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JUST TO BE SURE [OTEZ-MOI D’UN DOUTE – FRANCE], THU 31 JANUARY 8PM

By archive, Season 20 Films

The breakout French hit of the 2017 Cannes International Film Festival, where it premiered to multiple, raucous standing ovations, writer/director Carine Tardieu’s charming romantic comedy is a winning tale of parenthood, love and family, both lost and found.

When lonely 45-year-old widower Erwan discovers by accident that that man who raised him isn’t his real father, he begins a search for his biological one. Thanks to a local private detective he soon locates the mischievous, 70-something Joseph, whom it seems his mother may have known briefly. Erwan soon falls not only for his charm, but that of the impetuous Anna, who has ties to them both. But the conflicting loyalties become compounded by the pregnancy of his own daughter who defiantly refuses to name the father.  Soon Erwan’s families begin to collide, to unexpected, hilarious and moving effect.

Offering a terrific showcase for her brilliant cast, director Carine Tardieu skillfully weaves a wholly-entertaining exploration of love, coincidence and human connection. Few films manage to pluck both the heartstrings and the funny bone.  It’s a delight.

Light-hearted, sharp and funny, the kind of French comedy that doesn’t come around so often nowadays. – The Hollywood Reporter

The comedy favourite of Cannes. Invigorating and intelligent. -Le Parisien  ★★★★★

Beautiful, touching and hilarious. This film will move you. – Elle Magazine ★★★★

France, 2017 | Language: France | 100 minutes | Cert: CLUB

Director:  Carine Tardieu

Cast:  Francois Damiens, Cecile De France, Guy Marchand, Andre Wilms, Alice de Lencquesaing

Presented with the support of the French Embassy and the Institut Français.

C’EST LA VIE! [FRANCE], THU 14 FEBRUARY, 8PM

By archive, Season 20 Films

A relentlessly hilarious comedy about a wedding planner, it hits the ground running and barely takes a breath as wedding disaster after disaster unfold. Larger-than-life characters and laugh-out-loud set pieces make it a delight.

Max is a veteran wedding planner who is thinking about selling on his business. For now, however, there’s something more pressing to worry about: organising a lavish wedding in a 17th century chateau. It’s no small task, with dozens of people to manage, unreliable electricity, a last-minute musician change, and an increasingly demanding groom. Soon, things start going very wrong indeed. Can Max and his team sort everything out without the guests noticing?

Few films this year will provide as much sheer joy as this bubbly, charming and relentlessly hilarious jog around an arena we’re all familiar with. The ensemble cast has great fun with a dotty assortment of characters, every one of which is put to delightful use.Irish Independent ★★★★

A cluttered comedy that works like a charm.The Irish Times★★★

France, 2017 |Language: French | 117 minutes | Cert: CLUB

Directors:  Olivier Nakache, Éric Toledano  

Cast: Jean-Pierre Bacri, Gilles Lellouche, Jean-Paul Rouve, Eye Haidara

 

SHOPLIFTERS [JAPAN], THU 7 MARCH, 8PM

By archive, Season 20 Films

We’ve had massive audiences this season and have had to turn people away.

Anticipating huge interest in the two upcoming films that have been nominated for

the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film [among other awards]

and to avoid further disappointment, we have added screenings for these films:

Shoplifters [Japan], Thursday 7 March at 5:45pm and 8pm.

Box office for first screening opens at 5:15pm.

Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2018.  A drama of rare complexity and quality about the forces holding a struggling family together, it reveals a Japan rarely seen. 

A masterpieceThe Irish Times ★★★★★

On the margins of Tokyo, a dysfunctional band of outsiders are united by fierce loyalty, a penchant for petty theft and playful grifting. When the young son is arrested, secrets are exposed that upend their tenuous, below-the-radar existence and test their quietly radical belief that it is love—not blood—that defines a family.

A film by Kore-Eda Hirokazu, the director of Still Walking, Like Father, Like Son and Nobody Knows.

A film of rare depth and quality that explores the meaning of family, and suggests that real parenthood is not given, but earned.The Guardian ★★★★

Kore-eda’s great subject is the contemporary family, a topic that gives him an immensity of themes, including loss, love, class, alienation in the modern world…a perfect story about being human.The New York Times

Japan, 2017 | Language:  Japanese | 121 minutes | Cert: 15A

Director:  Hirokazu Koreeda

Cast:  Kirin Kiki, Lily Franky, Moemi Katayama

 

WAJIB [PALESTINE], THU 14 MARCH, 8PM

By archive, Season 20 Films

An estranged father-son relationship set in the vibrant city of Nazareth makes for an immensely entertaining comedy-drama that interweaves simmering tension with moments of terrific humour.

