This screening will be introduced by season co-curator Millie Zhou.

Inititated by the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, twenty outstanding Taiwanese directors were each asked to create one five-minute short film inspired by the same topic: the uniqueness of Taiwan.

The resulting stories and documentaries, which did not have to adhere to any kind of dictates, either formally or in terms of content, provide an astonishingly multifaceted panorama of Taiwanese society. The filmmakers’ personal perspectives span a wide-ranging network of images, between historical events and political vigilance, rebellion and devotion, magical realism and unflinching illusion. The diverse cinematic approaches used by these cineastes open a window onto their own imagination - whether they choose to employ an epistolary form, or a monologue, to include elements of a thriller, silent cinema, theatre of the absurd or dark comedy, or simply to observe carefully with a camera.

Some doors bring you to your past. Some doors lead you to your future. And some doors change everything. Sarah (Margot Robbie) and David (Colin Farrell) are single strangers who meet at a mutual friend's wedding and soon, through a surprising twist of fate, find themselves on A Big Bold Beautiful Journey - a funny, fantastical, sweeping adventure together where they get to re-live important moments from their respective pasts, illuminating how they got to where they are in the present... and possibly getting a chance to alter their futures.

Both screenings of this new restoration of A City of Sadness will feature pre-recorded introductions from Tony Rayns.

Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, A City of Sadness announced Hou’s arrival as a world-class filmmaker and foremost recorder of his nation’s troubled past. This intimate epic chronicles the tragedies that befall the three Lin brothers - a gangster, a translator for the Japanese administration, and a photographer - and those around them during a chaotic period in Taiwan’s national history, between the end of Japanese Imperial rule (1945) and the secession from Mainland China and creation of martial law (1949-1987). The film was groundbreaking in its depiction of the February 28 Incident of 1947, when thousands of native Taiwanese were killed in protests against the Nationalist government.

Each screening of A Confucian Confusion will be preceded by a video introduction from Tony Rayns.

Edward Yang’s first cinematic foray into comedy may have been a surprising stylistic departure, but in its richly novelistic vision of urban discontent, it is quintessential Yang. This relationship roundelay centers on a coterie of young Taipei professionals whose paths converge at an entertainment company where the boundaries between art and commerce, and love and business, have become hopelessly blurred. Evoking the chaos of a city infiltrated by Western chains, logos, and attitudes, A Confucian Confusion is an incisive reflection on the role of traditional values in a materialistic, amoral society.

"Identidad is a deeply personal and urgent exploration of Argentina’s dark past - a past that continues to shape the lives of those searching for the truth. At its core, this film is about memory, justice, and the resilience of identity."

Stolen at birth during Argentina’s dictatorship, a 46-year-old man finally finds his biological family. The doubts Daniel Santucho Navajas had about his identity were finally exposed when the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, who store the genetic information of victims of the military dictatorship in Argentina, found a DNA match for him in July 2023. Reconnecting with his biological family, Daniel uncovers the truth of what happened to him. He learns he was born in a detention centre and covertly adopted while his mother remains one of the thousands of disappeared people. Through his search for the truth, he discovers a widespread programme of illegal adoption and crimes committed during the military dictatorship from 1976-1983.

"Identity" is a documentary film by Daniel's sister Florencia Santucho and Rodrigo Vazquez-Salessi. This film is Florencia Santucho's directorial debut, while Rodrigo Vázquez-Salessi is an award-winning filmmaker and war correspondent who honed his craft in Argentina before moving to the UK in 1995 to study at the National Film & TV School.

This UK premiere of the film is presented in partnership with Alborada Films and will be followed by a Q&A with co-director Rodrigo Vazquez-Salessi. Chaired by Pablo Navarrete (Alborada Films)

Launched in 2002 by Camilla Deakin and Ruth Fielding, Lupus Films has become one of the UK’s leading film and television production companies. Among their award winning productions are The Snowman and The Snowdog, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, the International Emmy Award-winning The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Ethel & Ernest, and more recently an animated adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s best-selling novel Kensuke’s Kingdom. They have worked with world famous established talent and given first opportunities to the new and up and coming. We regard them as an inspirational success story in the recent history of independent production.

