In Paris, a law student of Algerian descent clashes with a controversial professor who uses language tainted with racist slurs. He is given one chance to redeem himself. They both must overcome their prejudices.
Camelia Jordana and Daniel Auteuil prove to be a winning pair. – Hollywood Reporter
This thriller about refugees, riot police and stolen identities in 1940s Germany has a chilling topicality. From Christian Petzold[Barbara], the director renowned as a modern master of suspense and a poet of Germany’s divided self.
German refugee Georg has fled Paris to escape the impending war. He has assumed the identity of a famous but deceased writer and plans to use the man’s documentation to obtain a transit visa and immigrate to Mexico. But when Georg encounters the dead man’s wife in Marseille, he finds himself dangerously drawn to her.
The latest film from Christian Petzold [Barbara, Phoenix] is adapted from the 1944 novel by Anna Seghers. The result is a thrilling and unique piece of work.
In Christian Petzold’s superbly deft drama, a fugitive steals someone else’s identity with deeply disturbing results. – The Guardian ★★★★
An existential thriller about loss, trauma, statelessness and historical amnesia, the brilliant Transit is the latest from the German director Christian Petzold. – New York Times
An extraordinary film that uses the occasion of Georg’s fraught journey to depict his state of being, the anxious limbo in which he finds himself trapped. – Wall Street Journal
Set in 1970s Argentina just before the coup that installed the military junta. The life of a seemingly honest lawyer unravels as middle-class society turns a blind eye to the brutality of an emerging dictatorship.
The life of esteemed lawyer Claudio begins to unravel when Chilean private detective Sinclair starts asking questions about the disappearance of a mysterious stranger. Sinclair proceeds to lift the veneer of respectability under which Claudio, like many of the town’s other apparently honest citizens, operates.
Part mystery, part thriller, Rojo swiftly escalates from the intriguing to the alarming. It simmers with malevolence.
Shame and fury in the land of the disappeared… a disturbing parable of iniquity. – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian ★★★★
A South American Colombo in a bravely staccato film. – The Irish Times ★★★★
A society manoeuvers to stay at the dinner table while getting its unsavoury elements thrown out, and finding ways to stop them ever coming back. – The Telegraph ★★★★
When neighbours disappear… An elegant but disjointed thriller unravels a tale of personal guilt in the political dark days of 70s Argentina. – Wendy Ide, The Guardian ★★★★
Marianne, Abel’s girlfriend of three years, tells him that she is pregnant. Unfortunately for Abel, the father is his best friend, whom Marianne is now going to marry. A delightfully playful and truly French romantic comedy.
Shifting points of view as nimbly as its players switch partners, the sophomore feature from actor/director Louis Garrel—co-written with the legendary Jean-Claude Carrière—is at once a beguiling bedroom farce and a playful inversion of the patriarchal tropes of the French New Wave.
Slyly shifts from fake murder mystery to romantic comedy to family melodrama…stylish shenanigans and a highly entertaining love triangle. – Irish Times ★★★
France, 2018 | Language: French | 75 minutes | Cert: CLUB
Director: Louis Garrel
Cast: Louis Garrel, Laetitia Casta, Lily-Rose Depp
Event cinema!We show this film in two parts on one night, starting at 6pm. There will be a 20-minute interval during which we’ll serve wine and a nibble. Total running time including the interval is 3 hours and 20 minutes.
A sprawling yet personal portrait of human resilience that traces the lives of two interconnected Chinese families over three decades from the 1980s to the present.
The epic story of two married couples enduring personal tragedy and state-imposed suffering is an almost unbearably poignant, profound masterpiece. – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian ★★★★★
A gorgeous, melancholy masterpiece. So measured is the pacing, so sinuous the timeline, so understated the subtle ache of the performances that you don’t immediately realise that Wang Xiaoshuai’s exquisite three-hour drama has been performing the emotional equivalent of open-heart surgery on the audience since pretty much the first scene. – Wendy Ide, The Guardian ★★★★★
Intimate in focus yet epic in size and scope, So Long, My Son sets a heartbreaking saga of family tragedy against the changing face of modern China. – 100% from Rotten Tomatoes ★★★★★
Wang Xiaoshuai’s expansive drama contains phenomenal central performances. – Irish Times ★★★★
China, 2019 | Language: Chinese | 185 minutes | Cert: CLUB
Shot on 16mm BxW film and processed by hand, Bait captures the stark story of a Cornwall fisherman facing up to a changing world and increasing friction with tourists and locals alike. It is a hand-crafted expression of a life under threat.
A genuine modern masterpiece, which establishes Mark Jenkin as one of the most arresting and intriguing British film-makers of his generation. – Mark Kermode, The Guardian ★★★★★
One of the most extraordinary movie experiences of the year. – The Times ★★★★
As visually distinctive as it is narratively satisfying, Bait blends a classic aesthetic with timely themes to produce a thrillingly original and uniquely enriching drama. – 100% from Rotten Tomatoes
Life meets art in this wistful film about a director whose physical powers are in decline as he recalls the passions that gave him meaning and hope. Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz reunite with Pedro Almodóvar in his most personal movie to date.
The latest, wonderful film from Pedro Almodóvar asks what a director does when he runs into a creative blockage…Banderas excels in Almodóvar’s personal drama…a take on Fellini’s 8½. – Irish Times ★★★★★
The director delivers another sensuous and deeply personal gem as Antonio Banderas’s ageing film-maker faces up to death. – The Guardian.★★★★
Huge critical acclaim for this thriller about a group of South American teenage guerrilla soldiers who have guns, rituals, and a hostage. Their dangerous shifting dynamics propel an overwhelmingly tense and gripping film.
Easily one of the best films of 2019…Alejandro Landes’s thrilling tale of child guerilla soldiers is a must-see. – Irish Times ★★★★★
This overpoweringly tense and deeply mad thriller from Colombian film-maker Alejandro Landes is the best thing I have seen at Berlin this year: something between Apocalypse Now, Lord of the Flies and Embrace of the Serpent. – Peter Bradshaw for The Guardian ★★★★★
Inspired by the upheaval in his native Colombia, Alejandro Landes’s story of teenage guerrillas descending into anarchy is a hypnotic triumph. – Mark Kermode for The Guardian ★★★★★
His son is missing, his family is lost, but his dress sense is immaculate. Bill Nighy is spellbinding as a Scrabble obsessive searching for his estranged son in this elegant, off-beat drama-comedy.
A triple-word score of a movie…the presence of Bill Nighy, funeral-faced national treasure, will no doubt be a key selling point for this tragicomic drama. But the real star is behind the scenes. Screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce, who adapted the film from his own short story, has crafted a joy of a script, which seeds its themes as elegantly as Nighy’s character, Alan, a Scrabble-obsessed tailor, wears his suits. – The Guardian ★★★★
