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Festivals >> EIFF >> 2008 - Review Listings

14 Kilometres
The journey between North Africa and Spain, made by three and desperate young Africans.

Alone In Four Walls
Inside a juvenile Russian reform school.

Angels In The Dust
Documentary about a wealthy, privileged family who build a community for children whose lives have been devastated by HIV/AIDS.

The Appeared
Siblings are terrified by tortured ghosts and a brain dead father's legacy in Argentina.

The Art Star And The Sudanese Twins
An artist's obssessive attempt to adopt twins in Darfur.

Bananaz
Backstage look at the brains behind Gorillaz.

Before The Rains
A sweeping period romance set in Colonial India.

Better Things
Award-winning short filmmaker makes his feature debut with a story of fractured relationships.

Bigga Than Ben: A Russians’ Guide To Ripping Off London
Two sneaky young Russians dodge the military draft and head for London, all the while figuring out the best means for screwing their respective systems. It all falls apart, of course.

The Black Balloon
An insightful family drama, about a young man who must deal with more than his fair share of troubles, like his autistic brother. Also, young love and being a new boy in school.

Black Box Shorts
Experimental short film showcase.

Blood Car
Delightful Troma-esque weirdness as a vegan invents a vehicle more reminiscent of Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors. Minus the crap Broadway songs, of course.

The Bride Wore Black
New Wave brat scholar Tarantino swears blind this was not the inspiration for Kill Bill? You decide.

Cafe De Los Maestros
A celebratory film about the maestros of tango.

Captain Abu Raed
Uplifting tale about an airport janitor who spins stories for street kids after being mistaken by them for a pilot.

A Complete History Of My Sexual Failures
Does what it says on the tin - a personal documentary about a subject for which most blokes will have sympathy.

The Cool World
Stark portrait of 1960s Harlem.

Crack Willow
Social reality meets dangerous psychosis - fun for all the family.

Dance In The Sun
A dancer explores the forces of nature.

Dangerous Liaisons
Love and adultery... Who could resist!?

Death Defying Acts
Harry Houdini falls for a gypsy 'psychic' in an Edinburgh-set period romance.

Diary Of A Chambermaid
Dark comedy exposing the 1930s in thrall to fascism.

Donkey Punch
Seven go mad on a yacht.

Dummy
A coming of age drama about two young brothers whose mother dies suddenly, leaving them to fend for themselves.

Eat, For This Is My Body
Avant garde 'documentary' loosely exploring the colonialist history of Haiti.

Eden
The disintegration of a marriage.

The Edge Of Love
Wartime drama about two women who form an unlikely friendship, united by their feelings for poet Dylan Thomas.

Elite Squad
A special squad officer in the violent Brazilian slums tries to find a replacement.

Encounters At The End Of The World
The infamous director Werner Herzog visits the Antarctic, determined not to make a movie about penguins.

Enlightened Blood
A rupture in time and space unites six characters in huge life-altering ways.

Faintheart
A battle re-enactor struggles to recover the affections of his wife.

Fairytale Of Kathmandu
Following an admired writer to his spiritual home in Nepal leads to a difficult discovery.

The Fall
Tarsem Singh's visually opulent fantasy epic borrowing the narrative device of The Princess Bride to widen and scorch the eyes.

Fear(s) Of The Dark
Ten animations from the dark side.

Le Feu Follet
A suicidal man struggling to avoid sliding back into alcoholism visits former friends and lovers to say goodbye.

A Film With Me In It
Unemployed actors come face to face with sudden death.

Fujian Blue
Dual stories analyse societal breakdown in modern China.

God Man Dog
Multi-strand emotional drama.

Good Dick
Offbeat romance between a damaged young woman and a video store clerk.

Hamdi And Maria
The story of two ordinary people whose lives were irrevocably transformed by the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.

Helen
A missing girl's police reconstruction prompts her proxy to fill in the psychological gaps in herself.

