Wednesday 14th March 2018
Mustang (2015)
93 mins
Director: Deniz Gamze Erguven, Turkey,
The female director puts Turkey’s patriarchal society in the spotlight, with a story about five orphaned sisters who are imprisoned in their own home while their grandmother arranges suitable marriages for them. A powerful drama which charts the girls spirited resistance to traditional views of the role of women.
(N.B. One showing at 7.00pm followed by AGM and drinks in the Whitaker Room)
Wednesday 28th February 2018
T2 Trainspotting (2017)
117 mins
Director: Danny Boyle, UK,
The 1997 cast of Trainspotting reassemble (but you don’t need to have seen that to enjoy this). After 20 years away Renton returns to his hometown and meets his old pals. Flashbacks inform us of their history. There’s some violence, but this is a funny and moving black comedy about middle-aged disillusionment.
Wednesday 14th February 2018
Tangerines (2013)
83 mins
Director: Zara Urushadze, Estonia,Georgia,
A tremendous, old-fashioned anti-war drama, by turns touching, moving and suspenseful. Set in 1992, in the post-Soviet Caucasus, Georgians are fighting a war with secessionist Abkhazians, backed by Russia. Meanwhile, Margus and his friend Ivo are fighting to save their tangerine crop from destruction.
Wednesday 31st January 2018
Bread and Tulips (2000)
114 mins
Director: Silvio Soldini, Italy
In this appealing romantic comedy, housewife Rosalba is accidentally left behind at a service station while on a coach tour with her husband. On impulse she goes to Venice and, unexpectedly freed from an unsatisfactory marriage, she begins a new life. Will she return to her family?
Wednesday 17th January 2018
The Lives of Others (2006)
137 mins
Director: Florien Heinckel von Donnersmarck, Germany
Welcome to the grim world of East Berlin in 1984 where an agent of the secret police is conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover, and finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives. An acclaimed film about the secrets of individuals and the secret workings of the hated Stasi.
Wednesday 3rd January 2018
I, Daniel Blake (2016)
96 mins
Director: Ken Loach, UK,
Daniel is off work following a heart attack, and meets single Mum, Katie. Both are entitled to welfare support but have difficulties getting the help they need. Loach shows their dignity and care for each other contrasting with an unfeeling state bureaucracy which lets people down when they are at their most vulnerable.
Wednesday 13th December 2017
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
118 minutes with subtitles
Director: Guiseppe Tornatore, Italy,
Famous Italian film director, Salvatore Di Vita, recalls his childhood in Sicily when he first fell in love with the movies. As a boy he hung around the local cinema and befriended Alfredo, the elderly projectionist. This much loved classic is a moving tribute to the power of cinema.
Wednesday 29th November 2017
Sweet Bean (2015)
113 minutes with subtitles
Director: Naomi Kawase, Japan,
A gentle, unassuming and surprising tale of three outsiders whose lives are briefly brought together by a small pancake stall in the suburbs of Tokyo. This simple and touching story, based around food and the pleasure found in a good day’s work, is interleaved with beautiful images of the changing seasons.
Wednesday 15th November 2017
Embrace of the Serpent (2015)
125 minutes with subtitles
Director: Ciro Guerra, Columbia,
Hypnotic exploration of the impact of European and native Indian culture on each other. Told through two intertwined tales of expeditions to the Colombian rainforest made by western explorers in different generations, linked by the presence of the same warrior-shaman. Shot beautifully on location in black and white.
Wednesday 1st November 2017
Dheepan (2017)
115 minutes with subtitles
Director: Jacques Audiard, France,
An intelligent and sympathetic portrait of refugees fleeing war-torn Sri Lanka who seek to rebuild their lives. Posing as a family, they arrive on a tough Parisian estate where former Tamil Tiger, Dheepan, works as a caretaker. This Palme d’Or winner pulls no punches about the immigrant experience.