This is Congo (15)

Directed by Daniel McCabe

5*

 

DANIEL McCABE’S riveting film about the former Belgian Congo — the Belgians are briefly introduced in a well-positioned interlude — vividly depicts a fearful and warfare-ridden country, devastated by more than three decades of constant combat.

 

“It seems as if God has forgotten us,” one of its many terror-stricken people rightly states and McCabe proves that point with a series of hellish sequences featuring gunfire, death, terrified travellers and a displacement camp where 60,000 people barely survive. Some have been there for more than a decade.

 

In a near-destroyed country, whose President Joseph Kabila thrives on despotism, bribery and corruption, over 450 tribes suffer during the seemingly endless battles.

 

Another person describes his suppurating country as like his mother and father and parents of that ilk should surely have their children taken from them. But not here.

 

Yet not everyone suffers — a corrupt woman trader travels to Nairobi to sell gemstones for profit.

But yet another person’s cry: “This country belongs to hell!” is luridly shown to be true.

 

Alan Frank

 

Edie (12A)
Directed by Simon Hunter

3*

 

THE WONDERFUL Sheila Hancock shows that it is never too late to seize the time. As the 83-year- old Edie, she decides to fulfil her childhood dream to climb a Scottish mountain.

 

It takes the death of her uber-controlling disabled husband with anger management issues for Edie — to the horror of her daughter — to embark on the trip that her father wanted to take her on before her marriage put paid to the adventure.

 

Hancock is magnificent as the terribly vulnerable but vehemently determined and strong Edie, while Kevin Guthrie holds his own opposite the veteran actor as Jonny the local mountain climber she pays to take her up Mount Suilven.

 

Their odd-couple relationship is a touch predictable and borders on the cliched at times but their cracking performances win through.

 

With its sweeping vistas and rugged landscapes, Scotland has never looked so beautiful in the glorious sunshine but, while few would argue with the film's underlying uplifting message, climbing a mountain might be a tad extreme in getting it across.

 

Maria Duarte

 

The Breadwinner (12A)

Directed by Nora Twomey

4*

 

WHILE this extraordinary story of what is essentially female emancipation — brought about by unexpected events and complemented by a parallel fairy-tale narrative about a boy searching for the magical Elephant King — is an animated film, it is not really for youngsters.

 

There is the expected happy ending but getting there is a frequently harsh, all-too-credible and frequently depressing journey.

 

The Breadwinner tells the story of 11-year-old Parvana growing up in Kabul under the Taliban in 2001. When her father is wrongly arrested and jailed, she has her long hair cut and, posing as a boy, becomes the family’s eponymous breadwinner.

 

She ventures into the Kabul bazaar to buy and bribe and, inspired by the interwoven fairy-tale, risks her life to save her jailed father.

 

Based on Deborah Ellis's young adults’ story, the film offers a powerful and vividly performed emotional journey aided by Nora Twomey’s clever storytelling and animation which is stunning, stylish and to the point.

 

AF

 

Zama (15)

Directed by Lucrecia Martel

3*

 

SET in 18th-century Latin America, this surreal drama provides a number of acerbic and insightful observations into Spanish colonialism and class dynamics.

 

Based on Antonio di Benedetto's 1956 existential novel, the film opens with Don Diego de Zama (Daniel Gimenez Cacho), an officer of the Spanish Crown, caught spying on a group of native women taking a mud bath.
 

They accuse him of being a voyeur and when they start chasing after him, he stops suddenly and slaps one hard across the face, asserting his elite superiority. That sets the tone for the rest of this slow-burning, visceral tale.

 

De Zama spends the film waiting for a letter from the King of Spain — which never arrives — granting him a transfer from this regional posting to the city where his family is. In the meantime. he is beholden to the petty whims and humiliations of successive local governors from the Spanish-born elite as they come and go, while he is sidelined and a witness to their abuse of the local people.

 

Beautifully shot but brutally violent and with no sense of the passing of time, Zama requires a lot of patience and stamina to follow as it culminates in a profound and disturbing conclusion.

 

MD

 

Ian McKellen: Playing the Part (12A)

Directed by Joe Stephenson

4*

 

“I DON’t really have an image” says Ian McKellen, “I’m an actor” during this fascinating documentary, one of the most pleasurable behind-the-scenes stories I’ve seen and heard.

 

The 78-year-old star’s wry commentary on his life, his work, his sexuality and love of his profession, is gripping as he gives his version of a fascinating life.

 

It began in Wigan, after which he gained a scholarship to Cambridge through what was essentially an audition rather than an interview, followed by repertory theatre, the National Theatre with Laurence Olivier, television and great films.

 

In the process, he became a classic actor and deservedly a gay icon.

 

So entertaining, I want to see it again.

 

AF

 

Show Dogs (PG)

Directed by Raja Gosnell

3*

 

A SUPER-SMART talking police dog and an FBI agent are forced to team up and go undercover at a prestigious dog show to smash a baby-panda smuggling ring in this canine caper which will delight its target family audience.

 

Think Best in Show meets Turner and Hooch, with Will Arnett playing second fiddle to Max, the NYPD K9 unit rottweiler (voiced by Ludacris).

 

This is no Cats and Dogs but there are some great visual gags, particularly a Dirty Dancing based dream sequence plus a side dig at Lego Batman. Set in Las Vegas but bizarrely mostly shot in and around Cardiff and at Pinewood Studio Wales, there isn't much for the adults in this canine extravaganza.

 

But the kids I took along had a total blast, so job done.

 

MD

 

The Little Vampire (U)

Directed by Richard Klaus and Karsten Kiilerich

3*

 

SMALL-SCREEN savvy youngsters should feel happily at home with this animated vampire film telling of the merry supernatural — but not too scream-inducing — adventures and misadventures of holidaying human youngster Tony.

 

Fascinated by horror-film tropes, he is befriended by the genuine article, a merry vampire youngster of his own age and together they outwit daffy vampire hunters.

 

Spritely and well voiced, this animated adventure should keep most not-too-sophisticated children watching.

 

AF