The 13th annual Glasgow Film Festival got off to a great start with the European premiere Irish comedy-drama Handsome Devil last night at the Glasgow Film Theatre on Rose Street.
The film stars Sherlock’s Andrew Scott, Moe Dunford, Nicolas Galitzine and Fionn O’Shea, who attended the screening with director John Butler.
Handsome Devil is Butler’s follow-up to hit comedy The Stag and tells the story of Ned (O’Shea) and Conor (Galitzine), a loner and a star athlete who form an unlikely friendship when they are forced to share a room at their rugby-mad boarding school.
Speaking on the red carpet, John said the movie was based on his own personal schoolboy experiences.
“It’s a modern story set in the here and now but it’s certainly based on my own experience and childhood and pretty much of every boy who goes to a single-sex school and deals with these pressures so it’s definitely autobiographical in some parts.
“It’s about the experience in general of boys going to rugby-playing schools where there are notions about what a man is and how that can sometimes grate against what you might believe in yourself” he said.
The festival continues with a full programme, including UK premieres for titles such as Terrence Malick’s Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey, Cate Shortland’s Berlin Syndrome and Aki Kaurismaki’s The Other Side of Hope.
The 12-day event will feature nine world and international premieres, 65 UK premieres and 67 Scottish premieres in total.
Benny, the story of Scottish boxer Benny Lynch, will have its world premiere on 22nd February, while the festival will close with the world premiere of Mad To Be Normal, starring David Tennant, about the infamous Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing.
Pictures by Paul Gallagher