Here are the films they have chosen to screen this evening:

Home Road Movies by Robert Bradbrook (12.00) 2002

City Paradise by Gaelle Denis (6.00) 2007

Three Hares by Paloma Baeza (3.00) 2024

Father and Daughter by Michael Dudok De Wit (9.30) 2000

The Tiger Who Came To Tea by Lupus Films (24.15) 2019

The Dog with the Cat Inside by Siri Melchior (3.15) 2002

Who I am and what I want by Chris Shepherd and David Shrigley (7.30) 2005

The Girl and the Horse by Rebecca Manley (3.14) 2003

Overtime by Damian Ferrie (5.00) 2005

Followed by a Q&A with Ruth and Camilla hosted by Chris Shepherd.

This is a special centenary edition of Sergei Eisenstein’s legendary Battleship Potemkin featuring the celebrated Tenant / Lowe score performed by Pet Shop Boys and Dresdner Sinfoniker.

A fixture in the critical canon almost since its premiere, Eisenstein’s film about a 1905 naval mutiny was revolutionary in both form and content. Battleship Potemkin is renowned for its

dynamic compositional strength and editing of such frame perfect precision that it’s hard not to be swept along.

First revealed at a special outdoor screening in front of an estimated 25,000 in Trafalgar Square in 2004, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe’s score, performed with the Dresdner Sinfoniker and orchestrated by Torsten Rasch, blends electronic beats with orchestral grandeur to create a contemporary cinematic experience.

Just in time for Oktoberfest, we're excited to welcome back our wonderful friends from Lost and Grounded Brewers on Saturday 11 October for another beer & cheese tasting event. They will be traveling to the cinema from Bristol to teach us a thing or two about their delicious lagers and ales, and  in keeping with the time of year, the tasting will be followed by an iconic German film: Tom Tykwer's innovative and deliciously 90s Run Lola Run.

During the tasting, you'll get to try all the varieties currently on our menu, as well as a few others in the Lost and Grounded range. As per the brewers' suggestion, there will be a tasty cheese pairing for each of the beers, supplied by the lovely Soho Dairy, who you may remember from our previous wine tastings. Their stall can be found over on Berwick Street Market (W1F 0PH) and is worth seeking out, as they are fiercely independent and community-orientated, and offer an excellent assortment of prize-winning cheeses, straight from independent UK dairy producers.

Timings:

19:00  Beer tasting with cheese pairings

21:00  Screening of Run Lola Run

22:30  Expected finish

Tickets are £32.50 each and include the tasting as well as an unallocated seat for the screening of Run Lola Run. They are restricted to 2 per member, meaning you can bring a Freund or Freundin along, even if they're not a member.

Please note that all beer varieties in the tasting will contain gluten, and there are no non-alcoholic versions available. All cheeses will contain dairy, and some might be produced with animal rennet, meaning not all offerings will be vegetarian-friendly.

About the film:

In this visually and conceptually impressive film, two-bit Berlin criminal Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu) delivers some smuggled loot for his boss, Ronnie (Heino Ferch), but accidentally leaves the 100,000 Mark payment in a subway car. Given 20 minutes to come up with the money, he calls his girlfriend, Lola (Franka Potente), who sprints through the streets of the city to try to beg the money out of her bank manager father (Herbert Knaup) and get to Manni before he does something desperate.

About Lost and Grounded Brewers:

Lost and Grounded Brewers is an independent brewery based in Bristol, established by Co-Founders Alex Troncoso and Annie Clements in July 2016. With a contemporary focus on sustainability and operating from their state-of-the-art brewhouse, their process echoes traditional German brewing methods to produce beers with balance, nuance and a depth of character. Renowned for their award-winning lager Keller Pils, their diverse range comprises of fine, specialty lagers, Belgian-inspired beers and Garden Cinema favourite, Garden Pale Ale.

