Katherine Parr, the sixth wife of King Henry VIII, is named regent while the tyrant battles abroad. When the king returns, increasingly ill and paranoid, Katherine finds herself fighting for her own survival.

One woman managed to live through and survive the tumultuous sovereignty of King Henry VIII: that woman was Catherine Parr (Alicia Vikander). Director Karim Aïnouz brings her story to life with conviction and style in this historical period drama based on the 2013 novel ‘Queen’s Gambit’ by Elizabeth Fremantle. Parr possessed a certain strength and dedication. She spent time perfecting her craft of writing and spreading her modern religious views while ruling as regent queen when her husband went off to handle military affairs. However, Catherine’s passion for tolerance leads her down a dangerous path when she begins to make frequent visits to Anne Askew (Erin Doherty), a protestant radical who calls for the end of Henry VIII’s rule. Such an act would be treason, and should she get caught, Henry would have no difficulty resorting to old measures. This is a survival tale as good as any, when her back was pushed against the wall, Parr had to pursue desperate measures. The two leads provide stellar memorable performances with Oscar-winner Vikander being quietly compelling in every scene, while Law revels in playing the decaying king.

UK/USA 2024 Karim Aïnouz 121m

This is the first full length feature documentary about Eric Ravilious, told in his own words through previously unseen private correspondence, made with the blessing of the Ravilious estate.

Sun 8 Sep 15:30

Thu 12 Sep 12:45

Lily Bloom moves to Boston to chase her lifelong dream of opening her own business. A chance meeting with charming neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid soon sparks an intense connection, but as the two fall deeply in love, she begins to see sides of Ryle that remind her of her parents' relationship.

‘It Ends with Us’, is adapted from the worldwide bestselling novel by Colleen Hoover. Lily Bloom (Blake Lively) overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life in Boston and a chance to chase a lifelong dream of opening her own business. Cracks then begin to appear in her new intensely exciting relationship with neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni) reminding her of her parents’ relationship. When Lily’s first love, Atlas Corrigan, re-enters her life, her relationship with Ryle is upended, and Lily realizes she must learn to rely on her own strength to make an impossible choice for her future.

USA 2024 Director Justin Baldoni 130m

Le Chêne

We discover the untold stories of the forest within the heart of an ancient oak tree following the many creatures inhabiting it in this spectacular wildlife documentary adventure.

From one ancient oak, a world of magic unfolds. ‘Heart of an Oak’ is a poetic, wordless documentary film that explores the inner life of a 210-year-old, 17-metre high oak tree in Sologne in north-central France.  As we explore the eco-system of this complex forest, we encounter wildlife families co-existing within their own society, experiencing problems with the neighbours, education, solidarity, self-protection and survival. This beautifully filmed nature documentary follows the tree and its inhabitants of insects, birds, mice and a red squirrel during a full calendar year. A feast for the senses, it premiered at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Documentary at the 48th César Awards.

France 2022 Directors Laurent Charbonnier & Michel Seydoux 80m

ROH

It’s Figaro’s wedding, and you’re invited to join the Almaviva household for an uproarious day of revelation and scandal.

Tue 10 Sep 18:30

Sun 15 Sep 13:00

NT Live

Jodie Comer's West End debut. 'Prima Facie' takes us to the heart of where emotion and experience collide with the rules of the game.

Thu 12 Sep 19:45

Sat 21 Sep 15:15

A fanciful, occasionally moving take on dying, grieving and highly symbolic parrots. 

A young girl named Tuesday, (Lola Petticrew), is reaching the end of her life after what seems to have been a long illness. Death comes to her in the shape of a giant shape-shifting, pot-smoking, colourful macaw whose hearing is perpetually attuned to the sound of pain and suffering, and who spreads his wings to mark the last breath of the dying. Tuesday’s mother Zora (Julia Louis Dreyfuss) takes on Death herself, going to extreme measures to keep her daughter alive. ‘Tuesday’ is a challenging watch at times, and it requires an acceptance of the strange world it inhabits, but it’s a deeply worthwhile experience made all the more poignant by the highly versatile and watchable Julia Louis-Dreyfuss.

UK/USA 2023 Daina O. Pusic 111m

Le Comte de Monte-Cristo

This new adaptation of the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas was the summer box office smash in France.

