Films Archives - Page 7 of 14 - The David Lean Cinema

A COACHS DAUGHTER

N/C 15+ A COACH’S DAUGHTER
2018 | Dir Lukasz Grzegorzek | 95mins | Poland

During a hot summer, Maciej Kornet and his beloved daughter Wiktoria set out on another journey across Poland. They are up for a long series of tennis tournaments. The two are inseparable; they have been training together for twelve years. Wiktoria meticulously follows her dad’s routine: a strict diet, exhausting workouts, 100% focus. She is growing tired of this and longs for some freedom. She thinks of quitting sports but is afraid to hurt her father’s feelings. This summer, Maciej’s new trainee Igor joins them on their way. Wiktoria will find the secretive boy much more interesting than tennis, and Maciej will have to watch his own dreams and his daughter’s plans go separate ways. Polish with English subtitles.

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 (using promo code DLYS). Stream available for 48 hours after play started.
Distributor: YourScreen – create account or login.
Film run ends on 18 April 2021.

“Suprisingly refreshing indie movie from Poland. Well played by all actors. It’s great that this movie is, at the same time, light and fresh and shows characters’ emotions very well and open (and doesn’t shove them down the throat).” – Daniel Figzat, Letterboxd

THE DRIFTERS

N/C 15+ THE DRIFTERS
2019 | Dir Ben Bond | 91mins | GB

Fanny (Lucie Bourdeu), a Parisienne waitress, and Koffee (Jonathan Ajayi), an African immigrant, meet at a London English class. Both are running from something – she from a dead-end existence, he from something far more life-threatening. Fleeing London after Koffee has botched a job for his boss, they fetch up in Teignmouth, where a brief respite allows them to get to know each other, enjoy life and ponder where they want to get to, before reality catches up. Breezily shot in vibrant colours and in a style joyfully recalling the French Nouvelle Vague, this entertaining film makes Teignmouth look like the French Riviera and is imbued with a free-wheeling ambience that is the perfect antidote for the pandemic blues.

Film run ends on 23 May 2021.

“This is highly articulate film making that takes time to build characters without breakneck visuals and rushed dialogue; an absolute treat.
– Brian Penn, UK Film Review

MOUTHPIECE

MOUTHPIECE
2018 | Dir Patricia Rozema | 91mins | Canada

A powerful, funny and highly original look into the conflicted psyche of Cassandra Haywood – a fiercely independent millennial woman. Cass is a single writer who lives by her own rules. She’s also a bit of a disaster.
Following the sudden death of her mother, Elaine (Maev Beaty) she finds herself in crisis, unable to think straight with a debate raging inside her head. This movie makes that invisible conflict visible: Cassandra (Amy Nostbakken & Norah Sadava) battles it out while figuring out what to say at her mother’s funeral.
What unfolds is a wild careening through grief, anger, sex and self-sabotage in an exploration of the messy lives of women from both generations. Raucous jokes, musical numbers and heart breaking memories add up to a deeply moving and political portrait of a mother and a daughter as seen through the eyes of one conflicted young woman.

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: Bulldog Film Distribution – no account required.

‘Blackly comic and terribly poignant’ – Sight and Sound

THE HUMORIST

N/C 15+ THE HUMORIST
2019 | Dir Michael Idov | 102mins | Russia Latvia Czechoslovakia

In the midst of the collapsing USSR, the favorite stand-up comedian of the regime begins challenging censorship.
In 1984 Soviet Union, Boris, a Russian-Jewish stand-up comedian, is tormented not only by external oppression and censorship but also by his own insecurities. Fame, combined with lack of personal freedom, is driving him crazy. Once the leaders who dictate what he can and can’t joke about summon him to their villa, the comedian snaps. Armed with the exotic American notion of insult humor, he takes his revenge. Russian with English subtitles.

KILLING ESCOBAR

N/C 12+ KILLING ESCOBAR
2021 | Dir David Whitney | 88mins | GB

In 1989, Scottish mercenary and ex-SAS operative, Peter McAleese, was hired by a Colombian drug cartel to lead a small team of ex-special forces commandos on a mission to assassinate the world’s biggest drug baron, Pablo Escobar.

With heartstopping drama reconstruction, access to never-before-seen footage of the mission and first person accounts from both the mercenaries and the cartel, Killing Escobar is a documentary thriller that reveals how one man’s violent upbringing in Glasgow, training in the SAS and experience as a mercenary in Africa led him to the jungles of Colombia and the heart of the Medellín cocaine empire.

At 78 years old and returning to the Catholic faith of his youth, McAleese reflects on one of the most ambitious and perilous assignments of his career; the one that pushed him closer to death than any other, a mission to kill the most feared man in the world, Pablo Escobar.