Website | Instagram

Doggie devastation and slapstick fun are the key ingredients in this riotous canine comedy. Forget the human actors, it's the titular St Bernard pup who steals the show, slobbering his way into mischief after he flees dognappers and winds up in the home of the Newton family. Though the kids love the mutt, dad George really doesn't want the responsibility especially after the initially cute ball of fluff grows to giant proportions. But when a crooked vet targets Beethoven for animal experiments, George naturally has a change of heart.

On Sunday mornings our Family Screenings are followed by a free activity for Children.

The screening is Pay What You Can, which means you’re free to pay as much or as little as you can afford. By paying for a ticket, you will enable us to keep offering Pay What You Can screenings to families struggling with the cost of living. Thank you.

On Sunday mornings our Family Screenings are followed by a free activity for Children.

The screening is Pay What You Can, which means you’re free to pay as much or as little as you can afford. By paying for a ticket, you will enable us to keep offering Pay What You Can screenings to families struggling with the cost of living. Thank you.

The film will be introduced by Senior Architect Jemma Miller.

Jeremy Sandford's drama about a young family's slide into homelessness and poverty was a defining moment in 1960s television, demonstrating how far drama could influence the political agenda. The controversy generated by Cathy Come Home led to public outrage at the state of housing in Britain, and gave a welcome boost to the (coincidental) launch of the homelessness charity Shelter a few days after the play was first broadcast, as part of the BBC's The Wednesday Play strand.

The play follows young lovers Cathy and Reg from the optimism of their early married days through a spiral of misfortune that follows Reg's work accident, leading to eviction and separation, and culminating, in what remains one of TV's most memorable scenes, in a hysterical Cathy having her children forcibly taken away by Social Services. - BFI, screenonline

Jemma Miller is a Senior Architect at Hawkins\Brown. Having been inspired by Ken Loach’s film Cathy Come Home at university, Jemma embarked upon a career in architecture and has spent the last decade working as an Architect specialising in housing in London and the Southeast. With a passion for people centric place-making and a keen advocate for community engagement on projects, she has a range of experience in community consultation, working with local schools and community groups. Her work at university is focused on equitable environments and the harsh social disparities within our city, bolstered by the built environment.

Hank Thompson (Austin Butler) was a high-school baseball phenom who can’t play anymore, but everything else is going okay. He’s got a great girl (Zoë Kravitz), tends bar at a New York dive, and his favourite team is making an underdog run at the pennant.

When his punk-rock neighbour Russ (Matt Smith) asks him to take care of his cat for a few days, Hank suddenly finds himself caught in the middle of a motley crew of threatening gangsters. They all want a piece of him; the problem is he has no idea why. As Hank attempts to evade their ever-tightening grip, he’s got to use all his hustle to stay alive long enough to find out…

The Garden Cinema View:

A disturbingly violent struggle for survival in the lawless and grimy streets of late-90s NYC? That’s right, it’s Darren Aronofsky’s most light-hearted and entertaining film!

If the scuzzy 70s proves the touchstone for the Safdies and Sean Baker, here Aronofsky is instead pulling from the likes of Doug Liman’s Go, Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and 90s Elmore Leonard adaptations like Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, and Out of Sight. There’s a touch of Scorsese’s After Hours (which is becoming quite fashionable these days), not just in the casting of Griffin Dunne in a small role.

He's just one of a very fun cast led by a very desirable, and frequently topless Austin Butler. This is a good part for Butler, and it’s nice to see him not impersonating a legend (Elvis), as an unrecognisable psychopath (Dune), or playing a photograph (The Bikeriders).

As you may gather from the above, Caught Stealing is not Aronofsky’s most original or serious work, but it is a very well made and enjoyable throwback caper which feels quite refreshing.  

Seventeen-year-old Christy is at a crossroads. Thrown out of his suburban foster home, he has moved in temporarily with his estranged older brother, Shane, in Cork’s inner city. But Shane wants something better for Christy. After so many years apart, the brothers are forced to reconcile with their turbulent past, whilst deciding what the future looks like. Sometimes, to move forward, you have to go back.

