Don’t miss! Four films for Friday 19 October

Sew the Winter to My Skin

Qubeka’s film follows the escapades of John Kepe, a Robin Hood-like outlaw who, between 1940 and 1951, robbed the homes of racist white settlers in Apartheid-era South Africa. He then distributed his spoils – mostly livestock and bare necessities – amongst local communities, constantly evading the white authorities. But things got out of hand when the retired General Botha led a vigilante hunt for him. Told through flashbacks, from the point when Kepe stood trial and which help explore the nature of memory, Sew the Winter to My Skin is bolstered by Ezra Mabengeza’s charming performance as the rebel outlaw and veteran South African actor Peter Kurth as his nemesis. But the true star is Qubeka, whose visually ravishing film jumps between genres, finding the perfect balance between message and thrills.

Keith Shiri

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Five Men and a Caravaggio

Inspired by Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Guo opens her film in Southern China where an artisan undertakes a painstaking reproduction of Caravaggio’s ‘Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness’. In Hackney, an Italian poet is given the painting for his 40th birthday. Its depiction of the youthful wanderer triggers nostalgia in the poet, but he fears the reproduction does not capture the essence of the original. With these elements, Guo delivers a rich treatise on reproduction, regeneration and the flow of capital. This searching film, unfolding in the summer following the Brexit vote, is both a tribute to the intellectual migrants who have made their local neighbourhood their home and an examination of the universally human urges to both wander and take root.

Jemma Desai

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Believer

Attempting to remake a modern classic should never be advised, but Lee Hae-young’s razor-sharp reinvention of Johnnie To’s superb 2012 thriller Drug War is an exception to the rule. It starts with a narcotics cop Won-ho (Cho Jin-woong) meeting a teenage junkie to find out more about an elusive drugs kingpin named Mr Lee. The girl is abducted before he can gather any concrete information, but a subsequent explosion at a meth lab brings him into contact with Rak (Ryu Jun-yeol), a low-level runner whom Won-ho believes will introduce him to Mr Lee’s inner circle. Following the tough terrain of To’s original bullet opera, but adding some inspired psychological levels, director Lee’s film also profits from the performances of his two superb leads, who keep us guessing as to how their mind games will play out.

Damon Wise

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Shut Up and Play the Piano

In this multi faceted portrait of a man with alter-egos on top of his ego’s ego, debut documentary director Philipp Jedicke matches Chilly Gonzales’ unhinged stage presence with a film of flamboyant artistic energy. From the source of Chilly’s competitive streak to his days flat-sharing with Peaches and Feist, through his transplantation to underground Berlin in the 1990s to raucous rap battles and performance art, and his later Parisian blossoming as a piano soloist to his recent shows with chamber orchestras… Chilly has documented it all, so Jedicke has a goldmine of archive material to play with. Fans will rejoice, but no prior knowledge is necessary to get a huge kick out of this sweat-drenched potpourri of persona and performance.

Kate Taylor

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