Set against the tumultuous post-Napoleonic era, the story follows Edmond Dantès (Pierre Niney), who is wrongly imprisoned and then escapes, crafting intricate revenge schemes against those who wronged him. This is a stunning and emotionally gratifying adventure film, built on rock-solid source material of course – with its timeless revenge theme still entertaining modern-day viewers. Compared to earlier adaptations, this latest version is briskly paced and rousingly acted by an all-around stellar ensemble. Everything about this robust and very enjoyable retelling of the classic is epic in scale: from the lavish sets and the orchestral score to the bold performances and the running time. We will include a short intermission.

France 2024 Alexandre de La Patellière & Matthieu Delaporte 178m

Night Courier

In the heart of Riyadh, where desperation and opportunity collide, this is the gripping tale of a mentally fragile man racing against time to save his ailing father.

‘Mandoob’ is a darkly comedic, gripping tale about the lives of Saudi Arabia’s gig workers, who toil in the shadows to make the fantastical lives of elites possible. Fahad’s (Mohammed Aldokhei) aspiring entrepreneur sister Sarah (Hajar Alshammari) and their ailing father Nasser (Mohammed Alttowayan) know that Fahad means well and genuinely wants what’s best for the family. But he is a restless call centre worker whose habitual lateness and apathy regarding irrational customers gets him fired. He becomes a delivery driver for an Uber-like service known as Mandoob (which loosely translates to “courier” in Arabic). This powerful and surprising film cleverly shows the realities of how hard it is to thrive as a gig worker in a system that’s designed to keep them nameless, faceless, perpetually busy and underpaid.

Saudi Arabia 2023 Ali Kalthami 110m

Wim Wenders’ iconic vision of American alienation, starring Stanton as a weatherbeaten drifter, has held its mystery for 40 years.

Paris, Texas follows the mysterious, nearly mute drifter Travis (a magnificent Harry Dean Stanton, whose face is a landscape all its own) as he tries to reconnect with his young son, living with his brother (Dean Stockwell) in Los Angeles, and his missing wife (Nastassja Kinski). From this simple setup, Wenders and writer Shepard produce a powerful statement on codes of masculinity and the myth of the American family, as well as an exquisite visual exploration of a vast, crumbling world of canyons and neon. Paris, Texas is a landmark work in every sense: understated, powerful, sublime – worth seeing for Stanton’s performance alone.

West Germany / France / UK 1982 Wim Wenders 145m

A Wilderness of Mirrors

The Novels of John Le Carré on Screen

As a stage version of his most famous novel ‘The Spy Who Came in From the Cold’ comes to Chichester Festival Theatre, this talk will cover 60 years of film and TV adaptations of the novels by the former MI5 and MI6 agent.

Sat 14 Sep 10:30

This gently absorbing documentary follows Amber, a happiness agent, as he travels the Bhutanese Himalayas surveying people's wellbeing for the government’s Happiness Survey.

How can you measure happiness? The country of Bhutan invented Gross National Happiness to do just that; the concept was first introduced by the 4th King of Bhutan, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, in the late 1970s as a wellbeing measurement, when he stated that Gross National Happiness was more important than Gross Domestic Product. Amber travels door- to-door to meet people and measure how happy they are. At the age of 40, he is a a hopeless romantic who still dreams of finding love: a happiness agent in search of his own happiness. This slow burning documentary is suffused with warmth and combines breathtaking scenery with gentle humour whilst not avoiding the darker themes which also emerge, such as alcoholism and loneliness. As we accompany Amber on his cross-country road trip, meeting citizens from all walks of life, we are reminded of the fragility and beauty of our own happiness.  (Subtitles)

Bhutan/Hungary 2024 Director Arun Bhattarai & Dorottya Zurbó 94m

Instead of coming in from the Cold War, British agent Alec Leamas chooses to face another mission. Screening in conjunction with our ‘John le Carré on Screen’ Talk and complementing the Chichester Festival Theatre production.

At the height of the Cold War, British spy Alec Leamas (Richard Burton) is nearly ready to retire, but first he has to take on one last dangerous assignment. Going deep undercover, he poses as a drunken, disgraced former MI5 agent in East Germany in order to gain information about colleagues who have been captured. When he himself is thrown in jail and interrogated, Leamas finds himself caught in a sinister labyrinth of plots and counter-plots unlike anything in his long career. This is the definitive anti-Bond spy movie and the best big-screen adaptation of John le Carré.

UK 1965 Martin Ritt 112m

Filmed in West Sussex, this local film focuses on an old man who works all alone to maintain his ancestral farmland, as his children prove to be at once both remote and controlling.

