2017 - 2018 '50th Anniversary' SEASON
Click to access the voting results for each film of the season.
11 Sept 2017
Knife in the Water
Nóż w wodzie (Original Title)
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Poland 1962, 94 mins, Drama, Thriller
B&W, digital
Director: Roman Polanski
Leading actors: Leon Niemczyk, Jolanta Umecka, Zygmunt Malanowicz
Married couple Andrzej and Krystyna are driving to a lake to go sailing when they nearly run over a young hitchhiker. Andrzej gives the young man a lift to the lake and invites him to go sailing with them. The young man accepts the offer but tension gradually builds between Andrzej and the hitchhiker as they vie for Krystyna’s attention. Andrzej taunts the young man with the latter's treasured pocket knife which is then accidentally lost overboard, ‘in the water’, leading to a dramatic chain of events.
Nominated for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Polanski's first feature film and still considered one of his best.
9 Oct 2017
Toni Erdmann
Germany 2017, 162 mins, Comedy, Drama
Colour, digital, Cert 15 - Official trailer here
Director: Maren Ade
Leading actors: Sandra Hüller, Peter Simonischek, Michael Wittenborn
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‘Toni Erdmann’ is the dishevelled comic alter ego of Winfried, a prank-loving music teacher in his late 60s. His daughter Ines, now in her 30s, is a single-minded management consultant who mainly works in Bucharest, and their once close relationship has become lukewarm. Following the death of his beloved dog, Winfried decides to travel to the Romanian capital to try to renew his relationship with his daughter. He plans to do this by dressing up as ‘Toni’, posing as an ‘executive life coach’ and inveigling his way into his daughter’s professional circle.
'Three hours of very funny, very German comedic joy’. Robbie Collin DT
21st Oct 2017 (Note - Saturday at 2.30pm)
Cinema Paradiso
50th Anniversary Special Screening
Italy 1988, 155 mins, Drama
Colour, digital, Cert PG - Official trailer here
Director: Guiseppe Tornatore
Leading actors: Philippe Noiret; Salvatore Cascio Agnese Nano
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Young Salvatore Di Vita discovers the perfect escape from life in his war-torn Sicilian village: the Cinema Paradiso movie house, where projectionist Alfredo instills in the boy a deep love of films. When Salvatore grows up, falls in love with a beautiful local girl and takes over as the Paradiso's projectionist, Alfredo must convince Salvatore to leave his small town and pursue his passion for filmmaking.
13 Nov 2017
The Salesman
"Forushande" (Original Title)
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Iran 2016, 125 mins, Drama, Thriller
Colour, digital, Cert PG - Official trailer here
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Leading actors: Taraneh Alidoosti, Shahab Hosseini, Babak Karimi
Rana and Emad are a happy couple living in Tehran. He is a teacher and she stays at home while they think about starting a family. They are talented members of a theatre group putting on a production of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. Forced to move out of their apartment because the building is in danger of collapsing, they move into another apartment, set up for them by a fellow cast member. They then find out this flat was once inhabited by a young prostitute and unsavoury people call round at all hours of the night. One night Rana buzzes open the outer door thinking that it must be her husband. But it isn’t…
‘A psychological and moral drama about one man’s anger and damaged self-image’. Won Best Foreign Language film at the 2017 Oscars.
11 Dec 2017
Tulpan
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Kazakhstan 2008, 100 mins, Comedy, Drama
Colour, digital, Cert 12 - Official trailer here
Director: Seegey Dvortsevoy
Leading actors: Tolepbergen Baisakalov, Samal Esljamovai
An exhilaratingly alive and sweet-natured tale set on the barren, wind-blasted Hunger Steppe of southern Kazakhstan. Asa, just demobbed from the navy, returns to live with his sister Samal, her husband Ondas and their three children. Asa dreams of his own flock of sheep, but it appears that until he gets married, his wish will never be granted. He targets a young unmarried woman called Tulpan, whose face he has never seen, but her feelings are not to be taken for granted.
‘A quiet little gem... This is an eminently lovable film.’ Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Winner: BFI’s Sutherland Trophy and ‘Un Certain Regard’, Cannes 2008.
8 Jan 2018
The Other Side Of Hope
"Toivon Tuolla Puolen" (Original Title)
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Finland, Germany 2017, 98 mins, Comedy, Drama
Colour, digital, Cert 12A - Official trailer here
Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Leading actors: Kati Outinen, Ville Virtanen, Tommi Korpela
Khaled, a young Syrian asylum seeker emerges from a coal pile in Helsinki’s industrial port. He has arrived there by accident, after escaping violent persecution by jumping aboard a freighter in Eastern Europe. Coated black, head to toe, he showers and cleans up, before handing himself in as an illegal migrant. In a reception centre he is questioned about his journey from the ruins of Aleppo to Finland. A parallel plot concerns a travelling shirt salesman who has grand plans to set himself up as a restaurateur and takes on Khaled as a member of staff.
