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Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy’s intellectually stimulating movie – part essay, documentary and quirky drama – is in a class of its own

Following on from their superb but sadly little-seen dramatic features, Helen and Mister John, Irish co-directors Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy take their unique approach to cinema to the next level with Further Beyond. An aptly titled work in every sense, this sui generis piece is by turns an essay film in the tradition of Chris Marker (San Soleil) and Patrick Keiller (London), a documentary, and a quirky drama about loss and exile. There’s moving footage of Lawlor’s late mother whose life is sketched here, riffs on ideas about photography and representation found in Susan Sontag and Walter Benjamin, and a series of cinematic “notes” or tests towards a biopic about the 18th-century Irish adventurer Ambrose O’Higgins (played by Jose Miguel Jimenez) that Lawlor and...

Mentors at the new writers’ workshop will include Fran Borgia and Tan Chui Mui.

The 25th Singapore International Film Festival (Sgiff) is launching its first Southeast Asian Film Lab, which will run Dec 8-14.

Part of the Singapore Media Festival to be held at the end of the year, Sgiff aims to nurture regional culture and help build the Southeast Asian film industry with the new writers’ workshop for emerging talent.

Sgiff says the lab will “focus on stories capturing the collective experiences of the past, present and future Southeast Asia to be developed into feature length screenplays.”

Workshop mentors will include award-winning producer Fran Borgia and award-winning producer/director/actress Tan Chui Mui. Borgia’s credits include Boo Junfeng’s Cannes Critics’ Week film Sandcastle and Ho Tzu Nyen’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight film Here - both of which were feature directorial debuts. More recently he has produced films including UK-Ireland-Singapore co-production Mister John which premiered...

Mentors at the new writers’ workshop will include Fran Borgia and Tan Chui Mui.

The 25th Singapore International Film Festival (Sgiff) is launching its first Southeast Asian Film Lab, which will run Dec 8-14.

Part of the Singapore Media Festival to be held at the end of the year, Sgiff aims to nurture regional culture and help build the Southeast Asian film industry with the new writers’ workshop for emerging talent.

Sgiff says the lab will “focus on stories capturing the collective experiences of the past, present and future Southeast Asia to be developed into feature length screenplays.”

Workshop mentors will include award-winning producer Fran Borgia and award-winning producer/director/actress Tan Chui Mui. Borgia’s credits include Boo Junfeng’s Cannes Critics’ Week film Sandcastle and Ho Tzu Nyen’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight film Here - both of which were feature directorial debuts. More recently he has produced films including UK-Ireland-Singapore co-production Mister John which premiered...

A brooding, beguiling and Lynchian exploration of identity, desire and the lure of the enticingly exotic, the Aiden Gillen starring Mister John (2013) is a mesmerising drama from Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy, the award-winning directors of 2008's Helen. To celebrate the anticipated DVD release of Mister John this coming Monday (24 February), we have Three copies of Lawlor and Molloy's fish-out-of-water thriller to give away to our readers, courtesy of our friends at UK arthouse and world cinema distributors Artificial Eye. This is an exclusive competition for our Facebook and Twitter fans, so if you haven't already, 'Like' us at facebook.com/CineVueUK or follow us @CineVue before answering the question below.

★★★☆☆ With their feature debut, Helen (2008), British directing duo Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy toyed with notions of identity as they followed a young woman playing the role of a missing girl as part of a police reconstruction. They plunge into similar thematic waters with their follow-up, Mister John (2013), which once again places its protagonist in a position where their sense of self becomes less and less tethered as they battle their own inner demons. In this instance, Aiden Gillen gives a beguiling lead performance as a figure hopelessly adrift in a setup that shares elements with Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives (2013).

Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy's stylish story of disappearance and changing identity in Singapore is the standout title in a week filled out by Norse gods and Welsh mythology

The Bafta awards have been and gone, and with them the eyebrow-raising announcement that Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón's marvellous Hollywood space spectacle, was the best British film of the year, a classification made possible by its UK-produced effects work. Make of that what you will, but the list of great British (or even part-British) films ignored entirely by awards voters this year is rather a long one, with the under-seen Irish co-production Mister John (Artificial Eye, 15) somewhere near the top.

Husband-and-wife duo Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy made a startling 2009 debut with Helen, and that film's thematic preoccupation with identities lost and assumed is extended in this even more accomplished follow-up. The superb Aidan Gillen (recently seen leering to delicious...