David (Rory Kinnear) and Laura (Emily Beecham) are in their early forties and tearaway underachievers who grew up on a still-lucrative family farm run by their father (Roger Marten). With David’s alcohol and drug addictions plaguing the majority of his adult life and Laura working on farms in sunnier climes like California and Spain, their eyes are drawn homeward as their father enjoys his final years of work, as they each proffer their case to inherit the land. This feature debut shows impressive audio-driven film storytelling, reaching something unique in its tale of an intransigent English farmer. The unique way this story is told is nothing less than inspired – we only ever see one of the characters, the farmer, although we never see him speak. Instead, the camera follows him as he goes about his business on the farm. We do however hear a series of answering machine messages from the children, because their father tends to have his phone turned off when he’s out in the fields. Filmed close to Pulborough, West Sussex.

UK 2023 Nicholas Parish 93m

The inspiring story of British farmers standing up against the industrial food system and transforming the way they produce food - to heal the soil, benefit our health and provide for local communities.

“Despite all our accomplishments, we owe our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact it rains.” Paul Harvey (1978) U.S. radio broadcaster. This documentary tells the story of remarkable farmers, communities, small businesses, chefs and entrepreneurs who are leading the way to transform how our food is produced and consumed. Agroecology is an approach to farming that includes ‘regenerative’ farming techniques that work in harmony with, rather than against nature. It focuses on local food systems and shorter supply chains. ‘Six Inches of Soil’ tells the inspiring story of young British farmers standing up against the industrial food system and transforming the way they produce food - to heal the soil, our health and provide for local communities.

UK 2024 Colin Ramsay 96m

The story of photographer Elizabeth 'Lee' Miller, a fashion model who became an acclaimed war correspondent for Vogue magazine during World War II.

The film portrays a pivotal decade in the life of American war correspondent and photographer, Lee Miller (Kate Winslet). Miller's singular talent and unbridled tenacity resulted in some of the 20th century's most indelible images of war, including an iconic photo of Miller herself, posing defiantly in Hitler's private bathtub. Miller had a profound understanding and empathy for women and the voiceless victims of war. Her images display both the fragility and ferocity of the human experience. Alexander Skarsgård portrays her husband Roland Penrose, while Andy Samberg takes a dramatic turn as her partner in the field (and sometimes in the bedroom), David E. Scherman, a war correspondent for Life. Winslet shines in this biopic with a superbly powerful performance. She remains one of our most treasured actors and she brings a fierceness to this role.

USA 2023 Ellen Kuras 116m

Le Procès Goldman

Chronicles the trial of Pierre Goldman, a French left-wing revolutionary who was convicted of several robberies and later mysteriously murdered.

November 1975, and a second trial begins of French leftist radical Pierre Goldman (Arieh Worthalter), who was subject to police prejudice and antisemitism, and accused of several armed robberies and the death of two chemists. As the trial proceeds, it becomes fairly evident, at least to the viewer, that the man is innocent. The question is therefore whether the French state will return a ‘not guilty’ verdict. The trial caused a media frenzy, and was attended by philosopher Régis Debray and actress Simone Signoret, elevating Goldman to cause célèbre status in the wake of May 1968 with the government, especially the criminal justice system, pitted against the left. Alongside the recent ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ and ‘Saint Omer’, this continues a recent trend for quality French indie courtroom dramas. (Subtitles)

France 2023 Cédric Kahn 115m

Let’s Spend the Night Together

The Sexual Revolution of the 60s on Screen

With the new play ’Redlands’, an account of the trial of the Rolling Stones in Chichester in 1967, at the Festival Theatre, this is the first of two talks this season looking at the wider context of the trial on the big screen

Sat 21 Sep 10:30

25th Anniversary Performance

The epic love story tells the tragic tale of young bar girl Kim, orphaned by war, who falls in love with American GI Chris – but their lives are torn apart by the fall of Saigon.

Sun 22 Sep 14:45

Moin Hussain’s arresting debut feature about an alienated night-shift worker turns the humble service station into a nightmarish modern limbo

Adam a shy and quiet protagonist working the night shift at Sky Peals Services, a motorway service station and lives a small and lonely life. Upon hearing that his estranged father has died, he finds himself in search of answers. When Adam learns that his late father believed that he was an alien, he becomes more sensitive to his own surroundings and starts to become more observant – reviewing footage of his father from before he died, experiencing blackouts, hearing noises. This isn’t your typical thriller. Adam isn’t looking for some sort of killer. The film is more interested in asking questions than giving answers. All these events are effectively conveyed with against a backdrop of imaginative production design with its use of wide, empty, dark spaces – likely an allusion to the main character’s state.

