The British Council in partnership with CoolConnections presents the XVIII New British Film Festival as part of the UK-Russia Year of Science and Education in 2017. This year’s festival features a selection of British science fiction films curated by partners Iskusstvo Kino (‘Art of Cinema’ magazine) and film critic Anton Dolin.
The festival will screen Stanley Kubrick’s Academy Award nominated and ‘infinitely quoted’ (Anton Dolin) film adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ dystopian novel, A Clockwork Orange (1971).
Protagonist Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell), an ultraviolent youth in futuristic Britain, is arrested and convicted of murder and rape. While in prison, Alex learns of an experimental program in which convicts are programmed to detest violence. If he goes through the program, his sentence will be reduced and he will be back on the streets sooner than expected. But Alex's ordeals are far from over once he hits the mean streets of Britain that he had a hand in creating. The film’s stylized costume and brutalist set design have contributed in turning Kubrick’s adaptation into a cult classic.
The festival line-up also features Christopher Nolan’s Academy Award nominated The Prestige (2006), adapted from British science fiction writer Christopher Priest’s novel of the same name. The film is a thriller about rival stage magicians in London in the late 19th century with tragic consequences. The all-star cast includes Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, Sir Michael Caine and the late David Bowie, who plays the role of genius inventor Nikola Tesla.
Festival attendees will also be able to see Duncan Jones’ BAFTA-winning science fiction drama film, Moon (2009). Jones’ debut feature length film is about Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), a man who experiences personal crisis towards the end of a three-year solitary mission in space. Anton Dolin praised Rockwell in what is arguably his deepest and most difficult role to date.
The line-up also includes Ridley Scott’s Academy Award nominated timeless classic, Blade Runner (1982), based on Philip K. Dick’s science fiction novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Set in the futuristic year of 2019, in a dark and depressing Los Angeles filled with urban decay, the neo-noir film centres around ex-cop Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a blade runner tasked with tracking down and terminating four biorobotic androids (‘replicants’) who have committed a bloody mutiny on the Off World colony. As Deckard closes in on the leader of the replicant group, his true hatred toward artificial intelligence makes him question his own identity in this future world, including what it means to be human.
The screenings will take place on 14, 17, 18 and 19 November at Moscow cinemas, Formula Cinema CDM and Formula Cinema Horizon.
Blade Runner will also be screened in cities across Russia.
For further details visit the festival site: ukfilms.ru.
