Elaha
A German-Kurdish woman has to decide whether to cover up the fact that she is no longer a virgin ahead of her wedding in this poignant exploration of cultural pressure and self-determination.
Elaha (Bayan Layla) faces a dilemma just weeks away from her wedding to Nasim (Armin Wahedi) in Milena Aboyan's tense and poignant drama. Elaha has to decide whether to try to cover up the fact that she is no longer a virgin – a state of 'honour' considered essential by her German-Kurdish community and, more specifically, by her strict mother (Derya Durmaz). Aboyan carefully explores the cultural ties that bind Elaha, as the young woman embarks on a journey of self-discovery.
The Holdovers
From acclaimed director Alexander Payne, The Holdovers follows a curmudgeonly instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a New England prep school who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker (newcomer Dominic Sessa) — and with the school's head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam (Da'Vine Joy Randolph).
It’s Only Life After All
With forty years of making music as the iconic folk-rock band Indigo Girls, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers have made their mark as musicians, songwriters, and dedicated activists. They have represented radical self-acceptance to many, leading multiple generations of fans to say, "the Indigo Girls saved my life." Still, Amy and Emily battled misogyny, homophobia, and a harsh cultural climate chastising them for not fitting into a female pop star mold. With joy, humor, and heart-warming earnestness, Sundance award-winning director Alexandria Bombach brings us into a contemporary conversation with Amy and Emily—alongside decades of the band's home movies and intimate present-day verité.
That They May Face The Rising Sun
Capturing a year in the life of a rural, lakeside community in late 1970s Ireland, That They May Face The Rising Sun is a sensitive and beautifully realised adaptation of the last novel by John McGahern.
Joe (Barry Ward) and Kate (Anna Bederke) have returned from London to live and work in a small, close-knit community in rural Ireland, close to where Joe grew up. He's a writer, she's an artist who retains part ownership of a London gallery. Now embedded in a remote lakeside setting, the drama of a year in their lives and those of their neighbours unfolds through the rituals of work, play and the passing seasons.
A delicate, meditative exploration of ritual, community bonds, and the question of how best to live.
The Taste of Things
Peerless cook Eugenie (Juliette Binoche) has worked for the famous gourmet Dodin (Benoît Magimel) for the last 20 years. Bonding over a passion for gastronomy and mutual admiration, their relationship develops into romance and gives rise to delicious dishes that impress even the world's most illustrious chefs. But Eugenie is fond of her freedom and has never wanted to marry Dodin. So, he decides to do something he has never done before: cook for her.
A delectable feast for the senses, The Taste of Things is a stunningly beautiful romance that simmers with emotion. The new film from acclaimed director Trần Anh Hùng, it will be an unmissable cinematic treat.
Rose
Set over the course of one week, Rose is the story of two sisters, Inger and Ellen, and how their relationship is challenged on a highly anticipated coach trip to Paris. When Inger announces her struggles with mental health to the group, the sisters are faced with pity from some and downright discrimination from others.
On arrival in Paris, it soon becomes clear that Inger has a hidden agenda concerning a figure from her past, ultimately involving the entire group in her hunt for answers. Rose is a film about love and care for each other, in spite of our differences, as much as it is a film about not judging a book by its cover.
La Chimera
Everyone has their own Chimera, something they try to achieve but never manage to find. For the band of tombaroli, thieves of ancient grave goods and archaeological wonders, the Chimera means redemption from work and the dream of easy wealth. For Arthur, the Chimera looks like the woman he lost, Beniamina. To find her, Arthur challenges the invisible, searches everywhere, goes inside the earth – in search of the door to the afterlife of which myths speak. In an adventurous journey between the living and the dead, between forests and cities, between celebrations and solitudes, the intertwined destinies of these characters unfold, all in search of the Chimera.
Fallen Leaves
Hailed as the best-reviewed film of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival - where it topped Screen International's prestigious critics' poll - the beguiling new comedic romance from celebrated auteur Aki Kaurismäki (Le Havre, Drifting Clouds, The Other Side Of Hope) follows two lost souls who meet by chance in the Helsinki night and then try, in turbulent times, to find companionship.
Ansa (Alma Pöysti) works at a supermarket, where the job is so badly paid that she takes home expired sandwiches for dinner. Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) is a metalworker, labouring in a job so hazardous he's sure it will kill him, so he drinks through the day, and then again at night. Meanwhile, the radio constantly carries news about the nearby war in Ukraine.
