Before each film there will be a short introduction given by a member of the film society.

'California Dreamin' ('Endless')

Thursday 18 September 2008 7.30pm

Director: Christian Nemescu

(Romania/2006/subtitles/cert15/154mins)

The plot is based on a true story, set in the hot summer of 1999 when a NATO train passes through Romania en route to Kosovo. Subtle, gripping, brilliantly acted and with a great soundtrack, the film is quietly scathing about both Romanian attitudes to bureaucracy, and the Americans' knack of leaving a troubled country in a bloodier state then when they arrived.

Winner, Prix Un Certain Regard at Cannes Film Festival 2007

Winner, Best Film, Audience Award and Canvas Award at Brussels European Film

Festival 2007

 

'The Band's Visit'

Thursday 16 October 2008 7.30pm

Director: Eran Kolirin

(Israel,France/2007/subtitles/cert12A/86mins)

In this dry but heart-warming comedy, a brass band comprising members of the Egyptian police force heads to an Israeli town to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab arts centre. A mix-up leaves them stranded in a dead-end Israeli town with a similar-sounding name, and an inevitable culture clash ensues.

Rapturously applauded at its first screening in Cannes, the film was, scandalously, disqualified as a nominee for Best Foreign Language Oscar because it contained too much English! (The Arabic- and Hebrew-speaking characters use a halting form of it in order to communicate.)

"A short but perfectly pitched gem" San Francisco Chronicle

 

'Tell No-One'

Thursday 20 November 2008 7.30pm

Director Guillaume Canet

(France/2006/subtitles/cert15/125mins)

Based on Harlan Coben's multimillion-selling novel, this film was a phenomenal success in France. Its energetic blend of Hollywood thrills and French cinematic style gives it major crossover appeal. François Cluzet plays a widower who comes under renewed suspicion when his wife's murder case is re-opened; at the same time he receives a mysterious e-mail containing a clue only she could know. A superlative cast also includes André Dussollier and Kristin Scott Thomas.

"An intricate, intelligent and very watchable thriller" The Guardian

 

'Silent Light'

Thursday 15 January 2009 7.30pm

Diretor/Cyfarwyddydd: Carlos Reygadas

(Mexico/2007/subtitles/cert15/127mins)

A deeply considered, beautiful-looking and unexpectedly gripping film. Carlos Reygadas establishes, in a series of tableaux, the setting for a tale of forbidden love in a rural Dutch-dialect-speaking Mennonite community in Mexico. The film begins in silence and ends in silence against a backdrop of stars. Don't miss the film's stunning opening sequence.

Winner, Jury's Grand Prize at Cannes Film Festival 2007

 

'The Edge of Heaven'

Thursday 26 February 2009 7.30pm

Director: Faith Akin

(Germany,Turkey/2007/subtitles/cert15/120mins)

With so much American Oscar-nominated product on our screens, it is good to be reminded how great European cinema can be. This brilliantly plotted Turkish-German drama follows a set of interconnected characters back and forth between the two countries, and through various tragedies and revelations offers some substantial truths about home, identity and family. An extraordinarily powerful drama.

Winner, Best Screenplay at Cannes Film Festival 2007

 

'Alexandra'

Thursday 19 March 2009 7.30pm

Director: Alexandr Sokurov

(Russia/2007/subtitles/ 95mins)

Sokurov artfully balances emotional and intellectual aspects in this story of an elderly woman who visits a remote military outpost where her grandson is stationed. Opera legend Galina Vishnevskaya gives a performance of monumental depth as Alexandra. Weakened physically by age but formidably solid and fearless she is every mother viewing the deep wounds of endless war on the wasted lives of young men and wondering why.

 

'Still Life'

Thursday 23 April 2009 7:30pm

Director:Jia Zhangke

(China/2006/subtitles/certPG/107mins)

A stark and stunning end-of-the-world saga about a tiny city being demolished to make way for the Three Gorges hydro-electric dam project. The film chronicles two people arriving in the city of Fengjie, both desperate to recover something of their emotional and physical past before it disappears into the water. A poignant record of a hidden sorrow in modern China - a meditation on mortality.

"Wonderful...mysterious, poignant" Sight and Sound

Winner, Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival 2006

 

'Days and Nights in the Forest'

Thursday 21May 2009 7.30pm

Director: Satyajit Ray

(India/1970/subtitles/certPG/120mins)

A light-hearted comedy which also touches on weightier social themes. Four young urban professional men take a break from city life and go for a weekend in the country, where they encounter a group of forest dwellers. In this visually gorgeous film, Ray's sympathy for his characters prevents them from becoming caricatures, whilst his disillusionment with the state of affairs in 1970s Indian society is apparent in every frame.

Winner, Best Picture at Berlin Film Festival 1970

 

'Ten Canoes'

Thursday 18 June 2009 7.30pm

Director: Rolf de Heer

(Australia/2006/subtitles/cert15/92mins)

David Gulpilil, the aboriginal actor discovered by Nicolas Roeg in his classic 1971 outback drama 'Walkabout', approached director Rolf de Heer with the idea for this film. 'Ten Canoes' is a portrait of the Yolngu (a branch of the Aborigine people inhabiting Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia) as they used to be, in their natural habitat, far from the occupation of Anglo-Saxon supremacy, technology and the devastating effects of alcohol. Set a thousand years ago, the film shows ten men heading into the forest to strip bark to make canoes. To pass the time the tribal elder tells an ancestral yarn, and the film is in large part a comment on the power of story-telling itself. This is the first feature film to be made in an Australian indigenous language.

"Wise, warm, witty fare" Time Out

Winner, Australian Academy Awards 2006

 

With Thanks to Browsers Bookshop

Based in Porthmadog, we are very grateful to the continued support of Browsers Bookshop. Browsers Bookshop is the point of departure for all your exotic journeys into the extra-ordinary, entrancing and captivating worlds of books and art including Aardvarks, Artists Materials, Astronomy, Australia, Archaeology or go by Bicycles, Creativity, Drawing, Dreams, Dry Stone Walls, Fiction, Geology, Huts, Inspiration, Knots, Lighthouses, The Little Prince, Maps, Mountains, Mines, Mists, Newfoundland, Rough Guides, Rumi, Snowdonia, Trains, Travel, Walking, Whales and Woodwork all the way through to Zerzura , Ziggarats and Zulus...! And much, much more.

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