Unrelated
Apart from particularly eagle-eyed observers of British television, few critics had heard of Joanna Hogg when UNRELATED quietly premiered at the London Film Festival in late 2007. By the festival’s end, however, Hogg’s Italian-set feature debut had drawn comparisons with the likes of Michael Haneke and Eric Rohmer, and was awarded the FIPRESCI prize from the international critics. Canadian juror Norm Wilner wrote at the time: “simple in its construction but endlessly complex in its psychology, UNRELATED marks the arrival of a filmmaker whose talent seems as boundless as her compassion for her characters.” Shot in and around the Tuscan city of Siena, it displays what’s evidently a very intimate, first-hand knowledge of the specific social strata under examination, and the result is one of those rare works where we feel more like casual eavesdroppers than detached spectators. It’s primarily a painfully detailed character study of Anna, a mousy woman in her early forties who's experiencing unspecified marital problems. Keen to escape the stresses of home, she visits her long-time best pal Verena – who’s holidaying in a well-appointed villa with her husband, children and some family friends. Feeling awkward among the bourgeois “grown-ups”, Anna gravitates towards the party’s younger members – unwisely allowing herself to become smitten with the flirtatious Oakley, played by tousle-haired newcomer Tom Hiddleston. Now known to adoring millions as the devious but dashing Loki from the THOR and AVENGERS blockbusters, Hiddleston can currently be seen in Jim Jarmusch’s ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE – co-starring opposite another former Hogg-collaborator, Tilda Swinton. (Neil Young)
Director's Biography
Born in London in 1960, Joanna Hogg resides and works in the United Kingdom’s capital. She studied at the National Film & Television School in Buckinghamshire, where her graduation film, CAPRICE (1986), starred “Matilda” (a.k.a. Tilda) Swinton in a very early screen appearance for the future Oscar-winner. Hogg also worked in photography, experimental film and music video, and her television work in the 1990s included episodes of the popular series LONDON'S BURNING, CASUALTY and LONDON BRIDGE, plus the stand-alone EASTENDERS special DOT'S STORY (2003). In 2007, her debut feature UNRELATED (2007), set in Tuscany and featuring Tom Hiddleston in his big-screen debut, premiered at the London Film Festival, winning the international critics' FIPRESCI award. Her 2010 follow-up ARCHIPELAGO, set on the Scilly Isles off the Cornish coast, received three nominations - Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Actor (Hiddleston) – at the Evening Standard British Film Awards. In 2013, her third film EXHIBITION (2013) competed for the Golden Leopard at Locarno, and her work was showcased in the Emerging Artist sidebar of the 51st New York Film Festival.
Tribute 2014
Joanna Hogg
Great Britain 2007
color
100 minutes
OV
Screenplay Joanna Hogg
Cinematography Oliver Curtis
Editing Helle le Fevre
With Kathryn Worth, Tom Hiddleston, Mary Roscoe, David Rintoul, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Harry Kershaw, Michael Hadley, Emma Hiddleston
Production
Raw Siena Limited 39 Chiswick Green Studios 1 Evershed Walk London W4 5BW Großbritannien T +44 20 87471917 F +44 20 87479862 stone.babs@googlemail.com