A brooding, beguiling and Lynchian exploration of identity, desire and the lure of the exotic, Mister John is a mesmerising drama from the award-winning directors of Helen, available to buy - courtesy of Artificial Eye - in the UK from February 24, 2014. Synopsis: Following the mysterious death of his brother, middle-aged Gerry (Aidan Gillen) travels to Singapore to help arrange the funeral and put business affairs in order. There he discovers an intoxicating world, far removed from his troubled life in London. But as he is drawn towards his brother’s beautiful wife and the sexual frankness of the local culture he begins to realise that escape isn’t as easy as it seems...

A brooding, beguiling and Lynchian exploration of identity, desire and the lure of the exotic, Mister John is a mesmerising drama from the award-winning directors of Helen, available to buy - courtesy of Artificial Eye - in the UK from February 24, 2014. Synopsis: Following the mysterious death of his brother, middle-aged Gerry (Aidan Gillen) travels to Singapore to help arrange the funeral and put business affairs in order. There he discovers an intoxicating world, far removed from his troubled life in London. But as he is drawn towards his brother’s beautiful wife and the sexual frankness of the local culture he begins to realise that escape isn’t as easy as it seems...

Blue Jasmine | Prisoners | Greedy Lying Bastards | Mister John | Hannah Arendt | Runner Runner | It's A Lot | Girl Most Likely | Smash & Grab: The Story Of The Pink Panther | Austenland

Blue Jasmine (12A)

(Woody Allen, 2013, Us) Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Peter Sarsgaard. 98 mins

In the downward trajectory of late-era Allen comes a startling spike to remind us how great he still can be, especially when it comes to women's roles. This show belongs to Blanchett, playing a Manhattan one-percenter brought down to earth. Propped up by alcohol, drugs and her sister, she's an accident that's already happening, and a magnificent, tragicomic creation.

Prisoners (15)

(Denis Villeneuve, 2013, Us) Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano. 153 mins

A kidnapping case refuses to crack in this weighty, slippery whodunit.

Greedy Lying Bastards (12A)

(Craig Scott Rosebraugh, 2012, Us) 90 mins

Climate-change deniers get a dose of their own medicine, as this impassioned doc lays out a history of hypocrisy.

Mister John (15)

(Christine Molloy,...

★★★★☆ Elusive, nuanced and poignant, Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy's second feature together, Mister John (2013), fathoms the depths of masculine identity in crisis, with an emotionally resonant tale given additional flavour by its exotic locale. We first meet Gerry Divine (played by the under-used and underrated Aiden Gillen) in a haggard, unshaven and jet-lagged state. Upon hearing news of the death of his older brother John, he flies out to Singapore to make arrangements for the funeral. Greeted by Kim (Zoe Tay), John's widow who runs the family bar, Jerry finds himself slipping further and further into an existential stupor.

As if by osmosis, Jerry gradually begins to adopt the identity of his older sibling as his domestic family life in the UK drifts into insignificance. This is part of the quiet brilliance of Mister John, something initially unsettling the pushes towards the disturbing. The film exposes the fluidity of...

As Mister John gets set for it’s UK theatrical release, we had the opportunity to sit down and discuss the forthcoming feature with its director – and married couple – Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy.

Mister John tells the story of Gerry (Aidan Gillen), who flies out to Singapore following his brother’s untimely death to take over his business and accompany his grieving family, where a crisis of identity ensues. Lawlor and Molloy discuss the casting of Gillen for the lead role, as well as how working so closely together affects their personal lives, while the former also tells us exactly what he thinks of Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln…

The film begins with a dead body floating in a lake. Can you tell us about the decision behind that as an opening shot?

Christine: Well John is such a powerful presence in the film and there is an argument...

Directed by married couple Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy, Mister John opens with the harrowing image of a dead body floating in a lake, setting the tone succinctly and effectively, and getting the viewer in the correct frame of mind for what is an emotive and pensive piece of cinema.

The floating body belongs to that of John, an Irish man who had run a bar in Singapore and started a family out in South East Asia. His brother, Gerry (Aidan Gillen), flies out to look after the business and accompany his grieving wife (Zoe Tay) and daughter. Ultimately stepping into his dead brother’s shoes, Gerry physically, and emotionally, takes on his life – however by doing so, he leaves behind a wife and daughter of his own back in Britain, as he contemplates whether he should remain out in Singapore, or face up to his own problems and get the next flight home.

Steph Green’s Run & Jump has picked up the Best Irish Feature Award at the Galway Film Fleadh.

The film, produced by Samson Films, Bavaria Pictures and Senator Film München and directed by the Oscar-nominated Green, also picked up the Best First Irish Feature prize.

George Kane’s Discoverdale won the award for Best International Feature while Boy Eating The Bird’s Food, from Greece’s Ektoras Lygizos, won Best International First Feature.