One evening, against his will, Holappa is dragged to a karaoke bar by a friend. "Tough guys don’t sing", he says. But karaoke night is also a night for romance, and when Holappa meets the shy Ansa, there's an immediate spark. But life being what it is, a variety of obstacles conspire to get in the way…
With his trademark deadpan humour, minimalist dialogue and retro aesthetic, Kaurismäki's latest delight showcases his unrivalled mastery for depicting down-on-their-luck characters in all their complexity, and finding humour and optimism in the unlikeliest of circumstances. In a time of economic disparity, war and uncertainty, Fallen Leaves is a valuable reminder of the importance of love and connection; once again Finland's most-beloved director has delivered, in spades.
How To Have Sex
Three teenage girlfriends navigate sex, consent, and friendships old and new on a euphoric post-
exams vacation on a Greek party island.
It’s supposed to be the best summer ever. Tara, Skye and Em touch down on the Greek party
resort of Malia for the vacation to end all vacations, the girls trip every British teenager ticks off at
the cusp of adulthood. Tara, the last remaining virgin, is on a mission to change that: and her best
friends are causing chaos right alongside her. The 16-year-old drinks and dances her way
through the strip – with all its messy bars and grimy nightclubs – until she meets a couple of boys
on the neighboring hotel balcony who she hopes might give her a summer to remember.
Making her debut feature with a vibrant, compassionate look at sex, friendship, consent and the
sweet smell of a boozy sunburned summer holiday, director and cinematographer Molly Manning
Walker (Scrapper, Good Thanks, You?) paints an exhilarating, moving, and painfully familiar
portrait of young adulthood.
With post-film panel discussion on the issues of consent raised in the film
Tarrac
Tarrac is a drama set at the edge of the world, the coastlines and sea of the Dingle peninsula. A place of wild geography, where the weather and the people have a mind of their own. Tarrac has warmth and a sense of place. An intimate character study of a woman who through a sporting passion finally manages acceptance and love. Laced with humour, heart break and exciting action set against the stunning landscapes and seas of the Kerry Gaeltacht, Tarrac is about daring to care again and learning the power of forgiveness.
Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn
Take a celebrated musical genius, sibling rivalry, an unknown manuscript, some very persistent research and one sensational revelation, and what have you got? Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn – the documentary from BAFTA-winning director Sheila Hayman that features global Decca star, Isata Kanneh-Mason.
Les Enfants du Paradis
Made during the Nazi occupation of France, Marcel Carné’s romantic epic of the 19th-century theatre world is a life-affirming tribute to love, Paris and the stage. Based on a highly literate script by poet and screenwriter Jacques Prévert, which draws on real-life figures of the 1820s and 1830s, Marcel Carné’s film is a lavish Dickensian drama set among the actors, criminals and aristocrats that orbit around a theatre on Paris’s so-called ‘Boulevard du Crime’.
The Nettle Dress
Textile artist Allan Brown spends seven years making a dress by hand entirely from locally foraged stinging nettles. This is his medicine. It’s how he survives the passing of his wife, leaving him and their four children bereft, and how he finds a beautiful way to honour her.
The Mauritanian
Directed by Kevin Macdonald and based on the bestselling memoir “Guantánamo Diary” by Mohamedou Ould Slahi, this is the story of Slahi’s fight for freedom after being detained and imprisoned without charge by the U.S. Government. Alone and afraid, Slahi (Tahar Rahim) finds allies in defence attorney Nancy Hollander (Jodie Foster) and her associate Teri Duncan (Shailene Woodley) who battle the U.S. government in a fight for justice that tests their commitment to the law and their client at every turn. Their controversial advocacy, along with evidence uncovered by military prosecutor, Lt. Colonel Stuart Couch (Benedict Cumberbatch), reveals shocking truths and ultimately proves that the human spirit cannot be suppressed.
Wet Sand
A small seaside village in the former Soviet republic of Georgia is rocked after Eliko, an ostracized village elder, dies by suicide. When Moe his long-absent granddaughter arrives to take care of his affairs, she is confronted with a web of lies and the tragic consequences of Eliko’s hidden love life.
