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PAPICHA

PAPICHA
2019 | Dir Mounia Meddour | 105min | France | Algeria

Underground discos thud to the beat of dance music as men and women dress to the nines and slip through checkpoints to party the night away. Meanwhile, fingers on triggers, tensions mount between armed police forces and anti-government guerillas. This is Algiers in the 1990’s, and what headstrong fashion student Nedjma, ‘Papicha’ to her friends, doesn’t know, is that her life is about to change forever…

Lifting the lid on the radical events of the Algerian Civil War, Mounia Meddour’s ‘Papicha’ follows the trials and tribulations of a group ofdetermined young women as they come face to face with a new, dangerous reality. French/Arabic with English subtitles.

Papicha is an Algerian word that refers to a funny, attractive, liberated young woman.

“There is a scattershot emotional rhetoric here – but also idealism, and emotional force.” Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian.

Watch at home now from £4.50 (DLC receives a share of ticket price, thanks for supporting us) – Vimeo registration required (free) or login with Vimeo account. Stream available for 72 hours after purchase.
Distributor: Peccadillo Pictures – Vimeo account required

Papicha from Peccadillo Pictures on Vimeo.

SOCRATES

SOCRATES
2019 | Dir Alexandre Moratto | 71min | Brazil

Socrates, a handsome 15-year-old, is not just another underage kid living on the margins of society while working the construction sites of São palo, he has a purpose. Because of the sudden death of his mother Socrates has had to fend for himself, trying desperately to earn the rent to keep his run-down apartment and remain out of the clutches of social services and his estranged father. Portuguese with English subtitles.

SOCRATES is the debut feature film from Brazilian-American director Alexandre Moratto. It is the first feature produced by the Querô Institute in Brazil where it was co-written, produced, and acted by at-risk teenagers with the support of UNICEF.

“With a 71 minute running time, plenty of glossier and more finished films don’t have its beating compassionate heart”. Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian.

Socrates from Peccadillo Pictures on Vimeo.

KUESSIPAN

KUESSIPAN
2019 | Dir Dir Myriam Verreault | 117mins | Canada

A deeply-felt drama in which issues of race and class threaten the lifelong best-friendship of two girls growing up in a Quebec Innu community. While Mikuan has a loving family, Shaniss is picking up the pieces of her shattered childhood. As children, they promised each other to stick together no matter what. But as they’re about to turn 17, their friendship is shaken when Mikuan falls for a white boy, and starts dreaming of leaving the reserve that’s now too small for her dreams. English/French with English subtitles.

“The film discusses the unbreakable bond of sisterhood, sure, but it’s also a joyous celebration of culture with heartbreaking reality in between.” – Sara Clements , Exclaim!

As a thank you for supporting us, you will get 25% off each ticket purchase. Just enter DLYS at checkout. You will also be supporting the David Lean Cinema as we get a share of every ticket sold using this promo code.

Watch at home now for £7.49 (with discount code above). Stream available for 48 hours after play started.

Film run ends on 20 December 2020.

WHITE RIOT

WHITE RIOT
2019 | Dir Rubika Shah | 80mins | UK

Rubika Shah’s energising film charts a vital London protest movement. Rock Against Racism (RAR) was formed in 1976, prompted by ‘music’s biggest colonialist’ Eric Clapton and his support of racist MP Enoch Powell. White Riot blends fresh interviews with queasy archive footage to recreate a hostile environment of anti-immigrant hysteria and National Front marches. As neo-Nazis recruited the nation’s youth, RAR’s multicultural punk and reggae gigs provided rallying points for resistance. As founder Red Saunders explains: ‘We peeled away the Union Jack to reveal the swastika’. The campaign grew from Hoxton fanzine roots to 1978’s huge antifascist carnival in Victoria Park, featuring X-Ray Spex, Steel Pulse and of course The Clash, whose rock star charisma and gale-force conviction took RAR’s message to the masses.

“An excellent brief documentary about a heroic grassroots political movement whose importance reveals itself more clearly in retrospect with every year that passes”. Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian.

The David Lean Cinema shares a proportion of the ticket price when purchased through the link on this page.
Distributor: Modern Films – no account required

RECORDER: THE MARION STOKES PROJECT

CTBA – RECORDER: THE MARION STOKES PROJECT
2019 | Dir Matt Wolf | 87mins | USA

Marion Stokes was secretly recording television twenty-four hours a day for thirty years. It started in 1979 with the Iranian Hostage Crisis at the dawn of the twenty-four hour news cycle. It ended on December 14, 2012 while the Sandy Hook massacre played on television as Marion passed away. In between, Marion recorded on 70,000 VHS tapes, capturing revolutions, lies, wars, triumphs, catastrophes, bloopers, talk shows, and commercials that tell us who we were, and show how television shaped the world of today.
Before “fake news” Marion was fighting to protect the truth by archiving everything that was said and shown on television. The public didn’t know it, but the networks were disposing their archives for decades into the trashcan of history. Remarkably Marion saved it, and now the Internet Archive will digitize her tapes and we’ll be able to search them online for free.

