Festivals >> EIFF >> 2008 >> Document

Alone In Four Walls (Allein In Vier Wänden)(Country: Germany; Director: Alexandra Westmeier; Writer: Alexandra Westmeier)
Inside a juvenile Russian reform school. UK Premiere.
Full Review

Angels In The Dust(Country: South Africa; Director: Louise Hogarth; Writer: Louise Hogarth; Cast: Marion Cloete, Con Cloete)
Marion Cloete is a woman on a mission. She's uprooted her entire family and moved to Africa, where she does what she can to are for children with HIV and AIDS. This passionate film tells the story of her work. UK Premiere.
Full Review

The Art Star And The Sudanese Twins(Country: New Zealand; Director: Pietra Brettkelly; Writer: Pietra Brettkelly)
Vanessa Beecroft is obsessively determined to adopt Sudanese twin orphans. Her consuming passion drives her marriage to a breaking point and fuels her controversial art, raising troubling questions about exploitation, culture clash, and the imposition of the West on Africa. UK Premiere.
Full Review

Cafe De Los Maestros(Country: USA; Director: Miguel Kohan; Writer: Miguel Kohan, Gustavo Santaolalla)
A celebratory film about the maestros of tango. UK Premiere.
Full Review

Document Shorts
Glimpses of the weird and wonderful, the heartbreaking and hilarious, from real lives all over the world. Featuring: Bergeronnettes (Alicia Van Assche), Bullet Proof Vest (May Lin Au Yong) I Shot The Mayor (or: Plan B) (Astrid Bussink), Kredens (Jacob Dammas), Living On The Landing (Podestleben) (Sandra Budesheim, Sabine Zimmer), Plane Days (Benjamin Kracun, Ewan McNicol), Pull, The (Andy Blubaugh), Valley of the Goats (Leon Dean).

Dreams With Sharp Teeth(Country: USA; Director: Erik Nelson; Writer: Erik Nelson; Cast: Harlan Ellison, Robin Williams, Neil Gaiman, Peter David, Ronald D. Moore, Josh Olson, Tom Snyder)
Fiercely intelligent and ubiquitous writer Harlan Ellison is put under the lens by Robin Williams. UK Premiere.

Encounters At The End Of The World(Country: US; Director: Werner Herzog; Cast: Werner Herzog)
The infamous director Werner Herzog visits the Antarctic, determined not to make a movie about penguins. UK Premiere.
Full Review

Fairytale Of Kathmandu(Country: United Kingdom, Ireland; Director: Neasa Ni Chianain)
Following an admired writer to his spiritual home in Nepal leads to a difficult discovery. UK Premiere.
Full Review

Jesus Christ Saviour (Jesus Christus Erlöser)(Country: Germany; Director: Peter Geyer; Writer: Klaus Kinski; Cast: Klaus Kinski)
Klaus Kinski (so immortally captured in Werner Herzog's My Best Fiend) gives a showstopping performance with a defiant monologue. International Premiere.
Full Review

Mechanical Love(Country: Denmark; Director: Phie Ambo)
Artificial Intelligence and the Uncanny Valley, androids that we can love bookend the story. UK Premiere.
Full Review

Obscene(Country: USA; Director: Daniel O’Connor, Neil Ortenberg)
Documentary about Barney Rosset, who challenged obscenity laws most famously in the case of Lady Chatterley's Lover. European Premiere.
Full Review

The Order Of Myths(Country: USA; Director: Margaret Brown)
In 2007 Mobile, Alabama, Mardi Gras is celebrated... and complicated. Following a cast of characters, parades, and parties across an enduring colour line, we see that beneath the surface of pageantry lies something else altogether. European Premiere.
Full Review

Pageant(Country: USA; Director: Ron Davis, Stewart Halpern)
All the glamour and glitz you'd expect from the Miss Gay America beauty pageant, with spectacular costumes, inventive dance routines and an intriguing look at the contestants' home lives. International Premiere.
Full Review

Paradise (Paradiset)(Country: Sweden; Director: Jerzy Sladkowski)
The story of wallpaper and marriage in a house on a lake in Sweden. UK Premiere.
Full Review

Scottish Short Documentary Award Screening(Country: UK; Director: See individual reviews.)
Selection of the best homegrown documentaries. Films competing are all made by filmmakers from or working in Scotland. This year's selection is: Christmas With Dad (Conor McCormack), Half Way Home (Paul Gray), Irene (Lindsay Goodall), Karelian Cowgirls (Oudoille Oville, Minttu Mäntynen), Ma Bar (Adrian McDowall, Finlay Pretsell), Niddrie Bricks (Julian Schwanitz, Nina Topp, Andrew Steen), Skeins (Paul Gray). Full Review

sleep furiously(Country: United Kingdom; Director: Gideon Koppel)
Rural Wales faces change from all sides as the population ages. World Premiere.
Full Review

Three Miles North Of Molkom(Country: United Kingdom; Director: Robert Cannan, Corinna Villari-McFarlane)
Spiritual fulfilment meets simple-minded satisfaction in a clash of ideologies. UK Premiere.
Full Review See: Q&A about Three Miles North Of Molkom, news from the 2008 Edinburgh International Film Festival

To See if I’m Smiling (Lirot Im Ani Mehayechet)(Country: Israel; Director: Tamar Yarom)
Candid revelations about things seen and done in the Israeli military. UK Premiere.
Full Review

Very Young Girls(Country: US; Director: David Schisgall)
An examination of young girls as they are duped, tricked and coerced into selling themselves for sex in a surprising, and people-focussed film. UK Premiere.
Full Review

War Child (Emmanuel Jal: War Child)(Country: USA; Director: Christian Karim Chrobog; Cast: Emmanuel Jal)
Emmanuel Jal spent his childhood as a soldier in the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army. Now this rising hip-hop star is using his music to raise awareness about his homeland’s ongoing humanitarian crisis. UK Premiere.
Full Review See: Tribeca 2008 Diary: Day 1 and 2

We Went To Wonderland(Country: China, United Kingdom; Director: Xiaolu Guo)
'Wonderland' - an interesting nickname for the West. Xiaolu Guo's documentary of her parent's first visit to Europe from China. UK Premiere.

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