Top 5: Manchester International Film Festival at AMC Great Northern Cinema

Manchester’s film aficionados are in for a treat as the Manchester International Film Festival comes to AMC Great Northern Warehouse. Over the course of the weekend 71 international and domestic films will be shown, so we’ve picked out some highlights.

Meet the Hitlers
Probably the film with the most evocative name on the bill, Meet the Hitlers is a documentary film by Matt Ogens (Confessions of a Superhero) which asks what’s in a name? Supersize Me’s Morgan Spurlock introduces a character driven documentary which follows the lives of a group of individuals who have been adorned with the unfortunate and infamous name. As its showing at the MFF will be its international premier there aren’t any reviews to go off but it will surely be a fascinating insight in to the lives of people whose very name has probably the most negative connotation possible and how they are treated before we know anything of their character. (Fri 10 Jul, 7pm, Screen 2)

Two Down
Stephen Fry and Dereck Jacobi serves as executive producers on this dark comedy thriller which will be making its UK premier at the MFF. Featuring an impressive cast including young up-and-comer Graham Butler (Penny Dreadful), Games of Throne’s Conleth Hill and the brilliant Felicity Montagu (Alan Partridge, Nighty Night). It is the story of an injured hitman (Alex Hassel) takes a hostage in her flat above a Chinese takeaway, a web of deceit is uncovered as events dictate that Mr Thomas has an increasing number of captives to watch over. (Sat 11 Jul, 8pm, Screen 1)

Many Beautiful Things
Another documentary – this is a look in to the British Victorian artist and missionary Lilias Trotter, played by Michelle Dockery. The film explores Lilias’s life via the letters she sent to her confidant John Ruskin and of course her art. When on the verge of greatness she gave up art and began life as a missionary, famously spending the last 40 years of her life in the slums of Algeria – a stark contrast to her upbringing of upper class Victorian London. The film has Hisao Kurosawa serving as an executive director and also stars John Rhys-Davies of Indiana Jones and Lord of the Rings fame.(Sat 11 Jul, 1.30pm, Screen 1)

The Last Executioner
Vithaya Pansringarm starts in this Thai language biographical crime drama about the last person whose job it was to execute prisoners at the infamous Bangkok Hilton with a rifle and the guilt that followed him in the preceding years. The feel looks at the life of a good man in an ugly world and how he dealt with the consequences of his decisions. (Saturday 11th, 10.30pm, Screen 2).

Experimental and new stuff
On screen 2 from 11am until 12.30pm each day, there will be time allotted for student shorts, experimental music videos and some documentary shorts before the screening of feature length resumes and there will be workshops for those interested in learning about the art of film making.

Fri 10 – Sun 12 Jul, AMC Manchester Great Northern, 235 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 4EN. Tel: 0161 817 3000. Ticket £6.25 for individual films, £30 for six tickets, £50 for access all areas. www.maniff.com