Award Winning Independent Cinema

Filmed in various locations across South-East London, Polite Society is an enjoyable film citing the importance of sisterhood and friendship.

Directed by British Pakistani screenwriter Nida Manzoor, known for comedy show We Are Lady Parts, which earned acclaim for its realistic depiction of British Muslim women, this is a film centring … Continue Reading

A winner of multiple awards, and nominated for Best International Feature at the 2022 Oscars, Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom is both a charming tale of self-discovery, and an unsentimental look at life in contemporary China.

Written and directed by Pawo Choyning Dorji, Lunana … Continue Reading

Dubbed a “once in a lifetime” event, the Rijksmuseum’s exhibition, Vermeer, has been a huge success. It is the most comprehensive gathering of Vermeer paintings for a generation, with loans from across the world. For those of us not lucky enough to see the … Continue Reading

I first saw Raging Bull in the early nineties, on an actual black-and-white TV (so I missed the occasional spurt of colour within it). Its director Martin Scorsese had revamped the gangster genre a year or two before with Goodfellas, … Continue Reading

Eo

Reviewed by Imogen Parkin

EO is both a sombre look at animal cruelty and a mind-bending journey into the mind of director Jerzy Skolimowski.

With a strong anti-animal cruelty message, the audience are transported into the world of Eo, a performing circus donkey in Poland, and we accompany him on a journey … Continue Reading

Nostalgia

Reviewed by Nigel Watson
Returning to his hometown of Naples after living abroad for 40 years, Felice Lasco walks the streets and alleyways of his old neighbourhood. Nothing much has changed except his mother Teresa (Aurora Quattrocchi) has sold their old home and is living in a gloomy apartment where … Continue Reading

Starting with a premise, Women Talking presents us with a single phrase: “What follows is an act of female imagination”. 

Taken from the novel by Miriam Toews, director and screenwriter Sarah Polley adapts a story of an isolated religious community (they refer to themselves as a colony), with a … Continue Reading

A train smashes into a car and sends it cartwheeling into the sky. That scene in Cecil B. deMille’s ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ made the audience gasp, amongst them, and the most awestruck, is the young Sammy Fabelman. Ironically, Sammy’s parents had to virtually drag him into the cinema … Continue Reading