Tuesday, October 19
5.45 pm
(also screening at NFT2 on Thursday, October 21 1.45pm)
Patrick Keillor's film is soothing on the eye but a workout for the brain. The third cinematic essay by' and about Keillor's oddball-scholar alter ego Robinson (after London and Robinson in Ruins), it offers a dense and imaginative critique of the state of Britain today, inspired by the landscape of the south of England.
Robinson' draws loose connections between the 16th century law of enclosures, the part played by the UK in the Cold War arms race, crop yields, meteorites and the behaviour of lichen on road signs, bringing us right up do date with the financial crisis.
The allusive, tangential nature of Keillor's ideas, and the idea of the film as a journey, recall the associative meanderings of the author WG Sebald.
The camera, meanwhile, lingers on set frames: a defunct silo at Greenham Common, a combine harvester, a wildflower, or a spider spinning.
The narration is by Vanessa Redgrave, following the death of Paul Scofield, who voiced the first two Robinson films.
To book tickets call 020 7928 3232 or visit www.bfi.org.uk
The 54th BFI London Film Festival is in partnership with American Express. The London Evening Standard is a media partner.
