Happy Diwali! London Film Festival 2025 wrap to follow
The country’s largest UK film festival finished yesterday (October 19) and brought the curtain down on some 250 feature films being screened in the capital…
CLOSING LFF late yesterday evening and was ‘100 Knights of Hero‘ by British screenwriter-director Julia Jackman. The film is something of a fairy tale based around a royal couple who can’t conceive and produce an heir to the throne – step forward Hero who makes Queen Cherry see the world quite differently…
EARLIER on the same morning, the classic 1975 Bollywood film, ‘Sholay‘ screened at the BFI Imax to a sold out theatre – now celebrating 50 years of cinematic legacy. It is recognised as one of the greatest popular films ever made in India. It’s been remastered in 4K and looks sumptuous and has exceptional sound too – www.asianculturevulture.com was there to see it and also caught a few words with Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, from the Heritage Film Foundation, which helped to find director Ramesh Sippy’s original film initially in London and restoring the classic tale of outlaws coming in from the cold and fighting the good fight – its two male leads remain cinematic forces of nature in India – Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan.
WE HAVE final videos to put out – we were on the Red Carpet for ‘Giant‘ a biopic about the world champion boxer ‘Prince’ Naseem Hamed and explores the pivotal relationship Hamed had with his Sheffield based Irish origin trainer, Brendan Ingle, played by Pierce Brosnan. Written and directed by Rowan Athale, who has Indian heritage, the film looks set to be a hit and features Amir El-Masry, Arian Nik and two brothers who play the young Naseem – Ali and Ghaith Saleh; we also spoke to these members of the cast on the Red Carpet on Saturday (October 18) – with Katherine Dow Blyton, who plays Ingle’s wife and producer Zygi Kamasa also – about this great British immigrant rags to boxing riches story…
ACTOR RIZ AHMED and his directing partner in ‘Hamlet’, Aneil Karia talk about what it meant to set the work of the great bard in a South Asian (Hindu) family who live in London and bringing it home after two screenings in the US and Canada, respectively. After 13 years of wanting to make this film, Ahmed has finally achieved his ambition… we will have a clip of them talking about their LFF experience and later next year when it is closer to the release date, ACV will screen our interview about the film and publish a full review.
ALSO on the acv viewing slate this time around was the charming, funny and irresistible ‘Nouvelle Vague‘ about the birth of French New Wave filmmaking in the 1960s and centred around one of its best proponents, Jean-Luc Godard – it’s in black and white and depicts the filmmaking behind the classic ‘Breathless‘ (À bout de souffle) and is made by well known US independent film director Richard Linklater, responsible for ‘Before Sunrise’ (1995) and ‘Before Sunset’ (2004). We didn’t see it in Cannes where it enjoyed its world premiere but it was delight to see it in London – review to follow…
LINKLATER has another film that screened at LFF, ‘Blue Moon‘ is a period piece about musical theatre composer Lorenz Hart and his working relationship with Richard Rodgers. Ethan Hawke is something of a revelation in the lead as Hart and famed Irish actor Andrew Scott is Rodgers but the film is a little dry as it features only a bar and a room behind the bar and has a small cast of characters who talk a lot… Review to follow…
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We will catch up with you all after Diwali! Have a great time, if you are celebrating and wishing everyone a joyous and fulfilling time ahead from team ACV – thanks for all your support and interest – see you on the other side soon!