Part of Venice’s International Critics’ Week selection, ‘Sky Peals’ probes the existential questions of life in this haunting and impressive feature-length debut.

UK 2023 Moin Hussain 91m

Amu Darya: River to a Missing Sea

Through oral histories and tales of loss, adaptation and hope, this short film presents a memory of the Amu Darya – the Central Asian river that no longer reaches its destination. It tells how local communities are dealing with the river’s desiccation and how the USSR turned the world’s fourth largest lake – the Aral Sea – into its youngest desert. The human story of an environmental disaster.

With poem translated by Chichester poet Andrew Staniland after he visited the region and got to know the young filmmakers from the Amu Darya Project.

UK 2024 James Chapman, Annie Liddell & Oscar Fraser Turner 28m

Our Sea Forest

Narrated by Chris Packham, this moving documentary tells of the remarkable regeneration of the vast underwater kelp forest off our Sussex shores. Told through the eyes of 74-year-old Eric Smith, a free-diver of the forest since he was a child, it charts the destruction of this once-thriving ecosystem by trawling to its miraculous recovery in recent years. Teeming with sea life and hope. Filmed at Shoreham, Goring and Bognor Regis. Thanks to BBC1 and Big Wave Productions Ltd.

Introduced by Sarah Cunliffe, director of Sussex-based Big Wave Productions which made the documentary aired on the BBC.

UK 2023 Sarah Cunliffe 30m

We are proud to screen Orson Welles’s classic as a tribute to his co-star, Keith Baxter, who died a year ago today at the age of 90, who lived very close to Chichester for most of his life.

This irresistible cocktail of ingredients taken mainly from Shakespeare’s two Henry IV plays and Henry V brings into sharp focus the complex and ill-fated relationship between the young Prince Hal (Baxter) and his mentor in roistering, Sir John Falstaff.  Welles’s vision was realised first in a stage play, which flopped in Dublin in 1960 and failed to transfer to London; but five years later he had translated it triumphantly into a film which he intended as ‘a lament . . . for the death of Merrie England’.  Baxter played Hal in both productions.  In an engaging volume of memoirs, ‘My Sentiments Exactly’, he wrote vividly about working with a titan of the cinema and of ‘the sheer bravura of his genius’ – as evident in ‘Chimes at Midnight’ as it was in ‘Citizen Kane’.  The role changed Baxter’s life.  

Spain/Switzerland/US 1965 Orson Welles 115m + Intro

One Hand Clapping

Filmed and recorded over four days, the cinema release of ‘One Hand Clapping’ will include a brand-new introduction by Paul McCartney captured exclusively for this release and feature never-before-seen footage.

Thu 26 Sep 19:00

Sun 29 Sep 16:00

A story of ambition, blackmail and desire with a dazzling anti-hero at its dark heart, all brought together by a delicious performance by Ian McKellen as a catty theatre critic in 1930s London.

Jimmy Erskine (McKellen) is the most feared and famous theatre critic in 1930s London, saving his most savage takedowns for Nina Land (Gemma Arterton), an already unsure leading lady. He takes pleasure in ritually tearing her down, a practice that has further eroded her fragile sense of confidence. As a gay man forever at the mercy of laws that prohibit his very existence, Jimmy is living life on the edge, indulging in park sex with strangers while showboating his flamboyance in writing. But when his newspaper’s proprietor dies and his son (Mark Strong) takes over, Jimmy may need to turn to Nina for help. As the three become entangled in a whodunnit wrapped in a Faustian pact, their strange triangle winds tighter and tighter to devastating effect for all those caught in the deadly web of blackmail and betrayal. McKellen makes Jimmy simultaneously despicable, understandable and wholly entertaining, whilst Arterton is also a stand-out, as she skilfully navigates how a stage actress tries to overcome personal demons and self-doubt. Supporting cast also includes Romola Garai, Claire Skinner and the always impressive Lesley Manville. This is a whodunnit wrapped in a Faustian pact which winds tighter and tighter.

UK/USA 2023 Anand Tucker 95m

In a Mexican border town plagued by neglect, corruption, and violence, a frustrated teacher tries a radical new method to break through his students' apathy and unlock their curiosity, their potential... and maybe even their genius.

