Author Archives: filmonsundayadmin

The Old Oak

Showing: 3rd November 2024

The Old Oak is the last pub standing in a once thriving mining village in northern England, a gathering space for a community that has fallen on hard times. There is growing anger, resentment, and a lack of hope among the residents, but the pub and its proprietor TJ are a fond presence to their customers. When a group of Syrian refugees move into the floundering village, a decisive rift fueled by prejudices develops between the community and its newest inhabitants. The formation of an unexpected friendship between TJ and a young Syrian woman named Yara opens up new possibilities for the divided village in this deeply moving drama about loss, fear, and the difficulty of finding hope.

Loach, who is 87 years old, has announced that The Old Oak will be his final film.

Year: 2023
Director: Ken Loach
Cast: Dave Turner, Ebla Mari, Claire Rodgerson
Language: English, Arabic
Duration: 113 Minutes
Cert: 15

Typist Artist Pirate King

Showing: 17th November 2024

In a last-ditch mission to get recognition for her talent, a non-conformist, forgotten artist persuades her psychiatric nurse to take her on a road trip back to where her story began – but with so many deviations into the past along the way, will they ever make it? Beautifully written with a great cast, impressive visuals and real heart.

Year: 2022
Director: Carol Morley
Cast: Monica Dolan, Kelly Macdonald, Gina McKee

Language: English
Duration: 108 Minutes
Cert: 12

Perfect Days

Showing: 1st December 2024

Hailed at the Cannes Film Festival as Wenders’s greatest masterpiece in recent years, Perfect Days follows Hirayama, who lives a life of blissful contentment, spending his days balancing his job as a caretaker of Tokyo’s public toilets with his passion for music, literature and photography. His structured routine is slowly interrupted by unexpected encounters that force him to reconnect with his past.

Combining a refreshingly unstereotypical depiction of the Japanese capital with a soundtrack comprised of iconic hits from the 60s and 80s, this is a subtle, shimmering and ultimately life-affirming reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us.

Year: 2023
Director: Wim Wenders
Cast: Koji Yakusho, Tokio Emoto, Arisa Nakano

Language: Japanese, English
Duration: 124 Minutes
Cert: PG

The Holdovers

Showing: 15th December 2024

In this good-natured comedy drama, set in the 1970s, an unpopular teacher, a rebellious student, and a recently-bereaved school cook form an unexpected bond while forced to stay in a boarding school over the Christmas break.

 

Year: 2023
Director: Alexander Payne
Cast: Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy, Randolph Dominic Sessa

Language: English
Duration: 133 Minutes
Cert: 15

Hit The Road

Showing: 18th February 2024

Panah Panahi juggles joy, heartbreak and surreal humour in a road movie his imprisoned father would be proud of.

This charming, sharp-witted, and deeply moving comic drama takes the tradition of the Iranian road-trip movie and adds unexpected twists and turns. It follows a family of four — two middle-aged parents and their sons, one a taciturn adult, the other an ebullient six-year-old — as they drive across the Iranian countryside, bonding over memories of the past, grappling with fears of the unknown, and fussing over their sick dog.

Year: 2021
Director: Panah Panahi
Cast: Pantea Panahiha, Mohammad Hassan Madjooni, Rayan Sarlak
Language: Iranian
Duration: 93 Minutes
Cert: 12A

Joyland

Showing: 3rd March 2024

The Ranas–a happily patriarchal joint family–yearn for the birth of a baby boy to continue the family line. Their youngest son secretly joins an erotic dance theatre and falls for an ambitious trans starlet. Their impossible love story slowly illuminates the entire Rana family’s desire for sexual rebellion

Year: 2023
Director: Saim Sadiq
Cast: Ali Junejo, Rasti Farooq, Alina Khan
Language: Urdu
Duration: 126 Minutes
Cert: 12A

The Quiet Girl

Showing: 17th March 2024

This beautiful and compassionate film from first-time feature director Colm Bairéad, based on the novella Foster by Claire Keegan, is a child’s-eye look at our fallen world. Set in 1981, nine-year-old Cait is sent away from her overcrowded, dysfunctional family to live with her mother’s cousin in County Waterford for the summer. Quietly struggling at school and at home, she has learned to hide in plain sight from those around her. She blossoms, but in this house where there are meant to be no secrets, she discovers one painful truth. The Quiet Girl offers a deceptively simple reminder that the smallest stories can leave a large emotional impact.

Year: 2022
Director: Colm Bairéad
Cast: Carrie Crowley, Andrew Bennett, Catherine Clinch
Language: English & Irish
Duration: 95 Minutes
Cert: 12A

One Life

Showing: 31st March 2024

The true story of Sir Nicholas ‘Nicky’ Winton, a young London broker who, in the months leading up to World War II, rescued 669 predominantly Jewish children from the Nazis. Nicky visited Prague in December 1938 and found families who had fled the rise of the Nazis in Germany and Austria, living in desperate conditions with little or no shelter and food, and under threat of Nazi invasion. He immediately realized it was a race against time. How many children could he and the team rescue before the borders closed? Fifty years later, it’s 1988 and Nicky lives haunted by the fate of the children he wasn’t able to bring to safety in England; always blaming himself for not doing more. It’s not until a live BBC television show, ‘That’s Life’, surprises him by introducing him to some surviving children – now adults – that he finally begins to come to terms with the guilt and grief he had carried for five decades.

Year: 2023
Director: James Hawes
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Lena Olin, Helena Bonham Carter
Language: English
Duration: 110 Minutes
Cert: 12A

Polite Society

Showing: 15th October 2023

Dedicated martial artist-in-training Ria Khan decides to rescue her older sister Lena from her impending marriage, recruiting her equally dangerous and determined friends to pull off the greatest wedding heist of all time. The resulting riot of action, wit and wise cultural commentary is an upbeat, fun and engaging take on modern family life and sisterhood in a sometimes complicated world. A must see film that will definitely make you laugh but is equally not afraid to confront important issues. With an endearing story and action-packed sequences, Manzoor’s Polite Society is a joyful movie that could potentially turn into an instant classic.

Year: UK 2023
Director: Nida Manzoor
Cast: Priya Kansara, Ritu Arya, Renu Brindle
Language: English
Duration: 103 Minutes
Cert: 12A

Brian and Charles

Showing: 29th October 2023

Brian is a lonely inventor in rural Wales who spends his days building quirky unconventional contraptions that seldom work. Undeterred by his lack of success, he soon attempts his biggest project yet. Using a washing machine and various spare parts, he invents Charles, an artificial intelligence robot that learns English from a dictionary and has an obsession with cabbages.

  • Filming location North Wales
  • BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film

Year: Wales 2022
Director: Jim Archer
Cast: David Earl, Chris Hayward, Louise Brealey
Language: English
Duration: 90 Minutes
Cert: PG