Sundance London 2018: On the red carpet with the cast of Yardie, First Reformed, Hereditary and The Tale

The great variety at London Sundance Film Festival 2018 is perfectly encapsulated in this quartet of red carpet premieres.

Firstly, there is Ari Aster’s debut feature Hereditary. Hailed as the finest horror movie of recent years, it combines jump scares with a well-developed family drama starring Toni Collette. Although Aster does not want to be categorised as a horror director, he has an undeniable talent for shaking his audience to the core. We spoke to Ari about his fascination with the genre, and he also revealed which film scared him the most. 

Moving onto pure drama, another important piece presented at the festival is Paul Schrader’s First Reformed. Socially conscious and already widely praised for its affecting power, the feature stars Ethan Hawke, whose performance represents yet another high point in his career. We caught up with the actor, who shared his views about politics merging into cinema (and much more). 

Equally noteworthy is the much anticipated Yardie, which marks Idris Elba’s directorial debut. Elba and young actor Aml Ameen, who plays the lead character, worked for two years on the project. Both stars feel that it is an important story to share and they enjoyed working with one another, as they explained on the red carpet.

Co-screenwriter Martin Stellman gave further insights into how the narrative was transformed from novel to modern screenplay. 

Director Jennifer Fox had an even more challenging adaptation process in turning her own true story of childhood sexual abuse into hard-hitting and harrowing drama, The Tale. We heard from the American auteur as she explained the importance of film as a means for reconstructing memories.

The strongest common denominator between the four features is perhaps the quality of the works, and the desire to convey a deeper message than what is found in mainstream pictures. In short, this small cinematic sample has set the bar incredibly high at this year’s London Sundance Film Festival. 

Mersa Auda and Sarah Bradbury
Videos: Marta Starczynowska 

For further information about Sundance 2018 visit here.

Read more reviews from the festival here.