18 Oct 2017 Directors: Sabine Krayenbühl & Zeva Oelbaum USA, UK, France 2016 95 min Voiced by Tilda Swinton, this fascinating documentary explores the remarkable life of English writer, archaeologist, diplomat and spy, Gertrude Bell. As a young woman, Bell travelled extensively throughout the Middle East producing maps and scholarly works. Eventually, her extraordinary talents… Continue reading Letters from Baghdad
Tag: 2016
Under the Shadow
15 Nov 2017 Director: Babak Anvari UK/Jordan/Qatar 2016 84 min Focusing on a mother and daughter besieged by forces both worldly and otherwise in a Tehran apartment block, Under the Shadow presents a gripping portrait of an independently spirited woman shackled by sharia law. She becomes more scared of the demonic forces tormenting her daughter… Continue reading Under the Shadow
Graduation
4 Oct 2017 Director: Cristian Mungiu Romania 2016 128 min The latest work from Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) deservedly won him Best Director at Cannes. Masterful in its construction, this is a gripping drama in which good intentions and guilty secrets gradually erode the moral certainties of a middle-class family.… Continue reading Graduation
The Other Side of Hope
1 Nov 2017 Director: Aki Kaurismäki Finland 2016 98 min Six years after the sublime, award-winning Le Havre, director Kaurismäki returns with his second film in a planned trilogy focusing on port cities. In this eccentric and cuttingly poignant comedy-drama, Wikstrom, a poker-playing restaurateur and former travelling salesman, crosses paths with Syrian stowaway Khaled who… Continue reading The Other Side of Hope
My Life as a Courgette
13 Dec 2017 Director: Claude Barras Switzerland, France 2016 66 min Claude Barras brings us a little miracle of gentleness, tenderness and intense, traditional Frenchness in this beguiling story about Icare, a little boy fond of kites and nicknamed Courgette. A terrible accident means that he is taken to a care home in the country… Continue reading My Life as a Courgette
Maudie
1 February 2023 Canada/Ireland 2016 Director: Aisling Walsh Based on a true story, Maudie is an unlikely romance set in 1930s Nova Scotia in which the reclusive Everett Lewis (Ethan Hawke) hires a fragile yet determined woman named Maudie (Sally Hawkins) to be his housekeeper. Aspiring artist Maudie spends her life battling rheumatoid arthritis, but… Continue reading Maudie