Fresh off 'Coda,' Eugenio Derbez plays another idealistic educator attempting to unlock overlooked students' potential, this time at a dysfunctional Mexican elementary school across the U.S. border in Matamoros, Mexico. Sixth grade students at Jose Urbina Lopez Elementary are among the worst performing students in Mexico, existing in a world full of violence and hardship, poverty and neglect rather than one filled with hope and possibility. ‘Radical’ is based on the true story of an inspirational middle school teacher using unconventional means to reach his pupils. The ensemble cast of child actors are exceptional and the director lets us see this world from both the teacher’s and students’ point of view. This is a resolute crowd-pleaser and tear-jerker but it is saved from schmaltzdom by virtue of its true origins in one of the most challenging schools in Mexico. (Subtitles)

Mexico 2023 Christopher Zalla 125m

Werckmeister Harmóniák

A naive young man witnesses an escalation of violence in his small hometown following the arrival of a mysterious circus attraction.

Based upon the 1989 novel ‘The Melancholy of Resistance’ by László Krasznahorkai and shot in luminous black-and-white, ‘Werckmeister Harmonies’ portrays the life of János and his uncle György during the communist era in Hungary. It also recounts their journey among helpless citizens as a sinister visiting circus arrives, built around a huge stuffed smelly whale and its star performer, "The Prince” which casts a shadow over everyone's lives.  With the ethereal cinematography of Gabor Medvigy, and the soothing but discordant score by Mihaly Vig, the film explores themes of order and chaos, and it is difficult to view the film without visions of Eastern Europe under Soviet control. Werckmeister Harmonies opened to wide acclaim from critics when it was first released, and it has come to be regarded by many as one of the best films of the 21st century. (Subtitles)

Hungary 2000 Bela Tarr, Agnew Hranitzy 145m

Disappearing World

Environmentalism on the Big Screen

To accompany our season of films ‘A Greener Screen’, this talk will explore the ways in which environmental issues have been portrayed in cinema.

Sat 28 Sep 10:30

To complement our ‘Sexual Revolution of the 60s on Screen’ talk, we present this British classic, where beautiful but amoral model Diana Scott sleeps her way to the top of the London fashion scene at the height of the Swinging Sixties.

Gorgeous but easily bored Diana Scott (Julie Christie) becomes a popular model and actress in London in the 1960s while toying with the affections of two older men, married television newsman Robert Gold (Dirk Bogarde) and public relations mastermind Miles Brand (Laurence Harvey). Although Diana is the toast of swinging London, the dark side of fame and fortune begins to take its toll, but it proves harder to escape the mod scene than she expects. Schlesinger created a film that set tongues to wagging and moralists to wringing their hands. Christie's Oscar-winning performance is remarkably vibrant and outgoing, and hasn't aged a bit.

UK 1965 John Schlesinger 128m

I could never go vegan. Five words uttered around the world by many a non-vegan, but why? On a quest for the truth, a filmmaker sets out on a journey to find out the leading arguments facing the vegan movement, and if they're justified.

Thomas Pickering blends approachable narration with well-presented information in a welcome reminder of the Michael Moore method. Pickering is a vegan who was brought up by vegans and sets out to answer the anti-vegan remarks he hears from his friends all the time; they could never go vegan because meat is too delicious, or because climate change isn’t real, or because plant-based diets don’t deliver the protein. Clear ideas, sympathetic interviews, approachable narration and presentation, strong graphics – and all of it leading to a website on the final credits where you can go to get involved and find out more.

UK 2024 Thomas Pickering 97m

With complimentary vegan snacks and wine.

How the Taliban transformed itself from an extremist militia into a mighty military regime in the wake of US troops’ withdrawal from Afghanistan is the subject of this powerful new documentary.

Picking over an estimated $7bn worth of military equipment left at the former Hollywood Gate CIA base in Kabul, we meet Mawlawi Mansour, aTaliban commander overseeing the equipment’s repair and repainting the fighter jets and Black Hawk helicopters.  Filmmaker Ibrahim Nash’at, born in Egypt and based in Berlin, spent 12 months trailing Mansour and his crew, loitering in the background and shooting from the sidelines. While restricted access prohibited any in-depth interviews, this fascinating, fly-on-the-wall documentary nevertheless teases back the curtain to reveal soldiers pining for the caves where they once hid, and mourning the glorious death that has been snatched from their grasp.

