This week, Xan Brooks discovers the remote Ozark mountains that are the setting for Sundance smash Winter's Bone. Xan speaks to co-writer and director Debra Granik about her passion for stories told frugally, and her fortune in finding newcomer Jennifer Lawrence, from whom she coaxes a fabulous central performance as an impoverished youngster fighting to keep her family home and find her wayward father.
Xan is joined by Henry Barnes to discuss the lineup for this year's London film festival. We hear from the festival's artistic director, Sandra Hebron, and from British directors Kim Longinotto, whose film Pink Saris screens at the festival, and Guardian first film award winner Joanna Hogg. Hogg also discusses her follow-up to Unrelated, Archipelago.
Henry and Xan also review some of this week's other releases including Nick Moran's The Kid, starring Rupert Friend as a street fighter with a troubled past, French zombie thriller The Horde and Casey Affleck's film I'm Still Here, about a respected actor's doomed foray into the world of rap, starring Joaquin Phoenix.
