Films You Might Have Slept On
It can be so hard to keep up with the latest titles when programming and some titles can just fall through the cracks. Not to fear, the Cinema For All team have picked their choices of films you might have missed, featuring titles that are ready to find their community cinema audiences, offering fresh stories, unique perspectives.
Sick of Myself (Dir. Kristoffer Borgli)
Signe and Thomas are in an unhealthy, competitive relationship that takes a vicious turn when Thomas suddenly breaks through as a contemporary artist. In response, Signe makes a desperate attempt to regain her status by creating a new persona hell-bent on attracting attention and sympathy.
Jaq Chell: "The darkest of comedies about the gruesome lengths that can be reached if the desire for attention is enough".
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
Ryusuke Hamaguchi's follow up to the Oscar winning Drive My Car is a triptych of stories centring on chance and serendipity, as our characters attempt to search for human connection in an increasingly digital modern world.
Patrick Greenhough: "Like all the best collections of short stories, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is more than the sum of its parts; each tale enriches the next, ultimately forming a warm and deeply felt complete body of work".
Winners (Dir. Hassan Nazer)
In a small provincial Iranian town, the children work hard to support their families. One day nine-year-old Yahya and his friend Leyla find a precious statue. Sharing a passion for cinema, Yahya’s boss Naser Khan decides to help them find the owner.
Abi Standish: "Passion for cinema as bright at the sun, a missing Oscar statue and an excellent cast of characters in a small town in Iran - what's not to love? AND it's feel-good!"
Border (Dir. Ali Abbasi)
Tina is a border guard who has the ability to smell human emotions and catch smugglers. When she comes across a mysterious man with a smell that confounds her detection, she is forced to confront hugely disturbing insights about herself and humankind.
Sarah Williamson: "I’ve never seen anything quite like Border before or since, and that for me is part of its appeal. Beautiful, strange and unique, Border is a gem of a film that is hard to forget".
Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché (Dir. Paul Sng, Celeste Bell)
Poly Styrene was the first woman of colour in the UK to front a successful rock band, using her unconventional voice to sing about identity, consumerism, and everything she saw unfolding in late 1970s Britain. This documentary follows her daughter, Celeste Bell, as she examines her mother’s archive and traverses continents to better understand Poly the icon and Poly the mother.
Ellie Ragdale: "A bold, raw, important and inspiring documentary capturing the essence of truly groundbreaking musician Poly Styrene. Poly served as inspiration for the riot grrrl and Afropunk movements and used her voice to sing about issues that mattered in late 70s Britain (but are still very relevant today!)"