Shadi returns from Italy to his native Nazareth for his sister’s upcoming marriage. He has reluctantly agreed to honour his “wajib” or duty, to accompany his father in hand-delivering invitations for the wedding. Forced to spend time together after many years apart, past tensions and differences between father and son come to the surface. But as their journey continues, both men also begin to understand each other better.

Acting together for the first time, real-life father and son Mohammad and Saleh Bakri infuse their characters with warmth and humour. The result is a poignant yet entertaining drama.

A sprightly, accessible comedy-drama by established Palestinian writer-director Annemarie JaciThe Guardian ★★★★

Sensitive and imaginative…a fine testimony to the director’s powers.The New York Times

Palestine, 2017 | Language: Arabic | 96 minutes | Cert: CLUB

Director:  Annemarie Jacir

Cast:  Mohammad Bakri, Saleh Bakri, Maria Zreik, Rana Alamuddin

PILI [TANZANIA], THU 21 MARCH, 8PM

By archive, Season 20 Films

Two screenings, at 6pm and 8pm.  Box office for first screening opens at 5:30pm.

The result of a ground-breaking collaboration with the women of Tanzania: 65% of the cast of non-actors are HIV positive. Both heart-warming and heart-wrenching, it’s an authentic view of their hard lives.

Pili is a young woman who provides for her two small children by tilling the local fields. Her husband has deserted her because she has a HIV condition that she keeps secret from the rest of her small community. Pili dreams of a better life for her family, so when she is offered the chance to take over a village market stall, she desperately tries to raise the cash for the required deposit.

Set and filmed in Tanzania, Leanne Welham’s debut feature is the result of a ground-breaking collaboration with the women of Miono, Tanzania, with 65% of the cast of non-actors being themselves HIV positive. Heartwarming and heartwrenching, Pili provides an honest, authentic view of Tanzanian life.

A young mother faces difficult decisions when offered the chance of a better life in Leanne Welham’s thoughtful drama. – The Guardian ★★

HIV positive cast star in a film shining a light on the struggles of Tanzanian women living with HIV.The Telegraph

With a compassionate and imaginative boldness, first-time British feature director Leanne Welham has shot a film about HIV in Tanzania. A drama that arose from what was originally a documentary project, Pili uses mostly non-professionals, many in just the same situation as their characters.The Guardian  ★★

Tanzania, 2017 | Language: Swahili | 83 minutes | Cert: CLUB

Director: Leanne Welham

Cast: Bello Rashid, Sekujua Rashid, Mwanaidi Omari Sefi, Sesilia Florian Kilimila, Siwazurio Mchuka, N’kwabi Elias Ng’andgasamala

MOUNTAIN [AUSTRALIA – Documentary], THU 4 APRIL 8PM

By archive, Season 20 Films

Two screenings, at 6pm and 8pm.  Box office for first screening opens at 5:30pm.

A spectacular documentary that asks what mountains mean to us and why we are compelled to conquer them.  It features adrenaline-rushing footage and music by the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Only three centuries ago, setting out to climb a mountain would have been considered close to lunacy. Mountains were places of peril, not beauty, an upper world to be shunned, not sought out. Why do mountains now hold us spellbound, drawing us into their dominion, often at the cost of our lives?

From Tibet to Australia, Alaska to Norway armed with drones, Go-Pros and helicopters, director Jennifer Peedom has fashioned an astonishing symphony of mountaineers, ice climbers, free soloists, heliskiers, snowboarders, wingsuiters and parachuting mountain bikers.

Willem Dafoe provides a narration sampled from British mountaineer Robert Macfarlane’s acclaimed memoir Mountains of the Mind, and a classical score from the Australian Chamber Orchestra accompanies this majestic cinematic experience.

A truly amazing view from the top.The Guardian ★★★★

For those terrified of heights, Mountain will be a nonstop nightmare. Yet big scares are a small price for the awe-inspiring footage you’ll see.The New York Times

How the hell did they film that?The Irish Times ★★★★

A ravishing feat of vertiginous filmmaking. – The Hollywood Reporter

A sublime rush of adrenaline and orchestral beauty…not for the faint-hearted. – The Guardian ★★★★

Australia, 2017 | Language: English | 76 minutes | Cert: CLUB

Director: Jennifer Peedom

Narrator:  Willem DeFoe

Music: Australian Chamber Orchestra

JEUNE FEMME [FRANCE], THU 27 SEPTEMBER, 8PM

By archive

A superbly sympathetic and spikily comedic portrait of a rudderless young woman in search of an identity.  She’s determined to make a new start with style. 

Winner, Camera d’Or for best first feature film, Cannes Film Festival 2017.

