Tickets (15)

Ermanno Olmi, Abbas Kiarostami, Ken Loach, 2005, Italy/UK/Iran (109 mins)
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Carlo Delle Piane, Silvana De Santis

Tickets brings together three international directors to create a collaborative film set on a single trans-European train journey. Olmi, Kiarostami and Loach have constructed a narrative relay-race from their characters’ chance encounters, and the transitory nature of travel is reinforced by the film’s impressionistic style– images are reflected in windows or glanced through carriage doors. Although the loose storyline perhaps raises more questions than it finally answers, it’s an interesting snapshot of human nature on the move. Loach typically ups the ante in the exhilarating final section, when three young Asda workers in a Celtic away trip are forced to confront their own national prejudices. Jemma Kennedy