Eye For Film >> Festivals >> Glasgow >> 2011 >> European Cinema

A collection of fascinating independent films from around Europe, this strand provides a great opportunity for film fans to see work that might not find distribution in the UK. There are intriguing dramas set in some of the most challenging periods of European history alongside challenging contemporary films looking at the issues that shape European lives today.

View other Glasgow Film Festival Films by strand: Best Of British, Beyond Bollywood, Ceol's Craic, Fashion In Film, FrightFest, Galas, Ginger Rogers Retrospective, Great Scots, It's a Wonderful World, Meryl Streep Retrospective, Music and Film, Out of the Past, Short Film Festival, Stranger Than Fiction, Superheroes in Glasgow, The Stasi Are Among Us, The State Of Independents, Youth Film Festival

Essential Killing and In A Better World

Agnosia (Country: Spain; Year: 2010; Director: Eugenio Mira; Stars: Martina Gedeck, Eduardo Noriega, Félix Gómez)

A young woman with a rare sensory disorder finds herself threatened by a mysterious conspiracy as she strives to guard her wealthy father's secret.

Full Review

Apnea (Country: Greece; Year: 2010; Director: Aris Bafaloukas; Writer: Giannis Tsiros, Yiannis Tsiros, Tsiros Yiannis; Stars: Youlika Skafida, Sotiris Pastras, Andrianna Babali, Giorgos Karamihos, Akilas Karazisis, Iro Moukiou, Lydia Fotopoulou), Official Site

A swimming champion has hallucinations about his missing girlfriend.

Attenberg (Country: Greece; Year: 2010; Director: Athina Rachel Tsangari; Writer: Athina Rachel Tsangari; Stars: Ariane Labed, Giorgos Lanthimos, Vangelis Mourikis, Evangelia Randou)

Sexually frank coming of age tale.

Beyond (Country: Sweden; Year: 2010; Director: Pernilla August; Writer: Pernilla August, based on the book by Susanna Alakoski.; Stars: Noomi Rapace, Ola Rapace, Outi Mäenpää)

A woman's reluctant visit to her dying mother brings up memories of the violent home she grew up in.

Full Review

Cell 211 (Celda 211) (Country: Spain, France; Year: 2009; Director: Daniel Monzón; Writer: Jorge Guerricaechevarría, Daniel Monzón, Francisco Pérez Gandul; Stars: Luis Tosar, Alberto Ammann, Antonio Resines, Manuel Morón, Carlos Bardem, Luis Zahera, Fernando Soto, Vicente Romero, Manolo Solo, Marta Etura, Joxean Bengoetxea, Patxi Bisquert, Jesús Carroza, Félix Cubero, Jesus Del Caso), Official Site

When a prison guard is knocked unconscious at the start of a riot, he wakes to find he is trapped within the prison and must pretend to be a con to stay alive.

Full Review

Nothing's All Bad and Beyond

Ces Amours-Là (Country: France; Year: 2010; Director: Claude Lelouch; Writer: Claude Lelouch, Pierre Uytterhoeven; Stars: Audrey Dana, Dominique Pinon, Raphaël, Anouk Aimée)

A Frenchwoman's life is complicated by her passionate love affairs, including one with a Nazi officer and another that leads her into danger.

The Christening (Chrzest) (Country: Poland; Year: 2010; Director: Marcin Wrona; Writer: Dariusz Glazer, Grzegorz Jankowski, Grazyna Trela; Stars: Iwona Bielska, Krzysztof Czeczot, Andrzej Franczyk, Robert Jurczyga, Mikolaj Kalucki, Zbigniew Konopka, Michal Koterski, Ireneusz Koziol, Ola Radwanska, Slawomir Rokita, Natalia Rybicka, Tomasz Schuchardt, Pawel Tomaszewski, Adam Woronowicz, Wojciech Zielinski), Official Site

Loosely based on a true story, a Polish man tries to escape his criminal past... the only problem being that the mafia are out to kill him.

Essential Killing (Year: 2010; Director: Jerzy Skolimowski; Writer: Eva Piaskowska, Jerzy Skolimowski; Stars: Vincent Gallo, Emmanuelle Seigner, Stig Frode Henriksen, Nicolai Cleve Broch, David L. Price, Zach Cohen, Torgrim Ødegård, Varg Strande, Eirik Daleng, Phillip Goss, Lars Markus Verpeide Bakke, Niklas Nygaard, Tracy Spencer Shipp, Dariusz Juzyszyn, Thomas Berg)

An interrogated man goes on the run.

Full Review

The Four Times (Le Quattro Volte) (Country: Italy; Year: 2010; Director: Michelangelo Frammartino; Writer: Michelangelo Frammartino; Stars: Giuseppe Fuda, Bruno Timpano, Nazareno Timpano)

A shepherd find himself in the bodies of a baby goat, a tree and a lump of coal as his soul makes its final journey.