Germany/USA 2023 Director Ibrahim Nash’at 92m

A cantor in a crisis of faith finds his world turned upside down when his grade school music teacher re-enters his life as his new adult Bat Mitzvah student.

Between The Temples is graced with two endearing performances from Jason Schwartzman (Ben) as the Jewish cantor suffering a crisis of faith, and Carol Kane (Carla) as the ageing Bat Mitzvah student who gives him a new lease of life. Ben has arrived at a joyless stage of his life with his wife having died a year earlier. He is living back in the upstate New York home of his two mothers when his old elementary school music teacher re-enters his life, wanting to have the Bat Mitzvah she was denied as a 13-year-old. Ben comes to recognise in Carla something of a kindred lost soul and, as they study together, they develop a warm friendship that begins to see them both open up. elevated by the chemistry between Carol Kane and Jason Schwartzman.

USA 2024 Nathan Silver 112m

Beetlejuice is back! After a family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River.

Still haunted by Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), Lydia's (Winona Ryder) life is turned upside down when her rebellious teenage daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega), discovers the mysterious model of the town in the attic and the portal to the Afterlife is accidentally opened. With trouble brewing in both realms, it's only a matter of time until someone says Beetlejuice's name three times and the mischievous demon returns to unleash his very own brand of mayhem.

USA 2024 Tim Burton 104m

Keyke Mahboobe Man

A septuagenarian, solitary for many years, chooses to revive her love life. A chance encounter becomes an unforgettable evening. A lovely film that keeps up Iran’s reputation as a powerhouse of quality storytelling.

70-year-old Mahin (Lili Farhadpour) has lived alone in Tehran since her husband’s death and her daughter’s departure for Europe, until an afternoon tea with friends leads her to break her solitary routine and revitalise her love life. What begins as an unexpected encounter quickly evolves into an unpredictable, unforgettable evening. She meets Faramarz (Esmaeel Mehrabi), a modest, personable single man of her age, who himself is of Mahin’s independent frame of mind: he got into trouble with joyless authorities for playing a musical instrument in a wedding band. The Iranian government prevented the film’s two directors from travelling to Berlin to attend their own premiere, most probably because of a scene in which police drive self-importantly around Tehran, intimidating women who are allegedly not wearing their hijabs with enough modesty. Our 70-year-old heroine – who wistfully remembers a time when hijabs were not required at all – stands up to these uniformed bullies and rescues a woman from their clutches. Unmissable cinema.

Iran 2024 Maryam Moghadam & Behtash Sanaeeha 97m

Met Opera

Jacques Offenbach’s fantastical opera ‘Tales of Hoffman’ kicks off the Metropolitan Opera’s season. It will make an interesting comparison with the Royal Opera's version showing in January 2025.

Sun 6 Oct 13:00

When a skeleton is discovered in the desert, a lawman and son of a legendary local sheriff, begins an investigation that will have profound implications both for him personally and for all of Rio County

When Sam Deeds (Chris Cooper) uncovers a skeleton in a small south-western Texas border town, it is thought to be that of Charlie Wade (Kris Kristofferson), the infamously corrupt, cruel and racist sheriff who was driven from the town by Deeds’ father Buddy (Matthew McConnaughey). A keen observer of America’s social fabric, writer/director John Sayles uncovers the haunted past buried beneath this border town with an Oscar-nominated screenplay. This masterful 90s classic western features a brilliant ensemble cast, transitions seamlessly from past to present and has been given a 4k digital remastering, making it a must-see on the big screen.

USA 1996 John Sayles 125m

Faced with both her hot-tempered father's fading health and melting ice-caps that flood her ramshackle bayou community and unleash ancient aurochs, six-year-old Hushpuppy must learn the ways of courage and love.

Six-year-old Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis) lives with her father, Wink (Dwight Henry), in a remote Delta community. Wink is a stern taskmaster, but he is preparing his young daughter for the end of the world. When Wink falls mysteriously ill, nature seems to fall ill with him. Temperatures rise, the ice caps melt and fearsome prehistoric beasts called aurochs run loose. Rising waters threaten to engulf their community, sending Hushpuppy in search of her long-lost mother. This is a fantastical and emotionally powerful journey with a strong environmental focus. Filmmaking that values imagination over money.

USA 2012 Benh Zeitlin 93m

Followed by short talk + Q&A in the studio by chalk stream expert Sarah Hughes of the Western Sussex Rivers Trust.