David Farnor | On 16, Sep 2021

Autumn is almost here, which means it’s time for Raindance – and the 2021 film festival will once again take a hybrid approach, with films playing in cinemas and online.

Running from 27th October to 6th November, the 29th edition of the UK’s biggest indie film festival will feature 60 feature films and a host of shorts. The festival will partner a new range of venues across London, including Curzon Hoxton, Curzon Soho, Curzon Mayfair, Genesis Cinema, Regent Street Cinema and Bertha DocHouse. As well as those cinema screenings, the programme will also be available to stream via Curzon Home Cinema.

The festival will open with the UK premiere of Best Sellers, directed by Lina Roessler and starring Aubrey Plaza, Michael Caine and Cary Elwes. It portrays a cranky retired author who reluctantly embarks on a final book tour to help out a young publisher. It will close with the UK premiere of Medusa, fresh from Cannes Directors Fortnight. Inspired by mythical and real-life violence by women against women and set against a backdrop of toxic masculinity and right-wing politics, the second feature by Brazilian filmmaker Anita Rocha da Silveira sees a group of Christian women gang up to attack women who they judge to be too liberal or too promiscuous.

Out-of-competition gala screenings include Netflix documentary Hating Peter Tatchell about the gay rights activist, Take Me To The River: New Orleans, a follow-up to the 2014 film, and Japanese anime The Laws of the Universe: The Age of Elohim. There will also be a dedicated strand to showcasing films from Cyprus.

Returning once again will be Raindance’s VR programme. Running from 27th October to 21st November, the VR showcase is curated by Mária Rakušanová with virtual worlds co-curated by Joe Hunting. The full programme will be unveiled on 30th September.

Raindance’s selection of shorts include Andrew Kötting’s Diseased and Disorderly, which uses the artworks of Eden Kötting to take us on a fantastical journey, and rubberband and musician Topaz Jones’ collaboration, Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma, which won awards at Sundance and SXSW for its quasi-documentary portrayal of Black educators in 1970s Chicago. A selection of shorts will stream exclusively from 15th September to 15th October on the VOD platform Paus.

Tickets will go on sale on 24th September, at which point we’ll bring you a breakdown of the films available online and how much they’ll be streaming for. For now, we can confirm that festival titles from the Official Selection will have a digital window on Curzon Home Cinema, with films available to rent. The Official Selection is broken down into a range of themed sections, including horror, feature debuts and LGBTQ+ stories, with prizes awarded by a jury that includes Fiona Shaw, Natalie Dormer, Tobias Menzies, Aneurin Barnard and Romola Garai.

 

The online line-up

Here’s the full rundown of the online line-up and when you can stream them.

Learning To Live Together: The Return of Mad Dogs & Englishmen
This documentary concert film revisits this historic Joe Cocker tour, featuring performances from Leon Russell, Rita Coolidge, Chris Robinson (The Black Crowes), Dave Manson, and Claudia Lennear (20 Feet From Stardom).
Available: 1st November

I’m Wanita
Documenting a renegade country music singer from regional Australia, hellbent on overcoming hurdles such as her autism to realise her childhood dreams of stardom.
Available: 29th October

Helmut Lachenmann – My Way
An exploration of the life, philosophy and artistry of this experimental German composer.
Available: 6th November

Father of Flies
A haunting tale of family life, starring Camilla Rutherford alongside Nicholas Tucci in his final role.
Available: 7th November

The Welder
A traumatised ex-soldier takes what should be a relaxing holiday with her boyfriend, only to find themselves in a fight for their lives.
Available: 3rd November

Vampir
A witness to a crime flees London, deciding to hide himself in a remote Serbian village – but he begins to have nightmarish visions.
Available: 6th November

Where’s Rose
A missing girl is seemingly found, but her brother enters a deadly game of cat-and-mouse to discover who or what has really taken her place.
Available: 2nd November

The Pop Song (La cançó pop)
Shot on a small budget in b&w, this classic arthouse indie explores the loss and grief of a past relationship as friends come together for a funeral.
Available: 4th November

Miguel’s War (Aanaf Hob)
Winner of the Teddy Award at Berlin, the story of a gay man from Lebanon living in exile in Spain, who returns to his native country after 37 years to confront his traumatic past.
Available: 31st October

Girl Like You
This touching and insightful documentary portrays a couple battling to stay together as one of them transitions genders.
Available: 3rd November