The Garden Cinema View:

Irish cinema continues to have something of a moment with this solid serving of Cork-social-realism. And whilst fair bit of the visual style of Christy comes from the Andrea Arnold/Robbie Ryan handbook, beneath that is a strong and authentic spirit all of its own. The casting is excellent, and director Brendan Canty coaxes some effortlessly natural performances from his young actors, including some wonderfully written and improvised slang dialogue. Alongside the suitably damp Cork locations, this makes for a tender and believable tale of adolescent struggle.

Michio Okabe’s subversive underground film was shot on 16mm in Shinjuku in 1968, and documents the radical spirit of Japan’s creative and artistic scene in those years. Crazy Love is structured as a collage of diverse activities and performers, including a happening by avant-garde art group Zero Jigen (Zero Dimension), Genpei Akasegawa’s fake bill, a march by futen (hippies), and parodies of adverts and cinema entertainment. Okabe was influenced by Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising but developed his own distinctly kitsch, camp aesthetic, which is fully in evidence here; the director himself appears onscreen, acting out roles including James Bond. Challenging established social norms and codes of sexual behaviour, Crazy Love is a testament both to a liberated, experimental moment in art and film, and to an iconoclastic filmmaker.

Deaf follows a young deaf woman and her hearing partner, who are expecting a baby, unable to know whether their child will be hearing or deaf until birth. A beautiful, nuanced depiction of their journey, the film's clever use of sound and silence immerses us in Ángela's experience and explores the struggles she faces, given the inadequacies of the world for deaf people.

All screenings of Deaf will have descriptive subtitles.

The Garden Cinema View:

Deaf is a sensitive and deeply moving exploration of the complexities a deaf mother faces raising a hearing child. Ángela, the deaf protagonist, lives a fulfilling and independent life until motherhood brings society's ableism into sharp focus, alongside unexpected new challenges.How do you connect with a child that has access to a world you do not and an environment which refuses to use sign language? How do you stay close to your hearing partner when postpartum exhaustion hits, and time becomes scarce? At the film's centre is a birth scene that starkly reveals the dangers deaf women face due to non-inclusive healthcare services.

Despite the important issues it raises, the film avoids didacticism and melodrama. Ángela is refreshingly imperfect, and the answers she seeks are never straightforward. This nuanced debut by Eva Libertad features a fantastic central performance by her deaf sister Miram Garlo and draws from real-life collaboration with deaf mothers.

Digital restoration.

The father, the mother and their three kids live at the outskirts of a city. There is a tall fence surrounding the house. The kids have never been outside that fence. They are being educated, entertained, bored and exercised in the manner that their parents deem appropriate, without any influence from the outside world. They believe that the airplanes flying over are toys and that zombies are small yellow flowers. The only person allowed to enter the house is Christina. She works as a security guard at the father’s business. The father arranges her visits to the house in order to appease the sexual urges of the son. The whole family is fond of her, especially the eldest daughter. One day Christina gives her as a present a headband that has stones that glow in the dark and asks for something in return.

Having completed junior high education, Wan leaves his hometown for Taipei City. With him is Huen, the girl he grew up with. In Taipei, they lead a very hard, but happy life. Then, Wan is drafted into military service. On the eve of his departure, Huen gives him 1,096 self-addressed and postal stamped envelopes, hoping that Wan will write to her every day during his three-year military service period.

Based on the personal experience of Wu Nien-jen, the co-writer of the film, Dust in the Wind is a nostalgic portrayal of the changing Taiwan of the early 1970s.

Our screening on 8 September was introduced by Tom Cunliffe (UCL).  

Amongst the best-loved family films of all time, Steven Spielberg’s hugely influential tale follows troubled 10-year-old Elliott who stumbles upon a gentle alien stranded on Earth. Elliott smuggles the alien that he names 'E.T.' into his suburban California house, introduces him to his brother and sister, and attempts to find his new friend safe passage home.

Accompanied by John Williams’ fantastical score, ET has had children and grown-ups laughing and shedding a quiet tear ever since it first captivated cinema audiences in 1982.

Into Film recommends this film for children 8+. The film includes some frightening scenes, bad language and rude humour, which may not be suitable for young children. For more information, visit the BBFC.

On Sunday mornings our Family Screenings are followed by a free activity for Children.