‘The Other Side of Hope combines poignancy with torrents of laughter’. Tim Robey DT
12 Feb 2018
Harmonium
"Fuchi Ni Tatsu" (Original Title)
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Japan, France 2017, 120 mins, Drama
Colour, digital, Cert 12 - Official trailer here
Director: Kôji Fukada
Leading actors: Mariko Tsutsui, Tadanobu Asano, Kanji Furutachi
Toshio, his wife Akie and their daughter Hotaru live a banal existence. One day, an old acquaintance of his, Yasaka, suddenly appears. He has just been released from prison after serving 11 years for murder and has no permanent place to stay so Toshio takes him in as an assistant in his machine shop. Hotaru practises the harmonium and forms a bond with Yasaka, who helps her with her music. He is helpful around the shop and house but this happy state of affairs comes to a violent end and Yasaka flees, leaving the family devastated as new and dramatic events unfold.
Won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival
12 Mar 2018
Frantz
France, Germany 2017, 113 mins, Drama, HIstory, War
B&W, digital, Cert 13 - Official trailer here
Director: François Ozon
Leading actors: Pierre Niney, Paula Beer, Ernst Stötzner
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Anna is a bereft young German woman whose fiance, Frantz, was killed in the trenches of World War I. Adrien, a French veteran of the war, makes a mysterious appearance in her town, placing flowers on Frantz's grave. Adrien's presence is met with resistance by the small community that is still reeling from Germany's defeat, yet Anna gradually becomes closer to the handsome and melancholy young man, as she learns of his deep friendship with Frantz.
‘Frantz is the work of a rascal, but a rascal in an unusually reflective frame of mind. Even with its mysteries solved, you can’t help but keep turning it over’. Robbie Collin DT
9 Apr 2018
ELLe
France 2016, 130 mins, Comedy, Drama, Thriller
Colour, digital, Cert 18 - Official trailer here
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Leading actors: Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny
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Michèle seems indestructible. The assertive head of a leading video game company, she brings the same ruthless attitude to her love life as to business. Michèle’s life changes forever after she is viciously attacked and raped in her own home by an unknown assailant. When she resolutely tracks the man down, they are both drawn into a curious and thrilling game, a game that may, at any moment, spiral out of control.
Elle is a volatile and deeply disturbing black comedy that is guaranteed to spark debate. A multi-award winning film.
14 May 2018
Theeb
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Jordan 2014, 100 mins, Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Colour, digital, Cert 15 - Official trailer here
Director: Naji Abu Nowar
Leading actors: Jacir Eid Al-Hwietat, Hussein Salameh Al-Sweilhiyeen, Hassan Mutlag Al-Maraiyeh
It is 1916. Hussein and Theeb are sons of a Bedouin sheik, and come from a family of pilgrim guides. One night, their camp is visited by Edward, a British officer, and Marji an Arab. Hussein is asked to guide them to a Roman well on the pilgrims' trail, next to the strategic Ottoman railway. The trail is rife with bandits so when Theeb asks to join them his brother insists he stays behind. However, when the group leaves Theeb follows catching them up after a day's walk. Edward insists on continuing their travel immediately so despite concerns for his safety, Theeb stays with the group and goes on to experience dramatic, terrifying, and tragic events.
Considered to be a "Bedouin Western" the film uses non-professional actors from the Bedouin community in southern Jordan.
11 June 2018
Tanna
Australia 2016, 100 mins, Drama, Romance
Colour, digital, Cert 12 - Official trailer here
Director: Martin Butler & Bentley Dean
Leading actors: Kapan Cook, Mungau Dain, Charlie Kahla
A young woman runs away with the man she loves to avoid an arranged marriage, causing villagers to consider whether they preserve their traditional culture or adapt it to the outside demands for individual freedom.
The film depicts the true story, from the 1980’s, of a couple who decided to marry for love, rather than obey their parents' wishes.
Tanna is a South Pacific island, 25 miles by 12 miles, off the northwest coast of Australia which houses one of the world’s last tribal societies, in a village called Yakel.
Beautifully filmed with a lush and exotic background entirely in Tanna. Oscar nominated for Best Foreign Language film.