Against The Current (Á móti straumnum)
Having spent a lifetime battling social expectations, a trans woman from Iceland attempts to become the first person to kayak against the current around the 2,000 km Icelandic coastline.
Available: 2nd November

White Noise
The disturbing inside story of the alt-right, as white nationalist violence surges in America and across the world.
Available: 31st October

The Caviar Connection
Exploring corruption in countries including Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, and documenting how this impacts the likes of the EU.
Available: 6th November

Soros
With unprecedented access, this documentary pulls back the curtain on the personal history, private wealth and public activism of billionaire George Soros – one of the most influential and controversial figures of our time.
Available: 29th October

Power, Profit and Populism: The Battle for Hard Brexit (Hard Brexit – Der Coup der reichen Elite)
A behind-the-scenes look at the thinktanks and lobbyists who supported the Leave campaign.
Available: 7th November

Far Eastern Golgotha
A small-town taxi driver ends up in danger and in prison for sharing his opinions on a YouTube channel, illustrating how impossible it is to show any form of opposition in Putin’s Russia.
Available: 29th October

Children of the Enemy
A grandfather campaigns to bring his orphaned grandchildren home to Sweden from a Syrian detention camp.
Available: 4th November

Zip It
Fun, flamboyant and full of fabulous clothes, documenting the creativity of edgy Egyptian fashion designer Mohanad Kojak.
Available: 2nd November

Sweet Disaster
A pregnant woman uses increasingly absurd, exaggerated and often hilarious methods to try and win her boyfriend back.
Available: 4th November

My Heart Goes Boom! (Explota, Explota)
A joyful, high-spirited musical incorporating the hits of iconic Italian star Raffaella Carrà, telling the story of a starlet who brings colour to the greyest days of Francoist Spain in the 1970s.
Available: 6th November

All Sorts
A nerdy loner gets an office job and discovers a secret competitive world of championship folder filing.
Available: 7th November

Oscar Micheaux – The Superhero of Black Filmmaking
The complex and fascinating story of the most successful African American director of the first half of the 20th-century – a pioneer who wrote, directed and produced more than forty-four films.
Available: 3rd November

The Rossellinis
Following its Venice premiere, this glorious family saga recounts the lives of Roberto Rossellini’s children, told from the perspective of the great director’s grandson Alessandro. After a shaky career as a photographer and a past as a drug addict, this film is his attempt to measure up to the surname he bears.
Available: 31st October

Jean Seberg: Actress Activist Icon
Comprising exclusive interviews and never-before-seen private footage, it focuses on the private side of this international movie star, including her offscreen activism that made her a target of the F.B.I.
Available: 5th November

The Drowning of Arthur Braxton
The story of a bullied teenager who falls in love with a mermaid-like girl in his local swimming pool, co-starring Johnny Vegas.
Available: 7th November

Listen
Anchored by a brilliant performance by Lúcia Moniz (Love, Actually) alongside co-stars Ruben Garcia and Sophia Myles, it follows a couple living in the London suburbs who face serious difficulties with social services when their 7-year-old daughter’s deafness triggers a red flag in the system.
Available: 31st October

I Am Gen Z
Documenting how the digital revolution is impacting our society, our brains and our mental health, it investigates how we use different social media platforms – and how they use us.
Available: 5th November

Hostile
For generations, Britain has relied on migrants to keep the wheels of our society in motion. This documentary explores how they now face being expelled. Although Brexit contributes, Covid is the focus: we see, for example, a doctor who worked on the frontline during the pandemic, and now his licence to work is being revoked.
Available: 30th October

A Bird Flew In
Featuring a host of UK talent including Derek Jacobi, Sadie Frost, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Camilla Rutherford and Frances Barber, it follows what happens when lockdown is imposed, and the cast and crew of a film are removed from the set and sent home alone.
Available: 6th November

The Man With The Answers (O Anthropos Me Tis Apan – Tiseis)
Available: 30th October

Smuggling Hendrix
Chara’s family is everything to her, and yet she sometimes considers a life without them. When she strikes up a hesitant friendship with a shy and defiant teenage girl, she is inexorably forced to confront her existential angst and face a painful past that she’s been trying to forget.
Available: 31st October

Pause (Pafsi)
Chara’s family is everything to her, and yet she sometimes considers a life without them. When she strikes up a hesitant friendship with a shy and defiant teenage girl, she is inexorably forced to confront her existential angst and face a painful past that she’s been trying to forget.
Available: 1st November