The screening is Pay What You Can, which means you’re free to pay as much or as little as you can afford. By paying for a ticket, you will enable us to keep offering Pay What You Can screenings to families struggling with the cost of living. Thank you.

Our screening on Friday 19 September will be introduced by Victor Fan (KCL).

Ang Lee’s generous, touching Eat Drink Man Woman focuses on master chef Chu and his three daughters (all of them living at home) as they confront seismic changes in their lives. The film is the third instalment in Ang Lee’s family trilogy, known unofficially (and ironically) as the 'Father Knows Best' series, largely because venerable actor Sihung Lung (whom Lee lured out of retirement) played a father in each film. Constructed around a series of all-in family dinners, where each of the characters eventually (very reluctantly) drops a bombshell announcement, the film hinges on the tension between modernity and tradition, family and personal freedom, and, especially, the necessity of confiding and sharing. With the profound empathy that typifies his best work, Lee drops us into the drama without much explanation and carefully disrupts our assumptions about the characters - and the narratives they construct about themselves.

On Tuesday 21 October, Mary Wild, Freudian cinephile and creator of the Projections lecture series at the Freud Museum, will join us for a post screening Q&A.

Family Life is a remake of David Mercer’s TV play In Two Minds, which had been filmed by Ken Loach four years previously. The broadcast of the latter provoked controversy, owing to its negative portrayal of the received treatment for schizophrenia. Family Life, like In Two Minds, promotes the theories of psychiatrist R. D. Laing, who did not believe that schizophrenia was a brain disease but a psychological syndrome that 'cannot be understood without understanding despair'. In Family Life, a troubled nineteen-year-old’s mental condition is exacerbated by her unfeeling relatives, and the cold and ineffective solutions of medical practitioners, who prescribe drug and electro-convulsive therapy.

- BFI article

Family Life will be screened with English subtitles.

Join us to watch and discuss a series of short films made by and with student-activists from the Gaza encampments in the UK.

Produced within the ‘Cinema and Solidarity’ research project, funded by the University of Warwick, the films explore co-resistance, particularly by students of Palestinian or Jewish heritage. These diverse and brave works offer unique insight into activism and cross-cultural solidarity. They reflect the students’ rich experiences and perspectives which drew them to the political movement opposing the ongoing genocide.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion and audience Q&A – panelists to be announced soon!

Film produced by Michele Aaron

Interviews directed by Manal Massalha.

Screenings supported by the University of Warwick and Na'amod

Join GP Surgery in The Atrium Bar for a special experimental short film showcase (and film club launch event) titled 'Dreams, Fear, and The Subconscious', a night of exploring dreams, the psyche, and the boundlessness of the subconscious mind.

Found in the LUX Moving Image Archive, Sandra Lahire’s Johnny Panic (1999) is an experimental moving image adaptation of the Sylvia Plath short story 'Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams'. The original story showcases Plath’s brilliant prose, and tells the story of a woman working in a mental hospital transcribing patients' dreams and secretly putting them into her own book called 'The Bible of Dreams'. Her deviance is guided by a subconscious figure called Johnny Panic who has a grip on her psyche, bringing her further into the fear and chaos.

In addition to personal recollections, Lahire’s film also brings in a commentary on American politics, capitalism, and corruption. Intertwining the fear of dreams and the mind with the looming realities embedded within Western society, Lahire’s film is a surreal feminist provocation which forces the viewer to examine themselves as well as the world around them.

This screening will be accompanied by a series of mystery experimental shorts that explore dreams, madness, chaos, and the subconscious. As well as a reading from Plath’s short story.

GP Surgery is a new kind of film collective specialising in Experimental Film and Artist Moving Image as a means of catharsis, healing, and challenging our audience. We are creating a community where attendees feel comfortable sharing their personal experiences of viewing the films while meeting like-minded individuals. If you have an idea for a screening for GP surgery, or would like to know more about the collective, please find us on Instagram @gpsurgeryldn.

Jaison Washington (he/they) is an independent film curator, researcher, and filmmaker based in London. Molly Miles (they/them) is a London based independent programmer and popcorn salesman. They’re one half of Category H film club and curator of Tetsuo And Beyond at the Prince Charles Cinema.