“Intriguing from first minute to last… Relating this stranger-than-fiction tale with the narrative twists and turns of a well-paced thriller, Recorder will make news junkies feel a lot better about themselves.” Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter.

The David Lean Cinema shares a proportion of the ticket price when purchased through the link on this page.
Distributor: Modern Films – no account required

RAISE HELL: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MOLLY IVINS

RAISE HELL: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MOLLY IVINS
2019 | Dir Janice Engel | 93mins | USA

This documentary tells the story of media firebrand Molly Ivins. Often compared to Mark Twain, Ivins was six feet of Texas trouble who, despite her Houston pedigree, took on Good Old Boy corruption wherever she found it. Best-selling author, Pulitzer Prize nominated journalist, popular TV pundit, Molly had a nation of “ fans” and “ frenemies.” She courageously spoke truth to power and it cost her more than once. But Molly always served up her quality reportage with a heaping dollop of humor. The gal was funny! Her razor-sharp wit left both sides of the aisle laughing and craving ink in her columns. At the height of her popularity 400 newspapers carried her column. She railed against “Big Bidness” in government, and often said, “Texas is the national laboratory for bad gub’ment.” Molly’s words have proved prescient. She knew the Bill of Rights was in peril and said “Polarizing people is a good way to win an election and
a good way to wreck a country.”

“Smart and entertaining, just like its subject.” Caryn James – The Hollywood Reporter

The David Lean Cinema shares a proportion of the ticket price when purchased through the link on this page.

LOVE CHILD

LOVE CHILD
2019 | Dir Eva Mulvad/Lea Glob | 111min | Denmark

Sahand has been in a relationship with Leila for many years, though both are married to other people. Four-year-old Mani is the offspring of their secret love affair. Without the option of divorce, and facing the threat of the death penalty for committing adultery, the couple have no choice but to flee Tehran as outlaws. They arrive to Istanbul in 2012 just as the Syrian Civil War is creating a mass wave of refugees into Turkey, and begin an extended period of bureaucratic limbo where their case is continually pushed further down the list. The family’s escape becomes part of a protracted struggle to stay together, and to secure a future for their child. English/Persian/Azerbaijani/Turkish with English subtitles

“Eva Mulvad’s film is remarkable for its intimate, extended access, its subtle political acuity and its personal window into a global crisis.” Variety

The David Lean Cinema shares a proportion of the ticket price when purchased through the link on this page.
Distributor: Modern Films – no account required

LUXOR

LUXOR
2020 | Dir ZEINA DURRA | 85 mins | Egypt | UK

Andrea Riseborough floats around the Egyptian city of Luxor in this contemplative drama from British writer-director Zeina Durra about a doctor with PTSD. Hana (Riseborough) has been working in a war trauma unit along the border between Jordan and Syria, and has returned to the city to re-centre herself; by her own bleak admission she’s “seen things nobody should’ve seen”. English/Arabic with English subtitles.

“deeply rewarding … reveals its purpose slowly, in fragments of growing significance” Sight & Sound

Watch at home now for £4.99 (the David Lean Cinema shares a proportion of the ticket price with the distributor when purchased through the link on this page.
Available to watch for 48 hours after purchase.
Distributor: Modern Films – no account required.
Film run ends on 31 March 2021.

LESSONS OF LOVE

LESSONS OF LOVE
2020 | Dir Małgorzata Goliszewska/Kasia Mateja | 73mins | Poland

For decades, Jola did what was expected of her. As a mother of six and the wife of an abusive husband, she would put on her make-up and colourful clothes to pretend everything was fine. One day something breaks inside her and she finds the strength to leave her husband and start living life to the fullest. She hangs out with her girlfriends, dances in Café Smile, writes poems and songs. She sings about love – something she’s always dreamt of, yet never experienced. Unexpectedly, she meets Wojtek, who treats her like a queen. Will she be able to open up and embrace love for the first time? Especially, when she finds out that she has less time than she thought? Polish with English subtitles.

Watch at home now for £7.49 (with discount code above). Stream available for 48 hours after play started.
Film run ends on 10 December 2020.

LOOTED

LOOTED
2019 | Dir Rene van Pannevis | 89mins | UK

Rob loves driving and stealing cars, living his life at a hundred miles an hour in the cash-starved port town he calls home. He shares a house with his dying father who thinks he’s out job hunting. Rob manages to keep his two worlds perfectly separated until best mate Leo gets him involved in a bigger, riskier job which goes terribly wrong. With his relationship with his distant father in shreds and betrayed by his best mate, unexpected hope comes from Leo’s girlfriend Kasia.

“The cinematography’s wide expanses of horizon and open sea avoid the grim-up-north cliches and combine poignantly with bedridden Oswald’s wanderlust-filled memories. It’s this kind of political and lyrical film-making that lingers long after Rob’s story has run out of road”. Ellen E Jones in The Guardian.

Watch at home now for £4.00. DLC receives a share of the ticket price. Stream available for 48 hours after play started.
Distributor: Bulldog Distribution – Vimeo account required