In A Better World (Hævnen) (Country: Denmark; Year: 2010; Director: Susanne Bier; Writer: Susanne Bier, Anders Thomas Jensen; Stars: Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen, William Jøhnk Nielsen, Markus Rygaard, Wil Johnson, Eddie Kihani, Emily Mglaya, Gabriel Muli, June Waweru, Mary Hounu Moat, Synah Berchet, Elsebeth Steentoft, Satu Helena Mikkelinen, Camilla Gottlieb), Official Site

Two children form a bond that could spell trouble.

Full Review

Submarino and Agnosia

Love Like Poison (Un Poison Violent) (Country: France; Year: 2010; Director: Katell Quillévéré; Writer: Katell Quillévéré, Mariette Désert; Stars: Clara Augarde, Lio, Stefano Cassetti, Michel Galabru)

A teenage girl struggles with the conflict between her religious convictions and her sexual awakening as well as the behaviour of the adults around her.

Nothing's All Bad (Smukke mennesker) (Country: Denmark; Year: 2010; Director: Mikkel Munch-Fals; Writer: Mikkel Munch-Fals; Stars: Bodil Jørgensen, Henrik Prip, Mille Lehfeldt, Sebastian Jessen, Mia Lyhne, Kurt Ravn, Peter Gantzler, Nicolas Bro, Stine Fischer Christensen, Jesper Asholt, Dar Salim, Benedikte Hansen, Rasmus Bjerg, Jesper Lohmann, Carsten Bjørnlund)

Four troubled, lonely people gradually find themselves connected through a series of coincidences in a film which blends dark comedy with touching insight.

Full Review

One Hundred Mornings (100 morrnings) (Country: Ireland; Year: 2009; Director: Conor Horgan; Writer: Conor Horgan; Stars: Ciarán McMenamin, Alex Reid, Rory Keenan)

The quiet, unsensational end of civilisation leaves two couples in an increasingly desperate, claustrophobic situation as their supplies dwindle and they are threatened by other survivors.

Full Review

Our Life (La Vita Nostra) (Country: Italy; Year: 2010; Director: Daniele Luchetti; Writer: Daniele Luchetti, Sandro Petraglia, Stefano Rulli; Stars: Elio Germano, Raoul Bova, Isabella Ragonese)

A builder takes on an ambitious project to try and turn his fortunes around, but is caught up in a corrupt system.

Protector (Protektor) (Country: Czech Republic; Year: 2009; Director: Marek Najbrt; Writer: Robert Geisler, Benjamin Tucek; Stars: Jana Plodková, Matthias Brandt, Tomás Mechácek, Jan Budar, Marek Daniel)

A Jewish film star's career is derailed by the Nazi invasion while her jealous husband is offered the chance to become a radio star - if he is willing to broadcast Nazi propaganda.

One Hundred Mornings and Wake Wood

Submarino (Country: Denmark; Year: 2009; Director: Thomas Vinterberg; Writer: Jonas T. Bengtsson, Tobias Lindholm, Thomas Vinterberg; Stars: Jakob Cedergren, Peter Plaugborg, Gustav Fischer Kjærulff, Patricia Schumann, Helene Reingaard Neumann, Morten Rose, Kate Kjølbye, Lisbeth H. Pedersen, Dar Salim, Henrik Strube, Elias Ehlers, Sebastian Bull Sarning, Mads Broe Andersen, Finn Bergh), Official Site

Two men struggle to escape a childhood of neglect.

Full Review

Wake Wood (Country: Ireland, UK; Year: 2010; Director: David Keating; Writer: David Keating, Brendan McCarthy; Stars: Eva Birthistle, Ella Connolly, Amelia Crowley, Aidan Gillen, Timothy Spall), Official Site, Trailer

A Pagan ritual offers a grieving couple the chance to spend three more days with their dead daughter, but when the moment comes, they will do anything to keep from letting her go again.

Full Review

When We Leave (Die Fremde) (Country: Germany; Year: 2010; Director: Feo Aladag; Writer: Feo Aladag; Stars: Sibel Kekilli, Nizam Schiller, Derya Alabora, Settar Tanriogen, Serhad Can, Almila Bagriacik, Tamer Yigit, Alwara Höfels, Florian Lukas, Blanca Apilanez Fernandez, Mustafa Jouni, Aram Arami, Ufuk Bayraktar, Edin Hasanovic, Nursel Köse)

hen young Turkish-German woman Umay can no longer stand her husband’s ill-treatment, she flees from Istanbul with her five-year-old son into the arms of her family in Berlin. But love, affection, and loyalty soon become irrelevant as they struggle to reconcile Umay’s willful self-determination with the social system that governs their lives.