• Fri 8 – Thur 14 Dec

4th London Kurdish Film Festival

The Rio Cinema is delighted to present the 4th London Kurdish Film Festival, organised in partnership with the main Kurdish community centres in the United Kingdom - Halkevi/Malagel Kurdish and Turkish Community Centre in Hackney, Kurdish Cultural Centre (KCC) in Lambeth, Kurdish Community Centre (KCC) in Haringey and Kurdish Exile Association (KEA) in Kensington and Chelsea.

This year's festival will run for one week and will present an extraordinary variety of films made by Kurdish film makers or about Kurdish issues: features, documentaries, shorts and, for the first time, animated films, from all over the world. The two year gap since the last festival means that there is a lot of catching up to do, and the week promises to be packed with exciting, challenging and, occasionally, controversial movies. There will also be discussions with film makers, and workshops for aspiring young film makers. Highlights will include: Bahman Ghobadi's HALF MOON winner of three awards at this year's San Sebastian Film Festival, the British premiere of Omer Ugur's BACK HOME, about the military coup in Turkey in 1980, Jamil Rostami's REQUIEM OF SNOW, best foreign film contender for Iran at the 2005 Academy Awards, Hiner Saleem's KILOMETRE ZERO selected for the Cannes competition in 2005, Mahdi Omat's brand new A NIGHT OF MANY YEARS, Jalal Jonroy's political comedy DAVID AND LAYLA, Yilmaz Arslan's recent feature FRATRICIDE, Masoud Arif Salih & Hussein Hassan Ali's film made entirely with a Kurdish crew NARCISSUS BLOSSOM, Mano Khalil joining us with two masterful documentaries DAVID THE TOLHILDAN and AL-ANFAL, Halil Uysal and his friends honouring us with their latest film BERITAN, Karzan Sherabayani's RETURN TO KIRKUK, Gwynne Roberts & John Williams's SADDAM'S ROAD TO HELL and ZARE, a classic silent Armenian film from 1926 considered to be the first film made about the Kurds. The festival also includes many award winning short films and a diverse range of fascinating and powerful documentaries. This year for the first time we will also present a schools/young person's programme of short films.

The festival is receiving funding support from the Kurdistan Regional Government, the Ibrahim Ahmed Foundation, and the Ambassador of Iraq in the United Kingdom. Festival Sponsors include: Mrs. Jenny Hall, Aso newspaper published in South Kurdistan (Iraq), Asicell, the Kurdish Housing Association and many Kurdish businesses based in the United Kingdom (full details will be in the festival booklet).

TICKETS
£8 (Opening & Closing Galas)
£6 (evening and weekend screenings)
£4 (weekday shows before 5.00pm, Under 15’s and Saturday late show)

A Festival Pass offering admission to all films will be on sale at the Rio Box Office costing £35 (Friends of the Rio £32).

To receive a copy of the Festival programme booklet by post, e-mail: kff@riocinema.org.uk

Click here for full programme: www.lkff.co.uk

Fri 22 Dec • Late night shorts

Future Shorts (15) 11.15pm

Future Shorts is back this December with a highly eclectic and inspiring Twisted Christmas programme for you. Come along and check out a collection of short films and music videos from all around the world. Films include the magical music video animation SUNDOWN from rising band DAEDELUS as well as the lovely documentary ICE TRIBE from Finland, and much, much more. Our Christmas gift to you – see and feel different cinema. Short film is where it's at.

A CHANGED MAN
(Sweden-UK 2003) dir. Jens Jonsson
Your worst nightmare of a high school reunion.

WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS [Justice vs Simian]
(UK 2006) dirs. Rozan & Shmeltz
This is what friendship is all about! Pranks are taken to another level in this video for the Justice vs Simian track. Winner of the Best Video award at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2006.

MR. THEOBALD
(UK 2004) dir. Simon Burrill
A darkly humorous modern fairy tale about the routine of daily life.

BOOM
(Netherlands 2006) dir. Tomas Schats
All is not what it seems.

IN PASSING
(UK 2005) dir. The Light Surgeons
A personal journey through Manchester as seen through the eyes of a partially blind woman. Winner of the 2006 Halloween Short Film Festival. Check out the next Halloween festival 6-15 January 2007.
www.shortfilms.org.uk

SUNDOWN [Daedelus]
(UK 2006) dir. Clay Lipsky
Rays of sun are at the physical source of our entire world in this psychedelic music video for Daedelus.
www.ninjatune.net

THE ICE TRIBE
(Finland 2006) dir. Heidi Vilkman
A freezing exploration of a Finnish winter ritual: ice swimming.

UNTITLED no2
(UK 2006) dir. Geoffrey Howell
Japan’s military force has been forbidden to train for war since the end of World War 2. They keep busy with much more creative activities.

BROADWAY
(France 2005) dir. Matthieu Mantovani
An animated comic strip about hope, existentialism and walking down New York City’s famous street.

JOURNEY TO THE MOON
(UK 2006) dir. Neil Gittins
The chronicle of a fantastic journey from the Earth to the Moon.

LA TARTINE
(France 2004) dir. Guillaume Colomb
A delirious musical about the preparation of an energetic breakfast.

THE MAKING OF GLADIATOR
(UK 2005) dir. Duncan Beedie
A surprisingly funny behind-the-scene animation about Ridley Scott’s roman epic.

BLOODY OLIVE
(Belgium 1996) dir. Vincent Bal
The classic Christmas short film noir with twists and turns.

+ a free beer with ticket courtesy of Stella

Adm £5.50/£4.50 Concessions

Shorts of a Sexual Nature (18) 1.30

Bitesize Cinema are back with an exciting programme of five prize-winning cutting edge short films.

