THURSDAY 4 JULY
Brick Lane 7:30PM
PG
UK, India, 2007
Genre: Drama
Language: English, Bengali
Director: Sarah Gavron
Starring: Tannishtha Chatterjee, Christopher Simpson, Satish Kaushik, Zafreen
What's it about?
Young Bangladeshi, Nazneem (Chatterjee) is sent to London, leaving behind her beloved sister and home, for an arranged marriage and a new life. Trapped within the four walls of her flat in Brick Lane, East London, and in a loveless marriage with the middle aged Chanu (Kaushik), complete with two daughters. She fears her soul is quietly dying. Her sister Hasina (Zafreen), meanwhile, continues to live a carefree life back in Bangladesh, stumbling from one adventure to the next. Then one day, Karim (Simpson) knocks on her door with a consignment of garments for hemming, casual work she has taken on for extra money. Age difference aside, Karim and Nazneem begin to nurture a relationship.
[link title="Brick Lane: Internal journeys are the most challenging to film" url="node/2506"]
[link title="Brick Lane review - For those who loved the book, be prepared." url="node/4455"]
Pin Cushion 9:30PM
MA15+
UK, 2018
Genre: Drama
Language: English
Director: Deborah Haywood
Starring: Lily Newmark, Joanna Scanlan, John Henshaw, Loris Scarpa
What's it about?Peculiar mother-daughter duo, Lyn (Scanlan) and Iona (Newmark), move to a new town in the hope of finding a better life for themselves. Used to only each other for company, Iona starts to drift away from her mother after befriending a trio of popular girls at school. In turn, Lyn tries to find her own group of friends, but both struggle to find their way through their social awkwardness. With fragile personalities, they stumble their way through the harsh reality of bullies and frenemies, only to find themselves retreating more and more into the fantasy world they’ve built for themselves.
[link title="Pin Cushion review: Achingly fragile and genuinely, preciously peculiar" url="node/157238"]
THURSDAY 11 JULY
The Assassin 7:30PM
PG
Taiwan, 2015
Genre: Martial Arts
Language: Chinese, Mandarin
Director: Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Starring: Shu Qi, Chang Chen, Zhou Yun
What's it about?9th century China. 10-year-old general’s daughter Nie Yinniang is abducted by a nun who initiates her into the martial arts, transforming her into an exceptional assassin (played by Shu Qi) charged with eliminating cruel and corrupt local governors. One day, having failed in a task, she is sent back by her mistress to the land of her birth, with orders to kill the man to whom she was promised - a cousin (played by Chang Chen) who now leads the largest military region in North China. Winner of Best Director at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, from acclaimed director Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Flight of the Red Balloon, Three Times).
[link title="The Assassin review: Fleeting battles make way for exquisitely beautiful, lingering shots" url="node/43931"]
Into the Forest 9:30PM
MA15+
Canada, 2016
Genre: Drama, Science Fiction
Language: English
Director: Patricia Rozema
Starring: Ellen Page, Evan Rachel Wood, Max Minghella, Callum Keith Rennie
What's it about?In the near future, two teenage sisters, Nell (Page) and Eva (Wood), live in a remotely located home with their father (Rennie) in a forest. There is a massive, continent-wide power outage that appears to be part of a region-wide technological collapse. The car battery is drained, so they are left stranded for days. Informed only by rumour, they fight intruders, disease, loneliness & starvation.
THURSDAY 18 JULY
Belle 7:30PM
M
UK, 2014
Genre: Drama
Language: English
Director: Amma Asante
Starring: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tom Wilkinson, Miranda Richardson, Emily Watson
What's it about?
This period drama is inspired by the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle (Mbatha-Raw), who was the illegitimate daughter of John Lindsay, a Captain in the Royal Navy, and a Caribbean woman named Maria Belle who gave birth to their child in 1762. Belle's racial background renders her an outsider in her high society circle, and her uncle's role in a slavery case places her in the spotlight.
Love & Friendship 9:30PM
PG
UK, USA, 2016
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Language: English
Director: Whit Stillman
Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Chloë Sevigny, Xavier Samuel, Tom Bennett, Stephen Fry
What's it about?
From Jane Austen’s novella, the beautiful and cunning Lady Susan Vernon (Beckinsale) visits the estate of her in-laws to wait out colourful rumours of her dalliances and to find husbands for herself and her daughter. Two young men, handsome Reginald DeCourcy (Samuel) and wealthy Sir James Martin (Bennett), severely complicate her plans. An acerbic take on Austen from Whit Stillman, writer-director of Metropolitan & The Last Days of Disco.
[link title="Love and Friendship: An interview with Whit Stillman" url="node/74856"]
THURSDAY 25 JULY
Pearl 7:30PM
M
Switzerland, France, 2019
Genre: Drama
Language: English, French
Director: Elsa Amiel
Starring: Julia Föry, Arieh Worthalter, Vidal Arzoni, Agata Buzek, Peter Mullan
What's it about?
72 hours from the final of an international female bodybuilding championship. Lea Pearl (Föry) is set to compete for the prestigious title of Miss Heaven. But her past catches up with her, when her ex-lover Ben (Worthalter) shows up with the 6-year-old son she hardly knows.
Violette 9:30PM
M
France, Belgium, 2013
Genre: Drama
Language: French
Director: Martin Provost
Starring: Emmanuelle Devos, Sandrine Kiberlain, Olivier Gourmet, Olivier Py
What's it about? In wartime France, Violette Leduc (Devos) lives in the countryside, subsiding on the profits of her black-marketeering. Upon the urging of her writer friend, Maurice Sachs (Py), Violette moves to Paris, where she discovers the writing of Simone de Beauvoir (Kiberlain). This simple discovery changes her life forever. A fearless and determined woman, Violette writes a novel and sets about meeting de Beauvoir to request her help in having it published, an action which leads to the development of an intense and lifelong relationship between the two women.
[link title="Violette: Martin Provost interview" url="node/15050"]
