Shepherds and Butchers.

Award winning South African film director and screenwriter Oliver Schmitz was in attendance at the 2016 Edinburgh International Film Festival to introduce his latest feature film which originally got its World Premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2016 and was being shown as part of EIFF's World Perspective Strand, which is designed to include movies "that will impress, beguile and challenge in equal measure" and Shepherds and Butchers (2016) did just that.

Certainly more than your standard courtroom conflict, although the courtroom does act as the hub for the drama that unfolds. The movie begins with a murder, in fact seven murders; we follow prison guard Leon Labuschagne (Garion Downs) as he drives his car along the rain soaked highway on his way home from work. An incident takes place between Labuschagne's vehicle and a mini bus transporting seven black members of a local youth football team. Both vehicles stop, everyone gets out, the shouting starts and then the prison guard opens fire with an automatic pistol and kills all seven occupants of the mini bus. Hired to defend Labuschagne Johan Webber (another great role for Steve Coogan, who I believe is a better actor than comedian) he can't get the accused to reveal his motive for the cold-blooded execution of the young football players. Initially unable to build an adequate defence to defy the State Prosecutor Kathleen Marais (Andrea Riseborough) that will avoid his client getting the death penalty, Webber has to build a case that for this brutal crime would almost amount to an impossible task.

 

The Defendant.

The Defence.

The Prosecusion. 

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Seven years in development and three years to get it on screen it was adapted by Brian Cox from a novel by Chris Marnewich which itself is based on true events that took place in South Africa in 1986 at a time when apartheid still had eight years to run. The director admitted that he could not make film at that time.  It's a film that deals with the effect that South Africa's penal system, its death penalty and the inhuman hangings had on those that worked on death row. Don't be mistaken, this is not a straightforward story - this is in fact a harrowing and hard watch about legalised state killing. As the story unfolds we get to witness treatment of human beings that is totally against their human rights as well as offending common decency. Credit where credits due Oliver Schmitz does not hold back on the graphic details and one can't help feeling that South Africa's White ruling elite had an awful lot to answer for, an elite that upheld SA’s brutal regime. Those that carried out these death penalties will be locked in a bubble of violence for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately there still does not appear to be a UK release date but when it does finally gets a release go and see this film,  it will make you realise what could happen to any of us if we were put in the same position as Leon Labuschagne.

What Maisie Knew.

Director:	Scott McGehee, David Siegel
Country:	USA
Year:	2012
Running Time:	93 mins
Principle Cast:	Julianne Moore	Susanna
	Steve Coogan	Beale
	Onata Aprile	Maisie Elizabeth Beale
	Alexander Skarsgard	Lincoln
	Joanna Vanderham	Margo

Some people don’t deserve children! And that definitely includes Susanna, a fifty something rock and roll star who dresses like underage trailer trash and still thinks she can cut it sexually and on the road, and her husband Beale a charming, slightly sleazy art dealer. Both of these rich ‘Manhattanites’ hate one another and certainly do not take their responsibilities seriously when it comes to bringing up their seven-year-old daughter Maisie. When these two get an acrimonious divorce Maisie gets shared between them, but generally gets left in the care of each of their new partners, ex-nanny Margo and bar man Lincoln and its left to this young child to make decision’s well beyond her age.

The film has been adapted from a Henry James novel that was first published in 1897 and has been transposed to modern day New York City. This relationship drama, made for adult audiences, is seen thru the eyes of a child and even some of Giles Nuttgens cinematography is shot from Maisie’s eye level.

Following the film at the EIFF a short Q&A was conducted with Perthshire born Joanna Vanderham last seen in Stephan Poliakoff’s highly acclaimed TV Drama series Dancing on the Edge. She explained that she was contacted by her agent whilst filming in Glasgow and told that she was wanted for a part in a film that was to be made in America. Within a very short space of time she found herself in New York playing Margo in her first full-length feature film. The part, which was not necessarily written for someone with a Scottish accent, stretched her emotional acting ability. She went on to tell us that it was very special working with the talented Onata Aprile, who because of her age had restricted working hours.

 

Joanna Venderham takes part in the Q&A.

One can’t help but ask how a young girl could be so level headed when she has spent her first seven years parented by a pair of obnoxious and unlikable people. But the directors, with the help of a tremendous cast pull it off. There are times in the film when you, the audience, truly worry for the safety of a young child and the film would have been even more heart rendering if the character of Maisie had not stood up so well, tackling her hardships with such strength and fortitude.  Which I must admit is down to the brilliant acting of Onata Aprile who I believe has a very bright future. 

The Look of Love.

Paul Raymond.

Soho is an area in London’s West End that is quite nostalgic for me. In the early summer of 1965 exams had just finished and talk was of leaving school and getting out into the world to earn your living, in a climate of full employment. But before friends parted company for what was probable the last time it was decided to arrange a day out in what was the most sleaziest part of our capital city, an area that attracted allsorts even a ‘no it all’ group of schoolboys. In this truly vibrant area you would encounter young, and not so young, women hanging out of windows and doorway’s attempting to entice a randy group of young schoolboys to part with their pocket money, these wonderful ladies were kindly offering to do what they could to improve our minimal sexual experiences! Needless to say these kind offers were not taken up. But after being offered a group discount, well it was the middle of the afternoon; it was decided to visit what was fondly known in the parlance of the day as a strip joint.  It consisted of a small stage, some rows of uncomfortable chairs, mainly frequented by some dubious looking gentleman in cloth caps and long overcoats, and a small unlicensed tea and coffee bar at the rear where we sat with the girls while they waited to take there turn on the stage and remove a good portion of their skimpy garments to what seemed an endless recording of Roger Millers King of the Road. Incidentally you will not be surprised to learn that we had a great time, not because we got to look at naked ladies but it was the terrific banter we had with the girls who turned out to be not much older than we were. When the first stripper returned to the stage most of us took our leave, not wanting too much of a good thing! In December of the same year on a night out in Leicester Square, for a few drinks and something to eat, I met my future wife.

Jean dances with her ex-husband at Debbie's wedding.

It was this part of London that made Liverpool born Geoffrey Anthony Quinn, better known as Paul Raymond, a multi-millionaire and according to Michael Winterbottom latest movie The Look of Love (2013) he had a great deal of fun accumulating a vast fortune believed to be in the region of 650 million pounds. The film begins around 1958, when Raymond opened his first private members club, Raymond Revuebar Strip Club, in a former ballroom in Soho’s Walkers Court and ends with a family tragedy in 1992.  It tackles his marriage breakdown to Jean Bradley and his subsequent relationship with the infamous British sex symbol Fiona Richmond. We learn how he built up his glamour empire, Paul Raymond Publications and his Soho real estate portfolio. But the overriding subject of the film is Raymond’s profoundly loving relationship with his daughter Debbie to the detriment of a relationship with either his two sons. Winterbottom shows this in some detail and with great affection.

Paul snorts out his business empire with his daughter.

It’s a funny and highly entertaining movie that does not leave a lot to the imagination but does it inoffensively. Reflecting an era that had oodles of style it gets the detail just right and has a great soundtrack that echo’s the sounds of the day. Although Raymond was a complete sod, Steve Coogan’s wonderful portrayal made him into a human character, someone you help having a sneaking admiration for. As well as Coogan the film has a great cast including Anna Friel as Jean, Imogen Poots as Debbie and Tamsin Egerton as Fiona Richmond.

Fiona Richmond.