Borderlines 2015: the UK’s biggest rural film festival returns

World cinema’s greatest recent and upcoming hits fill the cinemas of Herefordshire and Shropshire as the Borderlines Film Festival returns to the Marches.

25 February 2015

By Sam Wigley

The Goob (2014)

Each year the Borderlines Film Festival brings a massive programme of the best new cinema from around the world to cinemas across Herefordshire and Shropshire. It’s perhaps rural Britain’s most impressive film event, expanded this year to incorporate a three-day celebration of UK cinema at Hay-on-Wye.

Now operating under the Borderlines banner, the opening weekend Festival of British Cinema includes a selection of films chosen personally by Ken Loach; film scholar Ian Christie speaking about neglected British women filmmakers of the 1940s and 50s; and what should prove to be an atmospheric treat: a screening of the classic silent thriller A Cottage on Dartmoor (1929) with live organ accompaniment in Hay’s St Mary the Virgin church.

Moving into the festival proper (and away from homegrown cinema), Borderlines patron Francine Stock has curated a strand celebrating her heroines of French cinema: Danielle Darrieux, Jeanne Moreau and Sylvie Testud. Any chance to see Madame de… (1953), Lift to the Scaffold (1958) or the more recent, but no less essential, Lourdes (2009) on the big screen is one to be cherished.

A Cottage on Dartmoor (1929)

This year’s festival is also the launchpad for a new touring programme of vital Palestinian cinema, with many of the filmmakers coming over for screenings as they set off around the country. The films included are the Oscar-nominated Omar, Villa Touma (the new film by the director of 2008’s Lemon Tree) and Open Bethlehem.

As for the rest, Borderlines offers plenty of proof – if it were needed – of the rude health of international cinema right now. Here’s a handful to look out for:

The Duke of Burgundy

We’ve been talking about this one a lot, but Peter Strickland’s kinky film about lesbian S&M and butterflies really is one of a kind. There’s also a chance to catch Strickland’s previous film, Berberian Sound Studio.

Five Years in the Fifties

This local gem by the North Herefordshire Archive Film Group and the Rural Media Company compiles highlights from 111 reels of 16mm footage shot by amateur filmmaker Frank Dale in Herefordshire in the 1950s.

The Goob

Well ahead of its UK release, Borderlines offers a chance to see this directorial debut by Guy Myhill, a coming-of-age story set during a hot Norfolk summer. Nominated for best first feature at the BFI London Film Festival, it since won the best film award at Brittany’s Dinard Festival of British Cinema.

Ida

Shot in black and white and lasting just 80 minutes, this exquisite 60s-set story about a Polish nun’s efforts to discover the truth about her parents has ended up punching well above its weight, winning best film at the London Film Festival before scooping both the BAFTA and the Oscar for best foreign film.

Inherent Vice

Paul Thomas Anderson’s labyrinthine Thomas Pynchon adaptation was largely ignored during awards season, but don’t let that stop you: this is a sublime excursion into the territory of films such as The Long Goodbye (1973) and The Big Lebowski (1998), as melancholic as it is hilarious.

National Gallery

An inspirational three-hour immersion into working life at London’s National Gallery by American documentarist Frederick Wiseman, who has a made a career out of his long-form examinations of institutions.

Timbuktu

Timbuktu (2014)

A compelling account of the brief jihadi occupation of Timbuktu in 2012, Abderrahmane Sissako’s award-winning film is as searingly powerful as it is beautifully shot among the Saharan landscapes. A cri de coeur from one of West Africa’s finest cinematic voices.

The Tribe

Winner of the best first feature award at the London Film Festival, The Tribe isn’t out in the UK for a few months, so this Borderlines outing is a real treat. It’s a distinctive drama set in a school for deaf teenagers in Kiev, where bullies aggressively maintain a status quo of crime and prostitution.

BFI Player logo

All-you-can-watch access to 100s of films

A free trial, then just £4.99/month or £49/year.

Get free trial

Other things to explore

From the Sight and Sound archive

“The conclusion we came to about equality is that nobody really wants it”: Krzysztof Kieślowski on the Three Colours trilogy

By Tony Rayns

“The conclusion we came to about equality is that nobody really wants it”: Krzysztof Kieślowski on the Three Colours trilogy
From the Sight and Sound archive

Godzilla mon amour

By Ken Hollings

Godzilla mon amour
Where to begin

Where to begin with Víctor Erice

By Geoff Andrew

Where to begin with Víctor Erice