News

Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival will open with a world premiere screening of Norweigan filmmaker Eirik Svensson’s latest feature Safe House (Før mørket).

Set during the Central African Republic’s civil war in 2013, the film centers on a desperate Muslim man seeking refuge in a field hospital on Christmas Eve, while a threatening Christian militia gathers outside, demanding his life. At the heart of the events is Norwegian aid worker Linn, played by Kristine Kujath Thorp, who must make moral decisions to protect the man without endangering her colleagues.

The film will screen in satellite venues across Sweden at the same time as the Göteborg premiere. The film will also be available to watch through the festival’s digital platform.

Göteborg will this year also hand honorary awards to Thomas Vinterberg and Julie Delpy. The festival has said it is honoring Vinterberg for his deft talent for portraying “deeply...

Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival will open with a world premiere screening of Norweigan filmmaker Eirik Svensson’s latest feature Safe House (Før mørket).

Set during the Central African Republic’s civil war in 2013, the film centers on a desperate Muslim man seeking refuge in a field hospital on Christmas Eve, while a threatening Christian militia gathers outside, demanding his life. At the heart of the events is Norwegian aid worker Linn, played by Kristine Kujath Thorp, who must make moral decisions to protect the man without endangering her colleagues.

The film will screen in satellite venues across Sweden at the same time as the Göteborg premiere. The film will also be available to watch through the festival’s digital platform.

Göteborg will this year also hand honorary awards to Thomas Vinterberg and Julie Delpy. The festival has said it is honoring Vinterberg for his deft talent for portraying “deeply...

It's been 10 years since Kathy Burke stuck two fingers up at stardom. Here she talks about loving theatre, hating writing – and why Richard Dawkins gives her the hump

'Don't write about how much I'm chain-smoking," grumbles Kathy Burke. "Everyone opens with, 'After the fourth cigarette … ' and it's boring. So don't be doing that, Ryan, else I'll say you're just the same as everyone else." She releases a tight laugh and takes another puff. I mean: takes another sip of rosehip tea.

We're up on the roof of London's Tricycle theatre, sitting on two rickety chairs beneath a blank November sky. Downstairs, Burke has spent the morning directing a new production of Once a Catholic, Mary J O'Malley's comedy set in 1957 at Our Lady of Fatima convent school. Burke is a versatile actor, adored for her populist, prickly comedy: she was Linda, the voracious ginger foghorn with porthole specs in...

'Someone once said to me: "Don't take this the wrong way, but you look like Kathy Burke."'

Kathy Burke, 46, was born in London. Her mother died when she was two, and she was raised by neighbours until the age of six, when she was returned to her alcoholic father. At 16, she began to act at the Anna Scher theatre school in Islington and, a year later, got her first role, in the film Scrubbers. She appeared in Harry Enfield's Television Programme, playing characters such as Waynetta Slob, and in the sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme. Her film roles include Nil By Mouth, for which she won the Cannes Palme D'Or. In recent years she has directed plays, and her latest, The Stock Da'wa, is at Hampstead Theatre until 14 May.

What is your earliest memory?

Sausage and chips at Auntie Joan's.

What was your most embarrassing moment?

In my 20s, walking...