THE MAKING OF PARTS
(UK 2006) dir.Daniel Elliot 16m.
A man's love and tenderness, which he once shared with his wife, is now slipping away from him. As one sexual existence ends, another is just beginning. Suggestive, intoxicating and preconception-busting filmmaking from the makers of Fender Bender and Love Me or Leave Me Alone.
WINNER – BEST SHORT – VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 06

DAD
(UK 2005) dir.Daniel Mulloy 6m.
A husband and wife remain sexually active in later life to the disgust of their son, but who is it that has the problem? The latest masterpiece from 3 times BAFTA award winning director Daniel Mulloy of ANTONIO'S BREAKFAST fame.

CASHBACK
(UK 2004) dir.Sean Ellis 18m.
Ben is an art college student in London, whose imagination runs wild as he works the late-night shift at the local supermarket. What do he and his colleagues do to pass the long, endless hours of the night?
OSCAR NOMINEE – BEST SHORT - 2006

THE OTHER MAN
(UK 2006) dir.D R Hood16m.
‘These are good days for Sean until the phone call’. Spot-on direction and outstanding acting fill the screen as a loving husband deals with the worst of news.
WINNER – BEST SHORT – EDINBURGH FILM FEST 06

ACCIDENTS
(UK 2006) dir.Martin Smith 9m.
A simple story of an outsider boy who meets a girl after missing out on a party. Accidents centres on a small moment that makes their lives seem better.

Sat 13 Jan • Kino Polska

The launch of a new series of screenings devoted to Polish Cinema programmed by Rio House Manager Marta Elliott. All films will have English subtitles. The first film is ODE TO JOY which will be shown three times on Sat 13 Jan at 3.00 and 11.15pm and Sat 20 Jan at 11.30pm

ODE TO JOY (15) 3.00 & 11.15pm

(Poland 2006) dirs. Anna Kazejak-Dawid, Jan Komasa & Maciej Migas 110m. Subtitles.
Malgorzata Buczkowska, Piotr Glowacki, Leslaw Îurek.

This first feature collaboration by three young graduates of the Lódz Film School presents three separate stories about Polish youth trapped between an Iron Curtain past and an uncertain future. Aga returns home from London after earning money as a cleaner, but finds a world of industrial conflict and inertia. Peras is a rapper who’s trying to hit the big time and hold onto his girlfriend. Wiktor returns to to a menial job in his family's stagnant coastal town after his relationship ends. The stories become linked when the protagonists all end up on a bus bound for London. It’s a sophisticated and compelling debut and a statement from a new post-Communist generation. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Polish film week in Gdynia, this is a key film in a significant strand of social cinema that has developed in Poland over recent years.

£5.50/£4.50 at 3.00, £6 at 11.15pm

Sat 20 Jan • Kino Polska

ODE TO JOY (15) 11.30pm

(Poland 2006) dirs. Anna Kazejak-Dawid, Jan Komasa & Maciej Migas 110m. Subtitles.
Malgorzata Buczkowska, Piotr Glowacki, Leslaw Îurek.

£6

Fri 26 Jan * Late night shorts

Future Shorts (15) 11.30pm

Future Shorts in association with Stella Artois and Picture House Cinemas races into the New Year with a cracking collection of award-winning and highly entertaining short films. Highlights this January include brilliant Oscar-nominated animation NIBBLES telling the story of a family fishing trip, a coming-of-age love story in SEHNSUCHT NACH MEER from Germany as well the latest music videos by some of the most exciting new directors working today. This is fresh cinema – Future Shorts.

DAD
(UK 2006) dir. Daniel Mulloy
A husband and wife remain sexually active in later life to the disgust of their son, but who is it that has the problem?

SEHNSUCHT NACH MEER (Longing For More)
(Switzerland 2005) dir. Julie Forster
Two teenage girls spend their winter holiday in Switzerland - Italy was too expensive.

BLACK OUT
(Germany 2005) dir. Maximilian Erlenwein
Guitarist Tom Schulze is the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of Berlin's night scene. A beautiful study of the effects of addiction on a sensitive and talented man.

WIR SIND DIR TREU (We are the Faithful)
(Germany 2005) dir. Michael Koch
The crowd at an FC Basel match erupt in unison - a surreal documentary about football.

MÁXIMA PENA (Maximum Penalty)
(Spain 2005) dir. Juanjo Giménez
At a regional football game, the coach has to avoid getting relegated. But his family has it differently.

NIBBLES
(US 2003) dir. Christopher Hinton
This hilarious animated short by Academy Award nominated director Chris Hinton is an ode to the joys of family travel and the wonder of fast food.

PORTABLE LIVING ROOM
(US 2006) dir. Ransom Riggs
A young boy is left at his grandma's house for the weekend.

ABRACO DO VENTO (Wind's Embrace)
(Portugal 2004) dir. Jose Miguel Ribeiro
In a world where iron and earth mix, creating unexpected cities, the wind blows life among leaves in the eternal rebirth cycle.
www.zeppelin-filmes.pt

REACTION   
(UK 2004) dir. Martin Morris
Modern life in London, captured to poetic perfection.
www.dazzlefilms.co.uk

LEAF HOUSE (Animal Collective)
(Sweden 2006) dir. Philip Berger
Dirt, birds, snow, logs, trees, rocks, and a little magic.

BUS KONG
(UK 2005) dir. Ed Hartwell
A clever animation that props the old Routemaster against the bendy bus, manipulated by a famous someone on the South Bank.

LE RELAX
(Belgium 2003) dirs. Vincent Patar & Stéphane Aubier
Cowboy cannot resist messing around with Horse's new lounger, which can change itself into a sunbed, waffle maker, or Jacuzzi.
www.paniqueauvillage.com

+ a free beer with ticket courtesy of Stella.

£5.50/£4.50 Concs