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Khan’s creation for English National Ballet is filmed by Kapadia, and has an ambiguous intensity that should interest audiences beyond dance fans

Asif Kapadia returns with something unlike his previous acclaimed films … but maybe not utterly unlike. Kapadia has become known for intense documentary studies of agonised public figures including Ayrton Senna, Amy Winehouse and Diego Maradona, for whom the glare of attention, and the claustrophobic crush of public adulation, was a kind of addictive ordeal. There are points of similarity in this new, fascinating and perplexingly ambiguous film, something without a clear story, but which admits of any number of readings.

Creature is a filmed theatre project, capturing Akram Khan’s English National Ballet work, also entitled Creature, starring the charismatic dancer Jeffrey Cirio as the Creature, thrillingly athletic and physical, every muscle and tendon visible. The Creature is apparently kept captive in some remote army research unit-slash-prison in the snowy wastes,...

Director Asif Kapadia makes slick work of Akram Khan’s ballet in Creature, which world premiered at the BFI London Film Festival. Based on Khan’s original concept and choreography, the English National Ballet Production is produced by Uzma Hasan for Little House Productions, and brings an intense cinematic sensibility to the bleak story exploring power, nature, connection and more.

Taking center stage as the Creature is the extraordinary Jeffrey Cirio, who went on to star in the stage production which was delayed due to the pandemic. He twists and slinks across the set with a performance that’s both animalistic and tenderly humane. The setting is a former Arctic research station, where Creature has been brought to be experimented upon by a Doctor (Stina Quagebeur). A cleaner, Marie (Erina Takahashi), catches his eye, and also that of the Major (Fabian Reimair), a stern presence in a swooshing military coat.

The 66th BFI London Film Festival is set to host the world premiere of Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, the Oscar-winning director’s dark take on the classic fairy tale about a wooden marionette brought to life to mend the heart of a grieving woodcarver named Geppetto.

The film will debut in the Royal Festival Hall at the Southbank Centre during the festival, which takes place October 5-15, 2022.

The stop-motion film was directed by del Toro and Mark Gustafson and is from a screenplay by the Mexican filmmaker and Patrick McHale. The film’s voice cast includes Ewan McGregor as Cricket, David Bradley as Geppetto and Gregory Mann as Pinocchio. Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro, Ron Perlman, Tim Blake Nelson, Burn Gorman and Christoph Waltz and Tilda Swinton also star.

The film’s music will be provided by the Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat, who has also written the score.

‘Creature’ is based on an original concept and choreography by Akram Khan.

BFI Distribution has picked up UK filmmaker Asif Kapadia’s Creature for distribution in the UK and Ireland, with a theatrical release planned for February 24 2023.

The deal was negotiated with the English National Ballet.

It is based on an original concept and choreography by UK choreographer and dancer, Akram Khan. Khan’s Creature was inspired by Georg Büchner’s 19th-century play about a lonely German soldier, Woyzeck. Kapadia’s film is based on Khan’s 2021 stage production, that follows an outsider’s search for belonging, set in a dilapidated former Arctic research station.