Previous Films

Shot in black-and-white and without dialogue, Gunda chronicles the unfiltered lives of a mother pig, some chickens and a herd of cows with masterful intimacy. Using transcendent cinematography and the farm’s ambient soundtrack, director Kossakovsky invites the audience to slow down and experience life as his subjects do, taking in their world with a magical patience and an other worldly perspective. What is not shown, what is not said, is as much a part of this film as any character. The human presence is so prevalent, in terms of how the sequences were filmed, but more importantly in the lives of the animals who live on farms and who have been specifically bred and raised by and for humans. Gunda asks us to meditate on the mystery of animal consciousness, and the role played by humanity.

This re-imagining of Shakespeare’s ‘Crookback King’ relocates the story to the 1930s and features an indelible star turn for Ian McKellen as the monstrous and magnetic King Richard III. A murderous lust for the British throne sees Richard descend into madness. He aspires to a fascist dictatorship, but must first remove the obstacles to his ascension – among them his brother (Nigel Hawthorne), his nephews and his brother’s wife (Annette Bening). When the Duke of Buckingham (Jim Broadbent) deserts him, Richard’s plans are compromised. Also starring Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas, Dominic West and Robert Downey Jr. Hugely entertaining.

In the plains of central Greece, Byzantine monasteries are perched atop sandstone pillars, suspended between heaven and earth. A young Greek monk and a Russian nun have devoted their lives to the strict rituals and practices of their community, but a growing affection for one another puts their monastic life under question. Torn between spiritual devotion and their carnal human desire, they must decide which path to follow. The film takes its title from the Byzantine monastery complex Meteora, in Thessaly, a series of structures built on natural sandstone pillars whose tops often disappear into the clouds.

A hardworking Maltese fisherman, Jesmark, is faced with an agonising choice. He can repair his leaky luzzu – a traditional, multi-coloured wooden fishing boat – in the hopes of eking out a meagre living at sea for his wife and newborn son, just as his father and grandfather did before him. Or he can decommission it in exchange for an EU payout and cast his lot with a sinister black-market operation that is decimating the Mediterranean fish population and the livelihoods of the local families who depend on the fish.

When a daughter becomes concerned about her mother’s well-being in a retirement home, private investigator Romulo hires Sergio, an 83-year-old man who becomes a new resident – and a mole – inside the home. He struggles to balance his assignment with becoming increasingly involved in the lives of several residents. Warm and funny, The Mole Agent offers audiences a poignant reminder that it’s never too late to forge new connections and embark on new adventure.

Peter Greenaway became a director of international status with this witty, stylised, erotic country house murder mystery. In an apparently idyllic 17th century Wiltshire, an ambitious draughtsman is commissioned by the wife of an aristocrat to produce twelve drawings of her husband’s estate, in return for which he will receive payment, board and bed – hers. Extravagant costumes, a twisting plot, elegantly barbed dialogue and a score by Michael Nyman make the film a treat for ear, eye and mind.

Few true stories tread the thin line between good and evil as precariously as that of Jan Mikolášek, a 20th century Czech herbal healer whose great success masked many secrets. Mikolášek won fame and fortune treating celebrities of the interwar, Nazi and Communist eras with his uncanny knack for “urinary diagnosis”. But his passion for healing welled up from the same source as his incapacity for love that only one person could ever quell – his assistant, František. As a show trial threatens to pry open these secrets and undo him, Jan’s dichotomies are put to a final test, with the fate of his life’s only love in the balance. A breathtaking tale as replete with twists as the century itself, and a reflection on the price one pays for single-mindedly following one’s calling.

The Flavour Of Green Tea Over Rice is one of Yasujirō Ozu’s most beautiful domestic sagas, a subtly piercing portrait of a marriage coming quietly undone. Secrets and deceptions strain the already tenuous relationship of a childless middle-aged couple, as the wife’s city bred sophistication clashes with the husband’s small town simplicity, and a generational sea change in the form of their headstrong, modern niece sweeps over their household. Ozu’s expert grasp of family dynamics receives one of its most spirited treatments, with a wry, tender humour and an expansiveness that moves the action from the home to a baseball stadium and the shops of post-war Tokyo.

Jorge and Roberta have been separated for several years. They simply come from opposite worlds: he likes an uncomplicated life in the jungle, while she prefers a more urban existence. He is Mexican and she is Italian, and she has decided to return to Rome with their five-year-old son, Natan. Before they leave, Jorge wishes to take young Natan on a trip, hoping to teach him about his Mayan origins in Mexico. At first the boy is physically and emotionally uncomfortable with the whole affair, and gets seasick on the boat taking them to their destination. But as father and son spend more time together, Natan begins a learning experience that will remain with him forever.

Argentina, 1980. Private banker Yvan arrives from Geneva to replace a colleague who has mysteriously disappeared in military-ruled Buenos Aires. Moving through a society under surveillance, he finds himself untangling a sinister web of colonialism, high finance and a nation’s “Dirty War”. A restrained but nerve-wracking political thriller that is also a damning critique of the role that Swiss banks played in supporting a murderous dictatorship and caring for its plunder.