2016/2017 season

This season's films are listed below. Links to related reviews and trailers will be added in due course.

Passport to Pimlico, September 23.

Henry Cornelius, UK, 1949, 84m (U), b&w.

Whether you were a Brexiter or a Remainer, you will enjoy this comedy of self-determination. Pimlico residents declare independence from the UK in order to escape post-war austerity. A celebration of Britishness with Margaret Rutherford and Stanley Holloway, shot through with nostalgia for the social cohesion of the war years.

Links to reviews here: BFI. Link to trailer here. Notes attached below.

Mustang, October 14.

Deniz Gamze Erguvem. Turkey, 2015, 97m (15).

Five orphan sisters play innocently with boys on the beach. Their scandalised family responds by confining them and attempting to arrange marriages. However, the sisters refuse to accept the constrained lives ordained for them.

Links to reviews here: Guardian Telegraph Link to trailer here. Notes attached below.

A Syrian Love Story, November 4.

Sean McAllister, UK, 2015, 76m (12A)

This incredible odyssey to freedom in the West and intimate family portrait was filmed over five years. The film shows a couple's hopes, dreams and despair for their homeland and for each other.

Links to reviews here: Variety Independent . Notes attached below. Link to trailer here.

Rams, December 2.

Grimur Hakonarson, Iceland, 2015, 90m (15)

The competition for best ram in a secluded valley exacerbates the long-standing rivalry and estrangement of two elderly brothers. However, by turns darkly funny and melancholic, it eventually leads to their reconciliation.

Links to reviews here: Telegraph Guardian. Link to trailer here. Notes attached below.

Maggie's Plan, January 6.

Rebecca Miller, USA, 2016, 98m (15)

Maggie is all set to become a single mother; but then she falls in love with John, who is unhappily married to scary intellectual Georgette; but, three years later, this isn't working out. Maggie has a plan.

Link to reviews here: Guardian Telegraph. Link to trailer here.

Court, February 24

Chaitanya Tamahane, India, 2014, 116m (PG)

After the death of a lower cast Mumbai worker, an ageing folk singer is prosecuted for abetting the apparent suicide through the lyrics of his songs. This courtroom drama is an absurdist nightmare of bureaucratic incompetence and social inequity, a satire on India's current day problems.

Link to reviews here: FT Irish Times. Link to trailer here.

Guys and Dolls, Saturday March 18

Joseph L Mankiewicz, USA, 1955, 150m (U)

Sky Masterson looses a bet with fellow New York gambler Nathan Detroit and must take Sarah Brown, a sister at the Save-a-Soul Mission to dinner in Havana; but they fall for each other. In the meantime, Nathan looses a bet too and must marry his long-time finacee Miss Adelaide. Harry the Horse, Big Jule, Benny Southstreet and Nicely Nicely Johnson are the supporting cast of picturesque gamblers. Elm Green will serve a two course dinner with wine at a convenient interval in the film.

Link to reviews here: Telegraph Guardian. Link to trailer here.

The Pearl Button, April 21

Patricio Guzman, Chile, 2015, 82m (12A)

A filmmaker at the height of his powers gives his view of Chile's troubled past, from the eradication of native peoples to the atrocities of the Pinochet regime, all against the background of the austere beauty of the Atacama desert.

Link to reviews here: Guardian Independent . Link to trailer here.

The Eagle Huntress, May 12

Otto Bell, UK/Mongolia/USA , 2016 87m (U)

This documentary follows Aisholpan, a 13-year-old nomadic Mongolian girl as she becomes the first female eagle hunter in twelve generations of her Kazakh family. Through breathtaking aerial cinematography and intimate verite footage, the film captures that journey while also addressing the themes of female empowerment, the natural world, coming of age and the onset of modernity. Girl power!

Links to reviews here: Guardian Telegraph Link to clip compilation here. Link to trailer here.