Patchwork
Chara’s family is everything to her, and yet she sometimes considers a life without them. When she strikes up a hesitant friendship with a shy and defiant teenage girl, she is inexorably forced to confront her existential angst and face a painful past that she’s been trying to forget.
Available: 1st November

Youth v Gov
The story of twenty-one young Americans hoping to make history and change the future, as they sue the US government over its role in the climate crisis.
Available: 30th October

Viral
Portraying young influencers who share their lives on social media, illustrating their adaptability during the Corona pandemic.
Available: 1st November

The Revolution Generation
Narrated by Michelle Rodriguez, the film documents how millennials have inherited a world that needs them to save it, and shows young people deploying their strengths to confront both the US political crisis and the global environmental crisis.
Available: 7th November

Sami, Joe and I (Sami, Joe und Ich)
A coming-of-age story of three girls from different walks of life, ready to embrace what comes after school – but reality doesn’t live up to their dreams.
Available: 31st October

Beans
Hailed at festivals including Berlin and Toronto, this debut feature tells of a Native American girl rebelling against her family, set against the real-life stand-off between Mokawk communities and government forces in Quebec in 1990.
Available: 30th October

Subjects of Desire
Contributors including India Arie, Jully Black, and Brittany Lee Lewis help to document the cultural shift in US beauty standards towards embracing black aesthetics and features, deconstructing what we understand about race and beauty.
Available: 4th November

Shadow (Sombra)
The harrowing real-life story of a woman who continues to look for her missing son years after his disappearance, touching on delicate topics including the brutal reality of sexual trafficking.
Available: 31st October

Porcelain (Porselein)
A Dutch couple enjoy an apparently perfect life, but when their son inexplicably falls ill with a disease, the happy family façade starts to fracture and tragically falls apart.
Available: 3rd November

My Sunny Maad (Moje Slunce Maad)
This highly topical and thought-provoking animation depicts a young Czech woman who falls for an Afghan man – but when the couple and their newly-adopted disabled child begin a life in post-Taliban Afghanistan, they must face the reality of being odd ones in a community that doesn’t like diversity.
Available: 5th November

The Hill Where Lionesses Roar
Nominated for the Golden Camera and Queer Palm at Cannes, the film depicts three free-spirited young women who rebel against the prospect of a dismal small-town future by forming a gang – with bleak consequences.
Available: 29th October

Shapeless
Kelly Murtagh brilliantly portrays a singer who is forced to confront her eating disorder when her internal struggle appears to become external and she risks turning into a monster.
Available: 5th November

Second Thoughts (Ich Ich Ich)
An apprentice of renowned Swedish director Roy Andersson, filmmaker Zora Rux takes his influences onboard in her first feature: a surrealistic story of a woman who gets a wedding proposal, and has her mind flooded with the thoughts and opinions of others, including her parents and ex-boyfriend.
Available: 2nd November

As Far As I Know (Legjobb tudomásom szerint)
Based on true events, presented as a detective story, and radically told from the male perspective, it’s the story of a couple and their challenges after a rape.
Available: 6th November

Tzarevna Scaling (Doch rybaka)
Having premiered in Berlin, this debut feature by Uldus Bakhtiozina reflects her work as a fine artist and photographer and features lavish avant-garde costumes. In a narrative inspired by Russian fairytales, it tells of a fishmonger’s daughter who drinks a strange tea and dreams that she’s the Tzar’s daughter.
Available: 3rd November

The Noise of Engines (Le bruit des moteurs)
Following its San Sebastian premiere, this stylised and somewhat bonkers tale focuses on a college instructor accused of drawing sexually explicit vignettes, a scandal that turns the town upside down.
Available: 5th November

The Day I Found a Girl in the Trash
In 2028, a social activist announces his pending suicide via his streaming channel, intending it to be a statement against slavery in Poland – then he finds an abandoned slave-girl in the trash.
Available: 6th November

King Car (Carro Rei)
In this surreal sci-fi, cars have developed voices and souls – but these machines become evil characters that turn against man.
Available: 31st October

In The Mirror (Spoguli)
An absurd retelling of Snow White, the story of a CrossFit-obsessed gym owner and his new young wife who works out all the time in order to be the best. And she is: until the day her gym-raised stepdaughter surpasses her.
Available: 30th October

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