Weird and Wonderful: New Films Coming to Showroom
Last week, I cancelled my tickets for the New Horizons film festival, which I'd gotten myself and my partner as a gift in early 2020. After pushing them back a year, I hoped 2021 would be my year, but it's not looking like I'll be travelling any time soon! New Horizons is a fantastic festival that spotlights films that are bold, innovative, and fresh. Their programme is always unique, confidently mining the depths of international cinema to dig out real diamonds. Since I won't be there, I thought I'd highlight some of the weird and wonderful international films coming up in our programme.
On Friday, we're opening with Maya Da-Rin's The Fever. A quietly burning Brazilian drama about indigenous peoples torn between their source of income – the city – and their source of strength: the rainforest. This is Da-Rin's first narrative feature film, but she has two previous documentaries. Like The Fever, both films are moving portraits of the rainforest and the communities surrounding it.
Next week, there's not one, but three (!) international films – the combination of which demonstrates the astounding breadth of world cinema available in the UK at the moment. I'm Your Man is a German comedy-drama screened at the Berlin Film Festival, where it scooped a nomination for best film. It follows Alma, a scientist who accepts an offer to participate in an extraordinary experiment. For three weeks, she is to live with a humanoid robot that has been designed to morph into her ideal life partner. It's a thought-provoking and surprisingly funny take on modern love. There's also Wildland, which also screened at Berlinale this year. It follows a teenage girl who moved in with her aunt after her mother's passing. Though welcoming and filled with love, her new home is also the base for a violent family of criminals, of which her aunt is the matriarch. Wildland is a tense, enthralling and utterly gripping thriller that packs a powerful emotional punch.
Finally, there's New Order. A fierce film set in Mexico City. New Order begins at a lavish high society wedding that is interrupted by violent rioters. But it soon becomes apparent that this attack is part of a nationwide uprising. Brutal and blood-soaked, New Order won't be for the faint of heart. It is angry work that envisages a population pushed to the edge of collapse.
The Fever is showing at the Showroom Cinema from Friday 6 August. I'm Your Man, Wildland, and New Order are released on Friday 13 August. Tickets available to book online.
This article first featured in the Sheffield Telegraph on Thursday 5 August 2021.