwise. Normally, if you watch a film at the cinemas you won’t have a direct list of other films to compare it to read aloud, which was perhaps a disadvantage in this particular case.
The Girl with the Needle wasn’t a bad film – none of the films I saw at the festival were – but its particular brand of heaviness just didn’t work for me. I suspect there will be an audience for it, as it’s the Danish submission for Best International Feature at the Oscars. There’s clearly a lot of faith in it, but I think it will be a little too mean-spirited for many. More than anything, it left me appreciating the relative brevity and emotional vulnerability of When the Light Breaks.
Ending at half ten in the evening, I then had to make another mad rush for the last coach back to Manchester. The overall experience of the festival was definitely slightly frenzied, seeing 4 films in one day pretty much back to back in cinemas is tiring, but it was a kind of exhilarating frenzy. It acts as a fantastic excuse to watch a bunch of films that you might not have seen otherwise in quick succession, and that is a wonderful thing.
This scheduling also makes you appreciate the effort that festival programmers put in to ensure a good schedule, as the films were shown at the right time I needed to see them. Grand Theft Hamlet was a perfect light hearted start to the day, and seeing The Girl with the Needle at any time other than in complete darkness would just have felt wrong. At the end of the day, who wouldn’t want to have a whole day of cinema-going if they got the chance, regardless of a little rushing about here and there.
