22 | September 19, 2013 | cambridge-news.co.uk | Cambridge News WHAT’S ON Cambridge Film Festival Variations on a theme Young Americans l Prince Avalanche EMILE Hirsche and Paul Rudd team up to re-paint the lines on the roads after the Texas forest fires in 1988. Overall clad with questionable facial hair, the odd duo form a strange kind of attachment in this burnt down world void of other people as they track back and forth, splodging the roads with strips of yellow. A post-apocalyptic road movie, charred and vacant, it is searching, moving but above all funny. A quirky turn for Rudd and floppy fringed Hirsch, you’ll be reaching for your own set of dungarees by the end. Today, 10.45pm, Monday, Sept 23, 3.45pm l Only the Young A BLUR of documentary filmed like fiction, Only the Young is directors Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mims’ movie debut. Three teens in the throws of graduation – Christian skaters Garrison and Kevin, plus Garrison’s sometime girlfriend Skye – skate about town, hunting through abandoned houses in the Southern Californian desert, pottering about empty pools and soaking up the sunshine on a neglected mini-gold course, talking all the while to a soundtrack of old school R&B. Adventurous, boundless and honest, it tears apart the thought that adulthood might be a place you could call safe. Saturday, Sept 21, 3.30pm, Sunday, Sept 22, 8.30pm l A Teacher WHAT was a thrill-laden fling between a teacher, Diana Watts, and her student, Eric Tull, descends into a spiral of obsession and obscure desires – on Diana’s part at least. Eric instead wanders happily from relationship to relationship unaware of the volatile feelings of his tutor. Directed by 27-year-old Hannah Fiddell, this is dark, concerning and brilliantly nuanced, exploring the pleasure of the illicit, and the damning consequences of crossing the line. UK premiere, Friday, Sept 20, 6.30pm l Ain’t Them Bodies Saints STARRING the wonderfully brittle Casey Affleck as an outlaw racing across the Texan countryside to find his wife, the stunning Rooney Mara, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints starts with the end: a Bonnie and Clyde shoot out with the police. Bubbling with longing, anguish and need, it repeatedly nods to Terence Malick’s painfully touching Badlands and spools out tensely as fate creeps up on the protagonists. It’ll leave you fraught and hollow – in a good way. Monday, Sept 23, 3.30pm/8.45pm, Cineworld, Wednesday, Sept 25, 10.45pm Contemporary German Cinema l Dust on our Hearts KATHI is a struggling 30-year- old wannabe actress with a 4-year-old son (whom she momentarily loses), an overbearing mother who uses her career as a life-coach to diagnose (i.e. nosy her way into) Kathi’s problems, then her long lost father turns up causing all sorts of trouble. Shot through with love, Dust on our Hearts will make you laugh, take a sideways glance at your own family and consider where you stand in the world. UK premiere, Monday, Sept 23, 6.15pm, Tuesday, Sept 24, 1.15pm. Actress Stephanie Stremler will make an appearance. l Free Fall Policeman Marc has a baby on the way and a mortgage to pay. Then he goes and falls in love with new colleague Kay on a training meeting. Emotionally charged and dangerously torn, Marc loses control, free-wheeling through his life, hurtling by people and damaging them on his way down. Is there any way back? Gripping, unsettling, with pulses of hope too, Free Fall will make you question every sense of duty you possess. UK premiere, Tuesday, Sept 24, 7pm,Wednesday, Sept 25, 1.30pm, Cineworld. Director Stephan Lacant will make an appearance. l Ludwig II LUDWIG II, King of Bavaria, is the topic of this biopic on a man who was much more interested in spending his country’s budget on the production of Wagner’s operas than on weapons (and why not?). Sabin Tambrea – tipped for great things – stars as Ludwig, informed by the latest historical research on the rather eccentric, but well loved, character. It is also the last film from director Peter Sehr who died this spring – don’t miss it. UK premiere, Sunday, Sept 22, 3.15pm,Wednesday, Sept 25, 3pm, Cineworld Eastern View l Of Snails and Men BASED on a true story – and a very bizarre one at that – Of Snails and Men takes a peek into the microcosm of a Romanian factory whose workers, when threatened with privatisation, decide to donate their sperm to raise the necessary cash to save jobs. Set against the