In 1989 a team of British mercenaries, led by Scotsman Peter McAleese, travelled to the criminal empire of the world’s most dangerous man in order to assassinate him. Steven Brocklehurst, BBC Scotland News

KILLING ESCOBAR EMBED

AMBER AND ME

AMBER AND ME
2020 | Dir Ian Davies | 59mins | UK

Amber has Down’s Syndrome and is about to start primary school with her twin sister, Olivia. Although at first her experience is positive, she starts to struggle and asks to stay at home. Olivia tries to help her sister with her school work, in the knowledge that if the situation doesn’t improve, Amber may have to go to a different school.
The film follows the challenges for both girls through 4 years of primary school and charts the changes in their relationship, uniquely from their own perspectives.
Amber and Me is directed by their father Ian Davies. Ian has worked on several documentaries and fiction features before as a producer / consultant. This is his first film as a director. Listen to the family being interviewed on the BBC R4 Today programme here.

The David Lean Cinema shares a proportion of the ticket price with the distributor when purchased via the link on this page. Following purchase you will receive an email with a viewing link. This will include the option of viewing a recorded Q&A session following the film.
Distributor: Amber Content – no account required.

“…one of the most touching portrayals of childhood you’re ever likely to see.” Isobel James, The Mail on Sunday.
“A beautiful, tender portrait of childhood.” Rachel Wexler, Producer of Emmy award-winning film The English Surgeon.
Mark Kermode reviews the film on 5Live’s Film Review Programme (with Simon Mayo) here.

The original release of Amber and Me was to be theatrically released in March 2020 but had to be pulled because of the pandemic. It is now released to virtual cinemas on World Down’s Syndrome Day on 21 March 2021. More information on this film and an interview with the film maker can be seen at the Down’s Syndrome Association website.

EYE OF THE STORM

EYE OF THE STORM
2021 | Dir Anthony Baxter | 78mins | GB

James Morrison is widely recognised as one of Britain’s finest landscape artists. His work hangs in the homes of JK Rowling and the Royal Family, as well as in museums, and private collections around the world. As the documentary opens, Morrison faces his greatest challenge: his eyesight is fading fast, and he has one more major painting to complete. From his studio just outside Montrose, Morrison can hear the crashing North Sea. On the wall is a drawing of Mickey Mouse he completed when he was 8 years old, at the outset of World War II.
“My sight has quite badly deteriorated,” Morrison admits. “And the very thought of coming in here and not being able to pick up a brush and do something with it really terrifies me. It really appalls me.” Nevertheless he has agreed to let filmmaker Anthony Baxter follow him as he picks up the brushes again at the age of 85 after being sidelined by a series of operations. And while doing so he reflects on an extraordinary artistic life.

James Morrison’s work was full of awe for the natural world, and this documentary does his landscape painting full justice – Andrew Pulver in The Guardian.

POLY STYRENE: I AM A CLICHE

POLY STYRENE: I AM A CLICHÉ
2021 | Dir Celeste Bell, Paul Sng | 89mins | GB

Poly Styrene was the first woman of colour in the UK to front a successful rock band.
She introduced the world to a new sound of rebellion, using her unconventional voice to sing about identity, consumerism, postmodernism, and everything she saw unfolding in late 1970s Britain, with a rare prescience. As the frontwoman of X-Ray Spex, the Anglo-Somali punk musician was also a key inspiration for the riot grrrl and Afropunk movements. But the late punk maverick didn’t just leave behind an immense cultural footprint.
Celeste Bell, Poly’s daughter, became the unwitting guardian of her mother’s legacy and her mother’s demons. Misogyny, racism, and mental illness plagued Poly’s life, while their lasting trauma scarred Celeste’s childhood and the pair’s relationship.
Featuring unseen archive material and rare diary entries narrated by Oscar-nominee Ruth Negga, this documentary follows Celeste as she examines her mother’s unopened artistic archive and traverses three continents to better understand Poly the icon and Poly the mother.

CAT IN THE WALL

N/C 15+ CAT IN THE WALL
2019 | Dir Mina Mileva / Vesela Kazakova | 92mins | Bulgaria

CAT IN THE WALL tells the true story of how a cat, who chooses the comfy confines of a hole in a wall, changes the lives of aspirational migrants, benefit fraudsters and gentrified Brexiteers.
Life on a council estate in Brexit London – gentrification plans bring an astronomic bill for homeowners and aggravate the community. In the eye of the storm Irina, a Bulgarian single mother, tries to breakthrough as an architect and refuses to live on benefits like most of her neighbours.
She galvanizes the homeowners to appeal against the bill with the Council but the English assure her that any attempt to fight the system is doomed. Irina’s family and people living on benefits clash over the ownership of a cat. А different side of British society is revealed to her and she realises she is trapped in the walls of her property and metaphorically in her mind. She takes a drastic decision to change her life.
English and Bulgarian with English subtitles. See instructions below to activate subtitles.
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 promo code DLYS).
Stream available for 48 hours after play started.
Distributor: YourScreen – create account or login.
An explanation of why you may need more than one account for streaming is here.
Film run ends on 31 March 2021.

“This is a terrific comedy-drama… there’s a fresh, naturalistic element to all the performances which makes it feel as though the film was improvised with non-actors, although in fact neither is the case. ” – Wendy Ide, Screen Daily.

To activate subtitles please click on the ‘CC’ button, bottom right of the playback window, and select ‘English’.