With quite a few great films being released this month, I'm honing in on two in particular. Coralie Fargeat's 'Revenge' and Nora Twomey's 'The Breadwinner'.
Part of Birds Eye View's Reclaim the Frame campaign, 'Revenge' was released earlier this month. A film that does exactly what it sets out to do as well as drown us all in blood. There was so much blood. A revenge thriller with a heroine at the centre who makes the audience, judge, pity and cheer for her as the film progresses. 'Revenge' is French filmmaker, Fargeat's feature film debut after a couple of shorts, all of which she also wrote. With the impact her film is making, not to mention catching the attention for her purposeful choices in how her characters dress or this case don't wear a thing, I look forward to what she creates next.
Nora Twomey first appeared on my radar when I saw a poster for 'Song of the Sea', she wasn't the director but she was Head of Story, leading me on to discover 'The Secret of Kells'. Both films from Ireland based animation studio, Cartoon Saloon of which she is a partner of, are beautifully crafted. 2D animation rarely gets a look in at cinemas these days so I was over joyed to see both these films had been Oscar nominated. They didn't take home the prize but they earned attention. I recognised 'The Breadwinner''s style of animation and luckily was able to see it. Based on a the book of the same name by Deborah Ellis who co wrote the script with Anita Doron, the story is about a young girl, Parvana and her family living in Kabul, Afghanistan under Tailban control. After Parvana's father is arrested, her mother, sister and baby brother are left behind unable to work or even leave the house. She cuts her hair and dresses in boy's clothing so she can provide for her family as well as look for her father. After co-directing 'The Secret of Kells', 'The Breadwinner' was a chance for Twomey to take the helm a create a beautifully crafted film with a story of great courage. I'm looking forward to the Twomey's future films as well as Cartoon Saloon's 'Wolfwalkers'.
You can read my review of 'Revenge' over at VultureHound. I was lucky enough to see 'The Breadwinner' during London Film Festival last year, my post on the film can be read HERE.
Revenge is out on general release now and The Breadwinner is out 25th May with a preview at BFI tonight.