International Shorts: Childproof
A look at life from youngsters' perspectives.

In The City Of Sylvia
A boy dreams of finding a lost love.

Jesus Christ Saviour
Klaus Kinski (so immortally captured in Werner Herzog's My Best Fiend) gives a showstopping performance with a defiant monologue.

The Juche Idea
Deconstruction of the North Korean official state ideology.

Jules Et Jim
A French love triangle, spanning the years. Out on reissue in May.

The King Of Ping Pong
Coming-of-age drama sees trouble brew between two siblings.

The Kreutzer Sonata
A husband's jealousy threatens to drive him mad.

Left Bank
Atmospheric horror film in the vein of Rosemary's Baby, with a descent into obsession and madness with the previous occupants of her boyfriend's flat.

Lemon Tree
Allegorical story about a lemon tree under threat when an Israeli government minister moves in next door.

Let The Right One In
A touching story of first romance... with a side-serving of horror.

Life Track
A disabled man allows a mute girl into his private space.

Lift To The Scaffold
Moreau's first lead role about an unfaithful wife who finds nothing but trouble after a fling with her lover.

Love And Other Crimes
"What happens if you fall in love on the very day you intend to leave forever?"

The Lovers
Controversial drama about a married mum who walks out on her husband.

Mademoiselle
A repressed schoolteacher vents her frustration on the local community.

Man On Wire
Documentary about tightrope walker Phillippe Petit's attempt to cross between the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

Married Life
How do you avoid humiliating you wife with a divorce? Kill her.

Mechanical Love
Artificial Intelligence and the Uncanny Valley, androids that we can love bookend the story.

Milky Way Liberation Front
Black comedy adventure about a screenwriter whose personal and professional world is falling apart.

Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day
An actress dresses up a former governess so she can experience a glamorous life as they help one another with romantic problems.

Máncora
Grief and desire on a road trip.

Mum And Dad
Micro-budgeted Brit-horror about a airport worker brought into the perils of a close-knit family.

Obscene
Documentary about Barney Rosset, who challenged obscenity laws most famously in the case of Lady Chatterley's Lover.

The Order Of Myths
Using dual Mardi Gras parades, The Order of Myths delves into cultural exploration and integration in a community still stuck in tradition.

Pageant
An in-depth look at drag queens in preparation for the Miss Gay America.

Paradise
The story of wallpaper and marriage in a house on a lake in Sweden.

Paris
A medical diagnosis leaves a young dancer and his sister in care(e)r gridlock.

Patti Smith: Dream Of Life
Intimate portrait of the icon.

Portrait Of Jason
Documentary about a gay black prostitute.

Querelle
A young man explores his sexuality in a decadent French brothel.

Red
A man sets out to find justice after his dog falls victim to a random act of violence.

Rome Burns - A Portrait of Shirley Clarke
Up close documentary about the director Shirley Clarke.

Scottish Short Documentary Award Screening
Collection of Scottish short documentaries.

Scottish Short Film Showcase
Four Scottish shorts, shown at the EIFF.

Shirley Clarke: Early Works 1
Collection of early short films by the acclaimed director.

Shiver
A teenager suffering from a debilitating illness moves to a small town only to encounter more bullies - plus something worse waiting in the woods.

Sleep Dealer
Node Runner - if they catch you you're through!

sleep furiously
Rural Wales faces change from all sides as the population ages.

Slingshot
Close-up and personal view of the slums using hidden cameras and brilliant editing.

Somers Town
A boy heads to London to seek his fortune and finds friendship.

Song Of Sparrows
This Iranian morality tale deals with an ostrich farmer who loses his job and is forced to travel to and from the city.

Son Of A Lion
Father and son's ideologies clash in their Pashun tribe.

Spike
Low budget monster horror with romantic undertones.

Standard Operating Procedure
Errol Morris' documentary on the infamous photographs at Abu Ghraib prison.