At 11 am
HEARTS AND BONES (Australia)
(111 min; 2019; English)
Director: Ben Lawrence
Multiple award winner including the awards for Best Narrative Feature & Best Actor, Fargo Film Festival 2020; ADG Award for Best Direction in a Feature Film, Australian Directors Guild Awards 2020; Awgie Award for Feature Film – Original, Australian Writers’ Guild 2020; among others
Daniel Fisher (Hugo Weaving) is an acclaimed war photographer. His work means he leaves his long-term partner, Josie Avril (Haley McElhinney), a ballet teacher, for long stretches. In the past she had been pregnant but lost that baby. When Daniel returns from his latest assignment, Josie drops the news that she is with child again, although he’s less than enamoured with the idea. Daniel is preparing for an upcoming exhibition of his work when he’s approached by Sebastian Aman (Andrew Luri), a South Sudanese refugee. Sebastian wants Fisher to photograph members of a community choir – all survivors of war. Daniel isn’t interested, but then matters take a turn. As Fisher gets to know Sebastian and his pregnant wife, Anishka Ahmed (Bolude Watson), he can see how drawn Sebastian is to owning a patch of land he can call his own. But he’s also hiding a dark secret.
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At 1:30 pm
HAPPY AS LAZZARO (Lazzaro felice/Italy)
(128 min; 2018; Italian with English subtitles)
Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Multiple award winning film including Best Screenplay Award, Cannes Film Festival 2018; Spirit for Freedom Award for Best Feature, Jerusalem Film Festival 2018; Gold Hugo Award for Best Feature, Chicago International Film Festival, 2018; Winner ICS Cannes Award for Best Director, International Cinephile Society Cannes Award 2018; among others
The story of Lazzaro, a peasant still shy of 20 and so good he appears stupid, and Tancredi, a young man of the same age but spoilt by his own imagination, is the story of a friendship. It’s a friendship that begins genuinely amid a flurry of secret schemes and lies. Full of light and youthful enthusiasm, it’s the first friendship Lazzaro has ever had. And it subsequently survives the passing of time and the disruptive consequences of a Big Swindle to bring the one, Lazzaro, to a huge, empty city in search of the other, Tancredi.
At 4 pm
THE CATHEDRAL (USA)
(88 min; 2021; English)
Director: Ricky D’Ambrose
Recipient of the HFPA Special Prize, Venice Film Festival 2021; and John Cassavetes Award, Film Independent Spirit Award 2023
An only child's meditative, impressionistic account of an American family's rise and fall over two decades.
An unseen narrator unfolds the constellation of familial relationships of Jesse Damrosh, born in 1987, chronicling the dissolution of his parents’ marriage and the feuds, money concerns, and deaths that define a typical middle-class American existence. Yet in this impressionistic account of one life, what penetrates the most are not events but incidents. The beautiful yet quotidian moments of the shoulder-padded jacket of an aunt, the certain print of a rug, an ad for Kodak film, or the light in a room one afternoon from years before.
At 6.30 pm
FOOTPRINTS ON WATER (UK)
(108 min; 2023; English)
Director: Nathalia Syam
Recipient of the Best Actor Award & Best Director Award, UK Asian Film Festival 2023; Best Debut Film & Best Actor Award, Indo-German Film Week 2023; and Special Jury Award for Best Debut Film & Best Actor Award, Ottawa Indian Film Festival 2023
The director, Nathalia Syam and the lead actor, Adil Hussain will be present to introduce the film and lead a discussion after
Away from the glitz and glam of Birmingham resides an illegal immigrant community who are always in hiding, leaving no proof of their existence, not even their footprints.
Raghu, an illegal immigrant in Birmingham - UK, believes that he has finally struck gold as his daughter, Meera, is all set to marry a wealthy groom, a legal resident in the UK.
Raghu was a small-scale business owner in India who fled to the UK with his wife and daughter after being mired in a financial scam. The life that awaited them in the UK was far from perfect – they were dumped into shared accommodation, they did not have legit visas, and they were all expected to work for a meagre wage. Raghu regrets this move, but he is left with no choice but to stay on in the UK, make enough money to pay off his debts, and return home with dignity.