Broke, with nothing but her cat to her name and doors closing in her face, Paula is back in Paris after a long absence. As she meets different people along the way, there is one thing she knows for sure: she’s determined to make a new start – and she’ll do it with style and panache.

Director Léonor Serraille deservedly scooped the Camera d’Or prize at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival for this debut feature. Jeune Femme impresses with it sheer vivacity and the powerhouse central performance of actress Laetitia Dosch as Paula provides the wild heart of the film. This is cinema that is funny, moving and hugely invigorating.

Comedy with a soaring, free-spirited lead…A white-knuckle sense of emotional freefall powers every fraught scene.The Irish Times ★★★★

Laetitia Dosch dazzles in Léonor Serraille’s debut feature as a young Parisian woman struggling to work out who she is.The Guardian ★★★★

The film plays like an assured American comedy with its quick-fire pacing and conventional, redemptive arc. But the film is pure French in its tone and atmosphere. – Little White Lies, Cannes Film Festival 2017

France, 2017 |Language: France | 98 minutes | Cert: 15

Director:   Léonor Serraille

Cast:  Laetitia Dosch, Souleymane Seye Ndiaye, Grégoire Monsaingeon

SUMMER 1993 [ESTIU 1993 – SPAIN], THU 4 OCTOBER, 8PM

By archive

Six-year-old Frida faces the death of her parents and integration into a new nuclear family during a long Catalonian summer.  Beguiling, unsentimental and deeply personal.  

Winner, Best First Feature, Berlin Film Festival 2017.

In the summer 1993, following the death of her parents, six-year-old Frida moves from Barcelona to the Catalan province to live with her aunt and uncle, who are now her new legal guardians. The country life is a challenge for Frida – time passes differently in her new home and the nature that surrounds her is mysterious and estranging. She now has a little sister she has to take care of and must deal with new feelings, such as jealousy. Often, Frida is naively convinced that running away would be the best solution to her problems.

The family does what it can to achieve a fragile new balance and bring normality to their life. Occasional family outings to a local fiesta or a swimming pool, cooking or listening to jazz in the garden bring them moments of happiness. Slowly, Frida realizes that she is there to stay and has to adapt to the new environment.

Stunning drama of a childhood ripped apart…Carla Simón’s brilliantly realised story of a six-year-old traumatised by the death of her parents features miraculous child performances.The Guardian ★★★★★ 

A film that movingly looks at an orphaned six-year-old’s loneliness and confusion without the usual dip into sentimentality. – Variety

Childhood memoirs always are under threat from self-indulgence and sentimentality, but 1993 successfully sidesteps both, establishing Simon as a talent to watch.  A delicately crafted, moving filmic memoir. True and captivating. – The Hollywood Reporter

Spain, 2017 |Language: Catalan | 97 minutes | Cert: CLUB

Director:   Carla Simón

Cast:  Laia Artigas, Paula Robles, Bruna Cusí

THE RIDER [USA], THU 25 OCTOBER, 8PM

By archive

Brady, a South Dakota rodeo cowboy, suffers a near-fatal accident that halts his career and forces him to re-evaluate his future.  A beautifully crafted and absorbing glimpse of ‘real-life’ America.

Winner Art Cinema Award at Cannes 2017.

Brady is a talented South Dakota bronco rider and horse trainer – cowboys and rodeos are the centre of his world. So when he suffers a near-fatal accident that halts his career, Brady struggles to recover from a serious head-injury that forces him to reevaluate his future.

Chinese-born director Chloé Zhao proves that her acclaimed debut feature Songs My Brothers Taught Me was no flash-in-the-pan, as she returns with another beautifully crafted and absorbing glimpse of ‘real-life’ America in this second feature. Casting non-professional actors as versions of themselves allows her to bring a unique authenticity and intimacy to the story – the result is a powerfully emotional and touching exploration of humanity.

The best American movie this critic has seen in the past year…The commanding abilities Chloé Zhao shows in “The Rider” easily mark her as one of the world’s most important young directors. – rogerebert.com ★★★

Study of a damaged rodeo rider is a hugely impressive slice of prairie naturalism.The Irish Times  ★★★★★

Impressive, stylish bronco rider drama bucks the trend.  Chloé Zhao’s distinctive new feature shows life among South Dakota’s star bronco riders, who play themselves in a kind of heightened documentary. – The Guardian ★★★

Click here to watch an interview with the director and Brady.

Click here for official website.

USA, 2017 | Language:  English | 104 minutes | Cert: CLUB TBC

Director:  Chloé Zhao

Cast:  Brady Jandreau, Tim Jandreau, Lilly Jandreau