London Film Festival: ‘The Summer Book’ & Joshua Oppenheimer’s ‘The End’ Among Titles Added To Lineup 

The London Film Festival has added multiple titles to this year’s lineup including Charlie McDowell’s The Summer Book, which will screen as a world premiere. Scroll down for the full list. 

The Summer Book is an adaptation of Moomins creator Tove Jansson’s classic novel and stars Glenn Close and Anders Danielsen Lie. Also joining today is Joshua Oppenheimer’s narrative feature debut The End. Set in a post-apocalyptic world where a family and their companions live in harmony until the arrival of a stranger cracks their strictly organized world wide open, starring Tilda Swinton, George MacKay, Moses Ingram, and Michael Shannon. The film travels to London after debuting in Telluride. 

Other titles include Justin Kurzel’s first non-fiction film, Ellis Park, and Fleur Fortuné’s feature debut The Assessment, a sci-fi chamber piece featuring Elizabeth Olsen, Himesh Patel, and Alicia Vikander.

This year’s London Film Festival runs from October 9-20. The festival opens with Steve McQueen’s latest feature Blitz. The pic is an exploration of London during World War 2 and will screen as a world premiere.

Directed, produced, and written by McQueen, the film follows the epic journey of George (Elliott Heffernan), a 9-year-old boy in World War II London whose mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan) sends him to safety in the English countryside. The Synopsis reads: George, defiant and determined to return home to Rita and his grandfather Gerald (Paul Weller) in East London, ensues on an adventure, only to find himself in immense peril, while a distraught Rita searches for her missing son. Blitz marks McQueen’s first sole feature screenwriting credit. 

New Titles 

BURY YOUR DEAD

Director-Screenwriter Marco Dutra. With Selton Mello, Marjorie Estiano, Danilo Grangheia. Brazil 2024. 128min. Courtesy of m-appeal. Languages Portuguese, Mandarin, Alien with English subtitles. LFF 18. 

In a rural area of an apocalyptic Brazil, roadkill collector Edgar is planning an escape with his girlfriend Nete, but his nights are haunted by violent dreams and sleepwalking. After Nete joins her aunt in a religious cult, Edgar embarks on a perilous trip through ravaged roads plagued by chaos to save her. While the goriness he shows is not for the faint-hearted, Marco Dutra once again shows that his knack for world building is unrivalled.

DICIANNOVE

Director-Screenwriter Giovanni Tortorici. With Manfredi Marini, Vittoria Planeta, Dana Giuliano. Italy 2024. 109min. Courtesy of Playtime. Language Italian. With English subtitles.

Palermo native Leonardo arrives in London to attend business school. As the novelty of his new surroundings wears off, he moves on to Siena to study his true passion: literature. Though enamoured with the city, Leonardo clashes with his teachers and retreats into his own world – the beginning of an introspective odyssey of self-realisation. Elevating its narrative through formal experimentation, this Luca Guadagnino-produced gem positions Giovanni Tortorici as a filmmaker to watch.

SAT 12 OCT 20:10 VUE WEST END SCREEN 5 / SUN 20 OCT 17:00 CURZON SOHO 2

ELLIS PARK

Director Justin Kurzel Screenwriters Justin Kurzel, Nick Fenton. With Warren Ellis, Femke Den Haas, John Ellis. Australia. 2024. 105 min. Language English, Indonesian, French with English subtitles

Warren Ellis has lived many lives, ultimately emerging from trauma and drug abuse to embark on a journey of personal healing. Through his success as a musician, working with Nick Cave and as a member of both the Bad Seeds and Dirty Three, he co-founded a wildlife sanctuary that provides animals damaged by human captivity with a new lease on life. Lovingly shot and candidly told, this is a humbling story of growth, redemption and care.

SAT 19 OCT 15:40 PRINCE CHARLES CINEMA / SUN 20 OCT 17:15 CURZON SOHO 3

FIRE OF WIND (FOGO DO VENTO)

Director-Screenwriter Marta Mateus. With Soraia Prudêncio, Maria Catarina Sapata, Safir Eizner. Portugal-Switzerland-France. 2024. 72 min. Courtesy of Clarão Companhia. Language Portuguese with English subtitles.

A community of vineyard workers in rural Alentejo become the protagonists of Meteus’s magnetically lyrical film. Brimming with poetry and emotional gravity, their words make hauntingly real the memories of António de Oliveira Salazar’s dictatorship and subsequent political upheaval. Here Mateus and her collaborators use filmmaking to navigate the labyrinth of their past and give new meaning to life’s fragments.

THE ASSESSMENT

Director Fleur Fortuné. Screenwriters Mrs & Mr Thomas, John Donnelly. With Elizabeth Olsen, Alicia Vikander, Himesh Patel. UK-Germany-USA 2024. 115min. Courtesy of Number 9 Films. Language English

Successful scientists Mia and Aaryan dream of being parents, but in a world where overpopulation is controlled by an authoritarian regime they must first pass ‘The Assessment’. Enter Virginia, who over the next seven days will test boundaries and change their lives forever. Fortuné’s stylish gaze and expert pacing, coupled with the incredible performances by her leads make for a compelling cinematic world and cement Fortuné’s position as an exciting directorial talent.

MON 14 20:40 NFT1 / SAT 19 17:55 CURZON MAYFAIR

 

THE END

Director Joshua Oppenheimer. Screenwriters Rasmus Heisterberg, Joshua Oppenheimer. With Tilda Swinton, George MacKay, Moses Ingram, Michael Shannon. Denmark-Germany-Ireland-Italy-UK-Sweden 2024. 148min. Courtesy of MUBI. Language English

A post-apocalyptic world, a biological family and their companions – part-found-family, part-hired-help – live in harmony by forgetting the time before the present. But the arrival of a stranger, brimming with emotion, cracks their strictly organised world wide open. But, in this time on the cusp of oblivion, truth seekers soon find that compromise is the only option for survival. Just as he did with his landmark The Act of Killing, Oppenheimer once again confounds expectations with this singular, seriously minded work.

THE SUMMER BOOK

Director Charlie McDowell. Screenwriter Robert Jones. With Glenn Close, Emily Matthews, Anders Danielsen Lie. Finland-UK 2024. 90min.  Language English.

Glenn Close and Anders Danielsen Lie star in Charlie McDowell’s delicately beautiful adaptation of Moomins creator Tove Jansson’s classic novel. In the wake of her mother’s death, Sophia (impressive newcomer Emily Matthews), her grandmother and father spend a summer on an island off the gulf of Finland. With fantastic performances from Close, Danielsen Lie and Matthews, The Summer Book celebrates the adventures of everyday life. McDowell’s stunningly shot film vividly brings to life some of Jansson’s most beloved characters.SAT 12 OCT 15:10 CURZON MAYFAIR / FRI 18 OCT 12:40 NFT2