Free Fire to close the 2016 BFI London Film… | Little White Lies

Festivals

Free Fire to close the 2016 BFI Lon­don Film Festival

01 Aug 2016

Words by Little White Lies

A woman in a western-style outfit pointing a handgun at the camera.
A woman in a western-style outfit pointing a handgun at the camera.
The writer/director’s Boston shoot ​’em up will have its Euro­pean pre­mière at the festival’s 60th edition.

We were big fans of Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise, so the announce­ment that his next film, Free Fire, has been picked to close this year’s BFI Lon­don Film Fes­ti­val on Sun­day 16 Octo­ber feels akin to Christ­mas being brought for­ward three months.

Set in Mass­a­chu­setts in the late ​’70s, the film stars Brie Lar­son as a bro­ker between two rival gangs (front­ed by Cil­lian Mur­phy and Sharl­to Cop­ley respec­tive­ly) who meet to trade arms in a desert­ed ware­house only to wind up duk­ing it out when some­one pulls the trigger.

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Co-writ­ten by Wheatley’s reg­u­lar col­lab­o­rate (and wife), Amy Jump, Free Fire looks set to be the British filmmaker’s most main­stream-friend­ly work to date – though we’re not count­ing out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of the pair throw­ing a sub­ver­sive span­ner in the works just yet.

The 60th BFI Lon­don Film Fes­ti­val runs 5 – 16 Octo­ber at var­i­ous venues across the city. For more info vis­it bfi​.org​.uk/lff

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