10 things to see at the Edin­burgh Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val 2018

Now in its 72^nd year, the Edin­burgh Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val returns this sum­mer with a pro­gramme packed with excit­ing film­mak­ing tal­ent from home and abroad. The festival’s Open­ing and Clos­ing gala films have been announced as Puz­zle and Swim­ming with Men respec­tive­ly, but from 24 June and 1 July there is a wealth of cin­e­mat­ic dis­cov­ery await­ing vis­i­tors to the Scot­tish cap­i­tal. With an Amer­i­can cin­e­ma ret­ro­spec­tive and a refresh­ing num­ber of female film­mak­ers on the dock­et, here are 10 high­lights worth mak­ing the trip for.

A rebel­lious teenag­er is ban­ished from Oslo to Pak­istan by her par­ents for defy­ing tra­di­tion in Iram Haq’s auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal dra­ma. Explor­ing the pres­sure of famil­ial rela­tion­ships as well as the notion of being forced to adapt to a for­eign land­scape, the film received pos­i­tive reviews at 2017 Toron­to Film Festival.

Andrew Scott plays a man with autism who becomes obsessed with inves­ti­gat­ing the dis­ap­pear­ance of a young boy in Simon Fel­lows’ film. Sus­pect­ing that the police are cov­er­ing some­thing up, he turns detec­tive against the back­drop of Trump’s Amer­i­ca. Hav­ing received rave reviews for his per­for­mance in the Almei­da Theatre’s Ham­let back at the start of 2017 as well as his turn as Mori­ar­ty in BBC’s Sher­lock, we’re intrigued to see Andrew Scott in a lead role.

Dustin Hoff­man and Steve McQueen starred in the orig­i­nal 1973 adap­ta­tion of Hen­ri Charrière’s nov­el, but Michael Noer’s updat­ed ver­sion promis­es to be more than a straight-for­ward remake. Star­ring Char­lie Hun­nam and Rami Malek as pris­on­ers shipped off to a pen­i­ten­tiary in 1930s French Guiana, the first trail­er hints at a har­row­ing watch.

Brie Lar­son makes her direc­to­r­i­al debut as well as star­ring along­side Samuel L Jack­son and Joan Cusack in this film about a uni­corn-obsessed art stu­dent who’s offered a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to make her dreams of own­ing a uni­corn come true. Giv­en Larson’s on-screen tal­ent, we’re excit­ed to see her first out­ing behind the camera.

This ret­ro­spec­tive of Bar­bara Hammer’s short film work gives view­ers the oppor­tu­ni­ty to dis­cov­er (or redis­cov­er) a leg­end with­in the world of exper­i­men­tal cin­e­ma, from Dyke­tac­tics to Vital Signs. Her films explore themes includ­ing sex­u­al­i­ty and life and death over the course of 20 years, from the 1970s to the ear­ly ​’90s.

Fol­low­ing Bo Hu’s sui­cide in Octo­ber 2017, his direc­to­r­i­al swna­song receives its UK pre­mière at EIFF. A sprawl­ing four-hour dra­ma set over the course of one day in the north­ern Chi­nese city of Manzhouli, An Ele­phant Sit­ting Still cap­tures the lives of four mis­fits attempt­ing to escape their pasts while wait­ing for a train which promis­es to car­ry them far away from their problems.

If you’ve nev­er seen Wes Craven’s sem­i­nal hor­ror clas­sic (or nev­er seen it on the big screen) now’s the time to rem­e­dy that. Fred­dy Kruger not your thing? There’s more to choose from – EIFF are show­ing a num­ber of spine-chill­ing cult favourites, includ­ing Tobe Hooper’s Pol­ter­geist and George A Romero’s Day of the Dead.

Gabrielle Brady’s doc­u­men­tary con­fronts the trau­ma of dis­place­ment, explor­ing the real­i­ty on Christ­mas Island, which hous­es a high-secu­ri­ty deten­tion facil­i­ty for those seek­ing asy­lum in Aus­tralia. Told through the eyes of a trau­ma coun­cil­lor respon­si­ble for sup­port­ing detainees, Island of the Hun­gry Ghosts looks to pro­vide an impor­tant insight into a lit­tle-seen process.

An astro­naut finds him­self trapped in an escape pod head­ing towards the sun in Carl Strathie’s sci-fi dra­ma, star­ring Steven Ogg and Alice Lowe. Com­par­isons are inevitable to the likes of Grav­i­ty and Moon, but we’re intrigued by the premise, and Lowe is always a delight.

This year the fes­ti­val is pay­ing trib­ute to some of the great female Amer­i­can film­mak­ers, giv­ing audi­ences the chance to expe­ri­ence their work on the big screen. Susan Seidelman’s Smithereens is a bold dra­ma that laid the foun­da­tions for her lat­er work in Des­per­ate­ly Seek­ing Susan – a chance to watch it in a cin­e­ma is not to be missed.

The 72^nd Edin­burgh Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val runs from 24 June to 1 July. For more info vis­it edfilm​fest​.org​.uk