Note that The Garden Cinema is Fully Wheelchair Accessible. Some films contain strobing lights and flashing imagery for photosensitive and epileptic viewers.

Set in a dystopian near-future Tokyo, Neo Sora’s striking debut fiction feature explores a group of teenagers rebelling against societal expectations. The film offers a vivid coming-of-age portrait, following best friends Yuta and Kou as they confront a world where AI surveillance is tightening under the yoke of oppressive authoritarianism.

Infused with the raw energy and pulsing with a techno soundtrack, Happyend is a hopeful, youthful vision of resistance and joy in the face of control.

The Garden Cinema View:

Happyend opens with portentous text, a blast of synth music, and glowing red orbs that all feel very Akira. Neo Sora’s follow up to his wonderfully touching portrait of his late father, Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus, is ultimately a much less bombastic vision of the future than Otomo’s anime classic, but is highly plausible nonetheless. Amongst the right wing, surveillance state gloom, is a tender and optimistic portrayal of late adolescence, and a call for us to try and change the world in small ways, and to fight for the rights of those who come after us.

These likeable and empowering themes are supported by and impressive level of craft. Each shot is delicately composed, and backed up by the Sakamoto-adjacent score. The wonderfully styled final scene suggests that we might be seeing the emergence of a significant new voice in Japanese cinema.  

The prism of diaspora transforms one’s identity into complex colours, in exchange for existing in a liminal space between cultures, generations, borders, and time. Enriching perspectives can be found across wider East and Southeast Asian experiences. A perfect day, the dangers of border-crossing – is grass indeed greener on the other side?

Followed by an in-person Q&A with filmmakers in this programme.

Ticket holders will receive a free drink of Hong Kong-style milk tea after the screening, supported by My Cup of HK Tea.

Films in Programme:

Clearance

Malaysia | 2025 | Colour | 15’ | In English and Bahasa Melayu with English subtitles

Dir.: Charles Normsaskul

With the help of a translator on the phone, a Malaysian woman is interviewed by an immigration officer to decide if she can enter the United Kingdom.

Side A: A Summer Day

Taiwan | 2024 | Colour | 21’ | In Mandarin, Cantonese and Hindi with English subtitles

Dir.: Kin Fai Wan  

Fei will get the best birthday present ever if he finishes his homework, his mother promised. But it's already the last day of summer, and Fei hasn't received anything yet. Best Live Action Short at Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival 2024.

Give and Take

Canada | 2025 | Colour | 60’ | In Cantonese with Chinese and English subtitles

Dir.: Jimmy Lo 羅志明

A schoolteacher and an artist, two newlyweds, leave their lives in Hong Kong and wrestle with the promise of freedom in Canada.

Hong Kong Film Festival UK returns for its third edition from 12–28 September in London, presenting reflective, boundary-shifting cinema from Hong Kong and the ESEA diaspora. This year’s programme foregrounds transient and transitioning identities, exploring perspectives on migration, activism, marginalised communities, and gender, highlighting also the creative lens of women filmmakers. From dynamic contemporary works to intimate personal narratives, the festival centres voices that challenge, navigate, and reimagine belonging. Supported by the BFI.

War overshadows Lviv, a beautiful ancient city in western Ukraine, but life continues to move forward. How does one cope with maintaining normalcy, when sirens are ablaze with constant Russian attacks threatening all aspects of society? Hong Kong iconic documentary filmmaker Tammy Cheung (Secondary School, Rice Distribution) dives into the realities lived by Lviv and its people, her camera as her tool of solidarity, sharing the stories of ordinary citizens, refugees, drafted men, journalists, medics, and more.  

Lviv Diary is a sombering insight into the tears and trauma of war, shining necessary spotlight on the people holding onto Ukraine’s fight for freedom and against authoritarian expansion. As a practitioner of “Direct Cinema” and long-time documentarian on social and political causes, Cheung does not employ voice over or interviews, reiterating the unifying power of observation and being present.

Holding its world premiere at Hong Kong Film Festival UK, Lviv Diary is Cheung’s second documentary about the war in Ukraine.