Moe is confronted by a tight-knit, tight-lipped community of villagers closing ranks, determined to defend their hardened moral and religious codes at all costs. It sets her on a pitched battle to challenge the bigoted culture that led to her grandfather’s despair, and on a path to discovering more about herself.
Angelheaded Hipster
AngelHeaded Hipster is the first documentary to explore the complex and revolutionary music and lyrics of Marc Bolan and T. Rex. Using archival performances, interviews with Bolan, Elton John and Ringo Starr, plus filmed musical interpretations by artists such as Nick Cave, John Cameron Mitchell, Joan Jett, Macy Gray, U2, Lucinda Williams, Father John Misty, and son Rolan Bolan among others.
Denial
This powerful and bitingly relevant courtroom drama recounts historian Deborah Lipstadt’s (Rachel Weisz) legal battle for historical truth against David Irving (Timothy Spall), who accused her of libel when she declared him a Holocaust denier. With the burden of proof on the accused, it was up to Lipstadt and her legal team to prove the essential truth that the Holocaust occurred.
This dramatic, impactful and intellectually nourishing courtroom battle is brought to the screen magnificently by screenwriter David Hare and director Mick Jackson, who are indebted to thee brilliant lead performances from Weisz, Spall and Tom Wilkinson as Lipstadt’s barrister Richard Rampton. With the startling rise of contemporary phenomena like ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’, Denial is an urgent reminder of the primacy of truth and justice
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Fremont
Donya, a young Afghan who moved to Fremont, California after serving as a translator for the American army, spends her days working at a fortune cookie factory and her nights wide awake battling between her desire to rebuild her life and the overbearing guilt she carries within. In a bid to connect with the world, she sends an unconventional message through a fortune cookie. A sensitive immigrant tale tinged with Jarmuschian deadpan humour.
All That Breathes
Against the darkening backdrop of New Delhi's apocalyptic air and escalating violence, two brothers devote their lives to protecting one casualty of the turbulent times: the bird known as the black kite.
In one of the world's most populated cities, cows, rats, monkeys, frogs, and hogs jostle cheek-by-jowl with people. Here, two brothers fall in love with a bird – the black kite. From their makeshift bird hospital in their tiny basement, the "kite brothers" care for thousands of these mesmeric creatures that drop daily from New Delhi's smog-choked skies. As environmental toxicity and civil unrest escalate, the relationship between this Muslim family and the neglected kite forms a poetic chronicle of the city’s collapsing ecology and rising social tensions.
The Night of the 12th
In the corridors of the criminal police, it is said that all the investigators have a crime that haunts them. One day or another, they come across a case hurting them more than the others, without always knowing why. It starts spinning in their heads to the point of obsession.
Young and ambitious Captain Vivés has just been appointed group leader at the Grenoble Criminal Squad when Clara’s murder case lands on his desk. Vivés and his team investigate Clara’s complex life and relations, but what starts as a professional and methodical immersion into the victim’s life soon turns into a haunting obsession.
Winner of the prestigious Lumière award for Best Film as well as six César awards, The Night of the 12th is a deeply arresting and powerful crime thriller which questions how the criminal police and society at large handle the recurring murders of women.
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Close
A loving friendship between two young boys is irrevocably disrupted in Close (2022) director Lukas Dhont's heart-breaking coming-of-age drama, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes.
13-year-old best friends Léo (Eden Dambrine) and Rémi (Gustav De Waele) are inseparable. Making first steps towards adulthood, they enjoy a tender and intense bond; so close that their parents treat them almost like brothers. But when they start high school and become newly self-conscious around their peers, needing to evince greater sophistication and independence, their relationship deteriorates, tearing them suddenly and tragically apart.
Evocative and sensitive, Dhont's direction captures the indelibly painful moment when childhood friendships become contingent, when the outside world and its judgements begin to intrude in previously exquisitely trusting relationships. Beautifully performed by newcomers Dambrine and De Waele, brilliantly supported by Léa Drucker and Émilie Dequenne as the boys' mothers, Close registers the profound shock and grief afforded by the loss of teen friendships, plus the immense vulnerability of boys who fall foul of codes of youthful masculinity.
