Director: Paddy Considine, Ireland,
Paddy Considine’s writing and directorial debut is a lo-fi study of troubled lives, as widower Joseph (played with tinderbox intensity by Peter Mullen) finds salvation in a cheery charity shop worker Hannah (a career-changing performance from Olivier Colman), whose life is dominated by an abusive husband (Eddie Marsan). [Telegraph]
Read Peter Bradshaw’s review here and see a list of all the film’s awards, including a 2012 BAFTA for Outstanding Debut By A British Writer, Director or Producer here.
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)
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.
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.
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?
A Talk by Silkscreen member, Janine Turner, on the East German film industry 1945-1990 including excepts from films of the period.
(In the Whitaker Room at 7.00pm)
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.
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.
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.
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.