Good news sci fi fans! The Sci Fi London film festival is back for a whole new year of genre awesomeness. Taking place again at the Picturehouse Stratford in London, expect the weird and the wonderful on 19-22 May.
Watch the trailer here and check out the programme in full below…
The Innocents
Opening night – Thur 19 May, 8.40pm
From the director of The Worst Person In The World, this is not for the faint-hearted.
During a bright Nordic summer, a group of children reveal their dark and mysterious powers when the adults aren’t looking. In this original and gripping thriller, playtime takes a dangerous turn.
Unlike in Wyndham’s The Midwich Cuckoos, these kids are not ganging up on their adult carers. At times reminiscent of the more teenage Chronical, the simplicity of the sparingly deployed effects adds realism that will haunt your imagination long after watching.
Rani Rani Rani
UK Premiere – Fri 20 May, 7pm
Rani, played by Tannistha Chatterjee (Brick Lane), lives in an almost-abandoned Indian village. For Rani, it’s another ordinary day populated by her feckless husband, his brother and ruthless sister-in-law, all fighting about money.
While Rani is seeking out some peace and quiet she happens upon some guys demonstrating an experimental device to a potential buyer. They ask Rani if she will be their guinea pig, and she’s lured into their machine. She emerges seemingly unscathed, but something has changed, the device has created another version of Rani… and that’s just the start of her problems.
Manfish
London Premiere – Fri 20 Ma, 9.10pm
Terry, a downtrodden middle-aged loner, spends his days down on Canvey Island beachfront collecting seashells for his failing jewellery box business. However, his world is turned upside down one morning when a mysterious humanoid sea creature washes up on the shore.
With the help of his foul-mouthed and abusive girlfriend Tracey, they take action and do what any self-respecting Essex couple would do – knock the creature unconscious, take it home and work out how to make money from it. So… to chop it up and eat it or sell it to a zoo; that is the question?
What or who exactly is this humanoid from the deep? What does it want? And why are so many local dogs going missing?
Doctor Who Am I
World Premiere – Sat 21 May, 4.15pm
Documentary filmmaker, Vanessa Yuille (in her debut feature) follows friend and co-director, Matthew Jacobs (British writer of the 1996 TV movie, Doctor Who) as he is reluctantly pulled back into the fandom that rejected his work 25 years earlier.
The journey not only becomes hilarious and emotionally perilous for the duo but also reveals a touching and quirky face-off between the American Doctor Who fans and Matthew himself.
As they explore the fandom, Matthew unexpectedly finds himself a kindred part of this close-knit, yet vast, family of fans. The documentary deals with the desire to belong to a community, and how people can become nourished and enriched by the experience.
The Deal
Uk Premiere – Sat 21 May 6.30pm
After a pandemic has left the planet devastated with insufficient resources to maintain the human population, the totalitarian governing body, The Bureau, has set up ‘The Deal’. The terms are simple: accept The Deal, and you’ll have work, a home and medical care for the next twenty years. At the end of the time period you must sacrifice your life for the greater good.
Tala took The Deal when she was pregnant and has spent the ensuing nineteen years selflessly raising her daughter, Analyn so that she would never have to take The Deal herself. Just five days before Tala is scheduled to die, Analyn becomes very ill. A life-saving procedure with Tala as a donor is beyond their financial means and so begins their adventure to find a way to avoid The Bureau and keep them both alive.
Soylent Green
Sat 21 May, 8.40pm
Based on the 1966 science fiction novel Make Room! Make Room! by the legendary Harry Harrison, the movie is a cocktail of police procedural and eco-disaster science fiction.
The year is 2022 and the Earth is in trouble. Millions are hungry and homeless, and the Soylent Corporation are supplying Soylent Green. a high-protein foodstuff allegedly made from plankton, but is it?
Frank Thorn, a cynical NY detective is called in to investigate the death of a Soylent executive, and he soon suspects that it was an assassination. And so begins the hunt for the truth.
Tickets include Soylent red or green cocktails!
A Tear In The Sky
UK Premiere – Sunday 22 May, 3.30pm
We want to believe.. right? But why do most images of Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP) look like smeary blobs? The team in A Tear In The Sky has sought out something more tangible.
With military personnel, scientists and even William Shatner(!), they attempt to re-capture, in real-time, the US Navy “TicTac” UFOs, using state-of-the-art, military-grade equipment and technology. What they find instead are thought-provoking clues into the true nature of the UFO phenomenon and the very fabric of our space-time reality.
Annular Eclipse
UK Premiere – Sun 22 May, 5.40pm
In a dystopian future, a cure for Alzheimer’s has given rise to technology that enables near-perfect brainwashing and memory editing.
Two contract killers, Ge and Song, carry out daily executions for the organisation. Ge has become a deeply troubled man, sustaining nightmares and flashes of suppressed memory. On their next assignment, Ge’s flashbacks aren’t ones he recognises; it seems that someone is manipulating his memory and their latest target is someone important from his past. The assassins must infiltrate the Brain Science Corporation to find out the truth.
Deus
Closing Night – World Premiere – Sun 22 May 8pm
Earth is on the brink of an environmental disaster. The population has risen to more than 20 billion and huge areas of the planet are uninhabitable. Against this backdrop, a massive black sphere is discovered in the orbit of Mars. The Sphere begins to transmit a single word in each of Earth‘s languages: Deus (God).
Commercial spaceship, The Achilles is sent to investigate but, on approaching the red planet, it becomes damaged by a strange beam of light emanating from the sphere. Will the crew survive and discover the origin of the sphere and its purpose?
Claudia Black (Farscape) and David O’ Hara (Braveheart) lead a stellar cast in this intriguing and grand looking space drama.
Sci Fi London is taking place on 19-22 May at Picturehouse Stratford. Tickets will be on sale on Friday 5 May. Find out more here.