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Ulzii, a gifted teenager from a poor neighbourhood in Ulaanbaatar, is determined to get a scholarship by winning a physics competition. His illiterate mother finds a job in the countryside, leaving him and his younger brother and sister in the middle of winter. Ulzii needs to find ways to keep their yurt warm in sub-zero temperatures and look after his siblings while preparing for the national competition. Zoljargal Purevdash’s absorbing first feature intimately conveys the harsh living conditions…
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Anthony Hopkins stars as the late British humanitarian Nicholas Winton, whose actions helped save Jewish children from a horrific fate on the eve of World War 2. A young stockbroker, born in London to Jewish parents, Winton transports 669 children to safety in England ahead of the Nazi invasion of Prague, assisted by his firebrand mother and a tight-knit band of volunteers. But 50 years later, Winton is still haunted by the fates of those he couldn’t rescue via…
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This sensitive but light-hearted study of complicated intimacy, shot in natural light and on grainy stock, immerses you in the world of dancer Elena and sign language interpreter Dovydas. When Elena and Dovydas meet, they’re immediately drawn to each other and quickly begin a romance. But Elena is a very sensual, physical person, and Dovydas is not. Struggling to find common ground in their approaches to sex, they realise they will have to experiment to try and create something…
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A scathingly hilarious satire about an African American writer facing an industry that reduces Black storytelling to trauma and poverty narratives. Jeffery Wright plays Thelonious "Monk" Ellison who is constantly being told by his agent that his intellectual novels just don’t sell. Cynically, under a pseudonym, he puts together a parody of “ghetto” fiction, teeming with clichés about gangbangers, drug dealers and pimps. To his consternation, it’s a huge success. Adapted from the 2001 novel Erasure by Percival…
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Andrew Haigh follows 45 Years with a sublime, uncommonly perceptive and moving film. Adam (Fleabag’s Andrew Scott), a screenwriter living in a spookily empty London high rise, strikes up a relationship with his mysterious neighbour Harry (Paul Mescal). At the same time, he makes a miraculous discovery at his old family home in the suburbs – one that keeps him returning. Using a metaphysical conceit to meditate on love, grief and profound loss, Haigh’s carefully modulated ghost story revisits…
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A courtroom drama founded on the real trial of extraordinary activist turned criminal Pierre Goldman in 1976 builds up to an electrifying climax. Pierre Goldman was raised by Jewish Communists, but left Paris to join a guerrilla movement in Venezuela instead of taking part in May ’68. Accused of two murders (which he denied) and armed robbery (which he admitted), his trial gripped and divided France. Meticulous and austere in structure, this dramatization nevertheless reveals the sheer power of…
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Loosely based on the novel by Martin Amis, this bold, surgical probe into our capacity for zoning out on genocide is chilling indeed. Rudolf, Hedwig and their children live a pastoral idyll, in a bright villa with a cultivated garden full of roses and hothouse fruit. But the backdrop is a high wall with chimneys beyond, and behind the birdsong are other persistent but indistinguishable sounds. Rudolf Höss is the commandant of Auschwitz. Eschewing the conventions of Holocaust drama,…
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Kelly Reichardt’s fourth collaboration with Michelle Williams is a comedy about a sculptor on the verge of a career breakthrough juggling creativity with the messiness of life. Lizzy, a notably unglamourised Williams, is a figurative artist under pressure to prepare for an exhibition in Portland. Through the quiet, chaotic environment of her home studio as she works, and the tetchy, funny interactions with her parents, her more brilliant brother and her breezy landlord, fellow artist Jo – who…
Find out more »Andrew Haigh follows 45 Years with a sublime, uncommonly perceptive and moving film. Adam (Fleabag’s Andrew Scott), a screenwriter living in a spookily empty London high rise, strikes up a relationship with his mysterious neighbour Harry (Paul Mescal). At the same time, he makes a miraculous discovery at his old family home in the suburbs – one that keeps him returning. Using a metaphysical conceit to meditate on love, grief and profound loss, Haigh’s carefully modulated ghost story revisits…
Find out more »A scathingly hilarious satire about an African American writer facing an industry that reduces Black storytelling to trauma and poverty narratives. Jeffery Wright plays Thelonious "Monk" Ellison who is constantly being told by his agent that his intellectual novels just don’t sell. Cynically, under a pseudonym, he puts together a parody of “ghetto” fiction, teeming with clichés about gangbangers, drug dealers and pimps. To his consternation, it’s a huge success. Adapted from the 2001 novel Erasure by Percival…
Find out more »