backdrop of 1992 when Michael Jackson’s Dangerous tour visited Romania, it’s slightly mental, filled with crazy ideas and a whole lot of heart. Then the factory’s CEO goes and makes a deal with a French snail company… as you do. Sunday, Sept 29, 6.30pm ɀ Cold (Turkey, 2013) In actor-turned-director Ugur Yucel’s Cold, Kars’ sparse, chilly climes serve as a severe but also visually arresting backdrop to an absorbing tale of lust, guilt, and revenge. In the wake of inebriated wedding celebrations, morally conservative rail worker Balabey and his bloodyminded younger brother Enver fall in with a trio of Russian sisters who are working as prostitutes in Kars, but who are set on repatriation to their motherland at the earliest opportunity. With his wife pregnant at home and his conscience weighing heavy, Balabey nevertheless becomes infatuated with the youngest sister, while fiery Enver only stirs up further trouble. Played out against stunning shots of the icy Caucasian tundra, Balabey’s obsession leads inevitably towards a tragic and violent conclusion. UK premiere. Saturday, Sept 28, 4pm. ɀ Coming Forth By Day (Egypt, United Arab Emirates, 2012) Cairo. A small, dusty apartment, barely touched by sunlight, and home to three silent, sombre figures. Soad’s life is entirely dominated by caring for her sickly father, left helpless by a stroke. Her mother is a nurse, whose night-shifts leave her little able to share the burden. Unfolding at a serene, measured pace reflective of the oppressive quietude, the film follows Soad’s daily routine, depicting the apartment as a place isolated from the outside world. Her eventual foray out of her crypt-like home is a breath of air, and her spontaneous exploration of Cairo’s nightlife a string of precious, stolen moments. Meditating on notions of mortality, duty, and gender-roles in today’s Middle-East, Lotfy’s filmmaking voice — heavily inflected with European art-house tradition — is a very promising addition to Arab cinema. Thursday, Sept 26, 3.45pm. ɀ The Crash Reel (USA, 2013) Aged 18, Kevin Pearce was a starlet of the professional snowboarding circuit. Having racked up numerous championships and high- profile sponsorships thanks to his aerial wizardry, he was considered a shoo-in for the 2010 US Winter Olympics team—his only competition for podium places coming in the shape of long-term rival Shaun White. But just weeks before the Olympics, the unthinkable happened: Pearce suffered a horrific accident in training, leaving him with serious damage to his brain and one of his eyes. Despite a lengthy rehabilitation process, and the risk that any further trauma could have fatal consequences, Pearce insisted he would return to the sport, against the wishes of his loved ones. Immersing herself within both snowboarding culture, and Pearce’s close-knit family group, this is an incisive insight by Lucy Walker into the world of extreme sports, where danger is the criterion of value. Friday, Sept 20, 8.45pm, Saturday, Sept 21, 5.30pm (Sawston Cinema), Sunday, Sept 22, 1pm. ɀ Dead Cat (UK, 2013) Michael and Kristen were childhood sweethearts, but haven’t spoken in 10 years. Thrown back together as they both begin their thirties, is there still anything between them? With only a gang of hilariously dysfunctional friends as allies, the former lovers attempt to work out whether their chance reunion constitutes love or just nostalgia. Directed by Stefan Georgiou and starring Sebastian Armesto (both hotly tipped in Screen International’s Star of Tomorrow 2011), Dead Cat is a winsome, entertaining take on contemporary relationships, and a breezy shot in the arm for British comedy. With a soundtrack featuring promising UK artists such as Dry The River, Sound of Guns and Chad Valley, and a cast including Tom Mison (One Day, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen) and Johnny Palmeiro (Bonded By Blood, The Kid), the film brings together some of the finest emerging British talent. Saturday, Sept 21, 8pm (Sawston Cinema), Wednesday, Sept 25, 11pm, Friday, Sept 27, 1.15pm. Festival Choice Ever the eclectic programmers, Cambridge Film Festival has lined up a collection of quirky, educational and suitably stunning themed film strands, featuring classic revivals and shorts, as well as in depth focus on German, Catalonian and Iranian cinema and all things gothic. ELLA WALKER picks the highlights NOW YOU SEE HIM: The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear