Families put under artificial strain seems to be becoming the leitmotif of French-Swiss film director Ursula Meier (not to be confused with renowned Austrian film artist Ursula Mayer).  Maier (not Mayer)’s debut, Home, took an ordinary and lovely French family led by Isabelle Huppert and placed a motorway beside their house.  Her latest film, L’enfant d’en haut (Sister), which screens today as part of this year’s BFI London Film Festival, is a far more complex affair set in the snowy hills of Verbier.

Simon is twelve years old.  He lives in a tower block at the foothills of the French mountains with his sister Louise and supports them both by stealing from the wealthy visitors to the local ski resort.  Soon, Simon is caught by seasonal worker Mike and befriends the holidaying Kristin and her two young sons.  Louise’s latest on-off boyfriend becomes a friend and confidante of the small family. Unfortunately, none of this can be maintained because, ultimately, there is a thin veneer of deception upon which is built the ‘reality’ of what Simon and Louise present to the world.

Maier’s sophomore feature is a difficult film, both for audiences and presumably also for the director to have made.  She is wonderfully supported by a dedicated cast who turn in equally strong performances.  Considering this is a film that is carried by a fourteen year old (in only his third film) it is a revelation.  Léa Seydoux, playing Louise, is our reluctantly illusory antagonist, and there are surprise turns from British actors Martin Compston and Gillian Anderson as two of the town’s seasonal visitors.  L’enfant d’en haut has been receiving rave reviews and is Switzerland’s submission to the 2012 Oscars.  You heard it here first.

L’enfant d’en haut (Sister) screens tonight at Vue West End as part of the 2012 BFI London Film Festival.

A super-stylised body horror crammed with a cast of startlingly good looking young people, exploring the concept of corporeal desire, leading to these pretty young things doing and thinking almost unspeakable acts of fetishism, directed by Cronenberg.

Videodrome?  No.

Crash?  No.

Antiviral is the first feature film by Brandon Cronenberg, son of David (who, with Cosmopolis and A Dangerous Mind, has recently been accepted in to Hollywood legend).  Set in a very near and recognisable future, Syd March works for a company that harvests illness and disease taken from celebrities and sold on to their willing and paying clients.  Hannah Geist is the celebrity du jour.  Every injection he sells supposedly brings these desperate fans one step closer to emulating their idols.  Corruption of the mind leads to Syd getting far closer to fanaticism than is comfortable – for him and for all around him.  When Hannah Geist dies in mysterious circumstances, with Syd surreptitiously carrying her supposed fatal malady, he is dragged into an underworld of fetishism.

It’s an incredibly assured debut by Cronenberg, his camera is polished, formal and sophisticated.  At times uncomfortable, the director has admitted that he trimmed almost six minutes from the film’s premiere in the Un Certain Regard award strand at this year’s Cannes Film Festival to make it more palatable.  The revised film is showing as part of this year’s BFI London Film Festival.  It screens tonight at Screen on the Green, Islington.

A word to the wise, have dinner first.

Antiviral plays at the Screen on the Green, Islington, tonight at 2100.

The BFI London Film Festival enters its first weekend today.  Under new Director and Head of Exhibitions at the British Film Institute, Clare Stewart, the programme has been redrafted from previous years to make the world of new, up and coming film more open to as wide an audience as possible.  Sectioned by theme – Love, Debate, Dare, Thrill, Laugh, Cult, Journey, Sonic, Family, Shorts, Experimenta, Treasures – this year’s event has introduced new award competitions.  In addition to the already established Official Competition and Documentary awards, there are now prizes for best first feature and best newcomer.

So what’s deserved of your attention, in this most culturally active of autumns?  Top of the list must be Amour, the new film by double-Palme d’Or winner Michael Haneke.  Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts make an excellent love affair-friendship-business partnership in Rust & Bone, the latest film by A Prophet director Jacques Audiard, adapted from the short stories of Canadian writer Craig Davidson, and Bill Murray makes a laudable turn as FDR in Hyde Park on Hudson.

If you’re looking for something a bit less mainstream, a new documentary by first time Russian director Andrey Gryazev goes into the world of guerrilla art terrorists Voina (think Exit Through the Gift Shop meets Gimme Shelter).  Comedy-horror-drama-romance abounds in Korean portmanteau film Doomsday Book, exploring the end of the world with zombies, Buddhism and giant billiard ball asteroids.  Eat Sleep Die and Helter Skelter are pounding techno music dramas of girls living on the edge of the world: small town Sweden and J Pop Tokyo respectively.  Time will tell whether the BFI London Film Festival can live up to its heights of previous years, but audiences are expected to be near sell out.  Grab your tickets while you can, reviews will pour in next week…Have a good weekend…

The BFI London Film Festival runs until 21 October at various London venues.