Borderlines Film Festival 2018: 10 films to look out for

Running 23 February to 11 March, the 16th edition of the Borderlines Film Festival is upon us, bringing unmissable film-going experiences to Herefordshire, Shropshire, Malvern and the Marches. The largest rural film festival in the UK, it brings together a multitude of themed strands, including previews, new world and independent cinema, as well as film classics. Here are 10 films to get excited about.

Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year and nominated for best foreign language film at the upcoming Oscars, The Square is a masterful comedic satire from Swedish director Ruben Östlund (Force Majeure). It boasts a cast including Elisabeth Moss, Claes Bang, Dominic West and Terry Notary, who collide and play off one another in a stifled and stuffy art-world bubble that’s set to burst. Expect to laugh (a lot), queasily relate to its characters, and be aghast as the film takes sharp and twisted turns. 

This is the debut feature from director Léonor Serraille, featuring in the festival’s Triple F-Rated strand, recognising women writers and directors. Winner of the Caméra d’Or at Cannes, it’s a tenacious and compelling portrait of a woman, Paula (Laetitia Dosch), who has been dumped by her boyfriend and left with only his cat to look after and barely a penny to survive. A series of humorous and heartbreaking episodes follow, as she outlandishly adopts a new persona to get by. The screening on Wednesday 7 March will be followed by an informal discussion in the auditorium.

An utterly arresting film from Xavier Legrand, Custody landed best director and best first feature at the Venice Film Festival. Myriam (Léa Drucker) has recently separated from her husband, Antoine (Denis Ménochet), in an attempt to protect her youngest son, Julien (Thomas Gioria), from his father’s abuse. A searing custody battle ensues, with Legrand laying bare the urgency of the situation as well as all-too-human moments of hypocrisy. Anticipate incredible performances, by actors who responded to one another with incisive emotion and perception.

Borderlines’ Film Africa strand celebrates a remarkable queer South African story by filmmaker John Trengove, which received the award for best first feature at the BFI London Film Festival. It’s a probing intersectional narrative about the triangular relationship between three Xhosa men during an initiation ceremony undergone by Xhosa teenagers as a rite of passage into manhood. Issues including same-sex desire, cultural identity, patriarchy and generational divides are interlinked into a provocative depiction of masculinity.

The festival’s May ’68 strand honours the social revolution in France at the end of the 1960s. In this documentary road movie, co-directors Agnès Varda and JR travel through working-class France, taking photographs of ordinary people, then converting the pictures into large-format street art. Varda is losing her eyesight, though that’s never allowed to detract from her creativity. An ode to great and unlikely friendships and life’s ability to surprise, Faces Places was awarded best documentary both at Cannes and by the New York Film Critics Circle. We’re waiting to see how it does at the Oscars too.

Borderlines’ selection of classics includes this obscure silent film centred on a German-American naval officer during the First World War whose wife is kidnapped by Germans. He now lives to avenge his wife, and once he does, no cruelty is spared. Behind the Door existed only in fragmented versions for years, but has recently been restored. With live multi-instrumental accompaniment by Stephen Horne, this is a rare opportunity to see it on the big screen and fill a likely gap in your silent film viewing. 

Following their magical features The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, Irish animation studio Cartoon Salon is back with the Oscar-nominated The Breadwinner. In the war-torn city of Kabul under Taliban rule, 11-year-old Parvana’s father is captured, leaving Parvana and her family in a desperate situation. Without a man in the house they cannot leave, and mere survival becomes near impossible. Parvana takes it upon herself to disguise herself as a boy, risking grave danger in order to help reunite her family. Emotionally affecting and beautifully crafted.

Another Cannes winner (Art Cinema Award), this time by Chinese filmmaker Chlóe Zhao. Magnificently conceived, The Rider is set in South Dakota and follows a young Sioux rodeo rider whose dreams are crushed when he suffers a near fatal accident. The cowboy’s story is semi-autobiographical, with him acting alongside his real-life father and sister, but the film is also drawn from the director’s own life experiences. It’s heart-wrenching stuff, and a spellbinding portrayal of American cowboy culture

Like Faces Places, Notes on Blindness deals movingly with visual impairment. Imagine the unthinkable: just before the birth of your first son, you lose your eyesight. This is the real-life story of writer and theologian John Hull. In order to come to terms with his disability, he began recording an audio diary. Directed by Pete Middleton, Notes on Blindness combines documentary and re-enacted episodes to create an enthralling simulation of what it feels like to dream, remember, introspect and persevere. It won best documentary at the British Independent Film Awards and was nominated for three BAFTAs (including best documentary and outstanding British film).

The 6pm screening on 5 March will be audio-described, with all funds going to Royal National College for the Blind.

If you’ve not seen it yet, this acclaimed debut feature from Yorkshire filmmaker Francis Lee is unmissable: a rich, raw, subtle and near-perfect film. It’s set on and around a Yorkshire farm and deals with the covert relationship between two men – Johnny Saxby (Josh O’Conner), who is running his ageing father’s farm, and Romanian migrant worker Gheorghe. When Gheorghe is employed to help rear lambs over the season, he and Johnny develop a bond that displaces everything Johnny has settled for in his life. Forget the lazy Brokeback Mountain comparisons, this poignant love story has an energy all its own. It might just move you to tears.