21 Oct 2015 Directors: Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado France, Brazil, Italy 2014 109 min In creating a portrait of the great documentary photographer and environmentalist, Sebastião Salgado, Wim Wenders and Juliano Salgado have matched hauntingly beautiful images with illuminating testimony. Breathtaking photos of the Brazilian gold mines in the 1970s, the famine in Ethiopia… Continue reading The Salt of the Earth
Category: Film season 2015-2016
’71
18 Nov 2015 Director: Yann Demange UK 2014 99 min Deep in the alien landscape of East Belfast during one of the worst years of the Northern Ireland Troubles, Gary Hook, a young British squaddie fresh from basic training, is accidentally abandoned by his unit in the confusion of a terrifying riot. Wounded, lost and… Continue reading ’71
Phoenix
7 Oct 2015 Director: Christian Petzold Germany 2014 98 min From the director of Barbara and with Nina Hoss in the lead role, Christian Petzold builds up an edgy sense of mystery, betrayal and double take in a superbly crafted melodrama set in post-war Germany. Disfigured concentration camp survivor Nelly (Hoss) has undergone reconstructive facial… Continue reading Phoenix
Omar
16 Mar 2016 Director: Hany Abu-Assad Palestine 2013 96 min Omar is a charismatic and thoughtful young baker who lives in the West Bank. He climbs routinely over the separation wall to visit friends including the beautiful Nadia. Less out of political conviction than as a way to regain some power in their powerless lives,… Continue reading Omar
Still Life
30 Mar 2016 Director: Uberto Pasolini UK, Italy 2014 92 min Eddie Marsan gives a wonderfully restrained and brilliant performance as he plays the unassuming and meticulous council worker John May in this poignant and beautifully observed film. For the past twenty two years, John May has worked tirelessly to locate the next of kin… Continue reading Still Life
Dark Horse
23 Sept 2015 Director: Louise Osmond UK 2015 85 min Dark Horse is the fascinating, emotional and inspirational true story of how residents in the former mining community of Cefn Fforest pulled together to pursue a collective dream. Local barmaid, Jan, overhears a pub regular talking about the time when he owned a share in… Continue reading Dark Horse
Le Jour se Lève
4 Nov 2015 Director: Marcel Carné France 1939 90 min A crucial film of the French poetic realism movement, Le Jour se Lève is an exquisitely crafted film noir describing an obsessive relationship that leads to a terrible crime, depicted at the start. Foundry worker François (Jean Gabin) flees from the scene of the crime… Continue reading Le Jour se Lève
Difret
2 Dec 2015 Director: Zeresenay Berhane Mehari Ethiopia, USA 2014 99 min Three hours outside Addis Ababa, a bright 14-year-old girl is on her way home from school when men on horses swoop in and kidnap her. The brave Hirut grabs a rifle and tries to escape but ends up shooting her would-be husband. In… Continue reading Difret
Wild Tales
16 Dec 2015 Director: Damian Szifron Argentina, Spain 2014 122 min Szifrón’s zesty black comedy weaves together six short tales of individuals on the verge of a complete meltdown. Frustrated by petty bureaucracy, incensed by a cheating husband, emboldened by extreme road rage or sickened by a desperately unfair and corrupt society, various individuals decide… Continue reading Wild Tales
Slow West
20 Jan 2016 Director: John Maclean UK, New Zealand 2015 84 min The directorial debut of Scottish filmmaker John Maclean is a brazen and pronounced revisionist Western, pivoting around the relationship between the young lovelorn Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and grizzled bounty hunter Silas (Michael Fassbender). Travelling across a barren American frontier wasteland, the duo… Continue reading Slow West