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Joyland
The debut feature from writer-director Saim Sadiq, Joyland explores the many sides of love and desire in a patriarchal society. Gentle and timid, Haider lives with his wife Mumtaz, his father, and his elder brother's family in Lahore. After years unemployed, Haider finally lands a job as a dancer at a Bollywood-style burlesque, telling his family he is a theatre manager. The unusual position shakes up the steadfast traditional dynamics of his household and enables Haider to break out of his shell. As he settles into the new job, Haider becomes infatuated with the strong-willed trans woman Biba who runs the show—an unforeseen partnership that opens his eyes and ultimately his worldview, in ways both unexpected and intimate.
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The Beasts
Antoine and Olga a French couple have bought a farm in a remote mountain village in Galicia in search of a more eco-conscious life. They plan to work the land, restore ruined homes and live at one with nature. Despite their care for the land, they are seen as outsiders by the insular local community and animosity begins to grow. A focal point for this simmering hostility is brothers Lorenzo and Xan, who hope to make money from a planned wind farm. Unfortunately, Antoine and Olga vote against construction of the wind turbine, causing resentment and hostility to fester between the couple and their closest neighbours before finally escalating into psychological warfare and shocking violence
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Casablanca Beats
Former rapper Anas takes a teaching job at a cultural centre in a working-class neighbourhood in Casablanca. Struggling with religious obligations, repressive families and misogyny, his students gradually learn to express their feelings and frustrations through hip-hop. At times tipping into fantasy, with unexpected immersive musical scenes, such as a West-Side-Story-style street dance-off, the film is also heavily based on reality. In addition to the cast of non-professionals playing fictionalised versions of themselves and a liberally-improvised script, the arts centre itself is based on – and filmed in - one that director Nabil Ayouch co-founded in the deprived suburb of Sidi Moumen.
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EO
The world is a mysterious place when seen through the eyes of an animal. EO, a grey donkey with melancholic eyes, meets good and bad people on his life's path, experiences joy and pain, endures the wheel of fortune randomly turn his luck into disaster and his despair into unexpected bliss. But not even for a moment does he lose his innocence.
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Carol
A young woman in her 20s, Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara), is a clerk working in a Manhattan department store and dreaming of a more fulfilling life when she meets Carol (Cate Blanchett), an alluring woman trapped in a loveless, convenient marriage. When connection sparks between them, the innocence of their first encounter dims and their bond deepens. While Carol breaks free from the confines of marriage, her husband threatens her competence as a mother when Carol's involvement with Therese and close relationship with her best friend Abby comes to light. As Carol leaves the comfort of home to travel with Therese, an internal journey of self-discovery coincides with her new sense of space.
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Olga
Olga is a teenage Ukrainian gymnast who's living in exile in Switzerland, dreaming of Olympic gold and trying to fit in with her new team. As she prepares for the European Championships, the Ukrainian people rise up in what becomes known as the Maidan Revolution, suddenly involving everyone she cares about.
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Nitram
Nitram lives with his mother and father in suburban Australia in the mid 1990s. He lives a life of isolation and frustration at never being able to fit in. That is until he unexpectedly finds a close friend in a reclusive heiress, Helen. When that friendship meets its tragic end, and Nitram’s loneliness and anger grow, he begins a slow descent that leads to disaster.
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Riders of Justice
Markus (Mads Mikkelsen) returns home to care for his daughter when his wife dies in a tragic train accident. However, when a survivor of the wreck surfaces and claims foul play, Markus suspects his wife was murdered and embarks on a mission to find those responsible.
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Return to Dust
Humble, unassuming Ma and timid Cao have been cast off by their families and forced into an arranged marriage. They have to combine their strength and build a home to survive. In the face of much adversity, an unexpected bond begins to blossom, as both Ma and Cao, uniting with Earth’s cycles, create a haven for themselves in which they can thrive.
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A Bunch of Amateurs
A thoroughly moving and ultimately joyful documentary, A Bunch of Amateurs follows the members of Bradford Movie Makers, one of the oldest amateur filmmaking clubs in the world. Once a thriving community, these days the membership is dwindling and the group struggle to keep the wolf from the door, but it's group of ageing cinephiles’ attempt to save their beloved club.
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Drawn to War
Eric Ravilious - Drawn to War is a true story. One of Britain’s greatest landscape artists, Eric Ravilious, was killed in a plane crash while on commission as Official War Artist in Iceland in 1942. His life is as compelling and enigmatic as his art, set against the dramatic wartime locations that inspired him. This film brings to life a unique and still grossly undervalued British artist caught in the crossfire of war 80 years ago, whose legacy largely sank without trace, until now…
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