Vico Nikci’s Coming Home won Best Irish Feature Documentary and was also named Best Human Rights Documentary in association with Amnesty International.

Plot For Peace from Carlos Agullo and Mandy Jacobson was named Best International Feature Documentary.

Galway’s Bingham Ray New Talent Award in association with Magnolia Pictures was given to Kelly Thornton for her performance in Lance Daly’sLife’s A Breeze, which received its world premiere at Galway.

The festival’s Pitching Award was given to Jacinta Owens for her...

You don’t hear the phrase “under the blazing Irish sun” very often, but that’s where the 25th annual Galway Film Fleadh is unfolding, in a city where it often rains and currently shines. Actually, it’s hot as hell, but the people and films are cool. Zach Quinto, who arrived yesterday (a little late for the “Star Trek” presentation but in time for an acting masterclass and screening of “Margin Call,” which he helped produce) almost immediately made a stop at a café here where he used to work. A-lister Saoirse Ronan is a native of Ireland, of course, and will be doing an on-stage interview adjacent to a screening of Joe Wright’s lunatic action-thriller “Hanna” (2011). And while the terrific Aiden Gillen was off with the rest of the Irish acting world, conjuring up more “Game of Thrones” episodes, he sent along a bravura performance in Christine Molloy...

Ireland’s Galway Film Fleadh launched its 25th edition last night (July 9) with a screening of Spanish-Irish co-production Tasting Menu [pictured].

Director Roger Gual and star Fionnula Flanagan attended the screening at Galway’s Town Hall Theatre and joined guests afterwards for an opening night party at the Galway Rowing Club. Tasting Menu is produced by Zentropa Spain and Ireland’s Subotica.

The Fleadh runs until July 14, with guests set to include Zachary Quinto, screenwriter Daniel Waters and Julien Temple, who will all take part in masterclasses. Saoirse Ronan will also attend the festival, while Hubbard Casting will deliver a casting workshop.

President of Ireland Michael D Higgins will also attend the Fleadh to present Ronan and James Morris, former Irish Film Board chair and founding member and CEO of Windmill Lane Pictures, with Galway Hookers, the festival’s highest accolade.

Galway is renowned as a platform for new Irish talent, and local films...

★★★★☆ An exotic thriller ensnared within a Lynchian nightmare of confused identities, Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy's follow-up to Helen (2008), Mister John (2013), is a physically and emotionally draining tale of grief, rejection and the yearning to reinvent oneself. When Gerry Devine (Aidan Gillen) hears of the tragic news of his brother's death, he rushes out to Singapore to help with the funeral arrangements. In an odd way, he's thankful of the break, with his marriage going through a particularly tempestuous patch. Once in Singapore, Gerry finds a world of enticing riches and begins to imagine what life would be like here.

Helping his brother's wife, Kim (Zoe Tay), tie-up the loose ends of his bar business, Gerry begins to cogitate on how comfortable this foreign world actually feels, slowly slipping into his brother's former life - at first physically, then psychologically - before spiralling into an inebriated pit of discombobulation.

Shane Meadows on being a 'mad little Stone Roses fan', Gemma Arterton on perfecting her French, and actor Michael Shannon on working with rising indie director Jeff Nichols

Shane off his head

Trash wasn't quite at the premiere of Shane Meadows's Made of Stone last Thursday. Instead, I attended a very buzzy satellite premiere of the Stone Roses doc at the Hackney Picturehouse, where the raucous atmosphere of the Victoria Warehouse in Manchester was well captured by the live feed (one of 200 such events round the country) of the red carpet and post-screening Q&A. Mick Jones of the Clash described the Stone Roses as "a generational band" and said he wished Shane Meadows had been around to have filmed the Clash. The loyal band of This is England stars – shortly to star in another instalment, set in 1990 – were out in force, including Thomas Turgoose and Andrew Shim. Shimmy...

New British films and American independents loom large in the Scottish cinema showcase, which also features two retrospectives and a revival of The Gorbals Story

The 2013 edition of the Edinburgh international film festival has revealed its full lineup, joining Drake Doremus's Sundance hit Breathe In, which was earlier announced as the opening film.

Twelve films have been selected to compete for the festival's premier competition, the Michael Powell award for best British feature film, including Matt Hulse's Dummy Jim, Mister John from the Helen team of Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, Cannes hit For Those in Peril and Not Another Happy Ending, starring Karen Gillan, which is also the closing film.

A particularly strong year for American independent cinema has been reflected in the creation of a new strand, American Dreams, which brings together titles as diverse as Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring, the Juno Temple/Michael Cera-starring Magic Magic,...