Followed by an in person conversation with director Tammy Cheung, moderated by Chris Berry.

In Ukrainian with Chinese and English subtitles

With support from Amnesty International UK.

Hong Kong Film Festival UK returns for its third edition from 12–28 September in London, presenting reflective, boundary-shifting cinema from Hong Kong and the ESEA diaspora. This year’s programme foregrounds transient and transitioning identities, exploring perspectives on migration, activism, marginalised communities, and gender, highlighting also the creative lens of women filmmakers. From dynamic contemporary works to intimate personal narratives, the festival centres voices that challenge, navigate, and reimagine belonging. Supported by the BFI.

Whether caused by the rising cost of living or our tumultuous political environments, many of us across Europe and Asia are bound by the desire to emigrate and seek greener pastures in another country. But what are the emotional costs of such a move?

In Next Stop, Somewhere, filmmakers James Lee and Jeremiah Foo explore the personal struggles of emigration in all their intimacy and complexity through two parallel stories of separation and connection: Huang (Anthony Wong), a Hong Kong actor enduring a two-week hotel quarantine upon relocating to Taiwan, and Kim (Kendra Sow), a Vietnamese woman navigating challenging new relationships as she arrives in Malaysia for an arranged marriage.

Framed with the sensitivity of an Edward Yang film, an unusually tight aspect ratio, and a beautiful use of colour, Next Stop, Somewhere is a tender exploration of diasporic experience and what happens when our longing to escape confronts the realities of emigration.

Followed by a live online Q&A with Producer Jeremiah Foo, moderated by Suyin Haynes.

In Cantonese, Mandarin and Vietnamese with Chinese and English subtitles

Hong Kong Film Festival UK returns for its third edition from 12–28 September in London, presenting reflective, boundary-shifting cinema from Hong Kong and the ESEA diaspora. This year’s programme foregrounds transient and transitioning identities, exploring perspectives on migration, activism, marginalised communities, and gender, highlighting also the creative lens of women filmmakers. From dynamic contemporary works to intimate personal narratives, the festival centres voices that challenge, navigate, and reimagine belonging. Supported by the BFI.

Monica Vitti stars here as Giuliana, the slightly whacky girl with whom bourgeois lawyer Pietro (Giorgio Albertazzi) meets cute at a bohemian bacchanal. Just as quickly, the two get married, setting the stage for a humorous study of then-contemporary romance and the state of sexual politics in Italy. Something of a time capsule, I Married You for Fun contributed significantly to Vitti branching out from the inscrutable Antonioni talisman to becoming more synonymous with Italian cinema in the 1960s.

Between drinking sessions and one-night stands, washed-up tennis pro Tom (Sam Riley) clings to a job coaching holidaymakers at a hotel in Fuerteventura. When an English couple (Stacy Martin and Jack Farthing) arrive, their presence sets off a chain of events that leads to a mysterious disappearance.

Islands is a contemporary, intelligent thriller with noirish undertones and stylistic echoes of Alfred Hitchcock and Patricia Highsmith, stunningly shot against the sun-drenched volcanic landscapes of the Canary Islands.

The Garden Cinema View:

Islands establishes itself beautifully, with Sam Riley’s fried-out resort tennis coach presenting a kind of modern day Under the Volcano level of alcoholism and nihilism in the burning sun. As Ace (Riley) is joined by a Comfort of Strangers-esque pair of British tourists, a Patricia Highsmith-like mystery unfolds. The slightly diffuse plotting feels a bit underwhelming given the fertile setup, but Riley’s curiously mannered, dehydrated, and perpetuality knackered central performance is eminently engrossing.

In this 250th anniversary year of author Jane Austen's birth, there has been renewed focus on the many cinema adaptations of her much-loved books. This 1999 take on her 1814 novel, written for the screen and directed by Patricia Rozema, a key figure in the Toronto New Wave of Canadian cinema, is notable for several reasons. Superb cast and striking direction aside, it brings Austen's own character, letters and writing into the action, invigorating the character of Fanny (a vivid Frances O'Connor), the poor relative who is sent as a child to live with her landed uncle and aunt and learn the ways of 'polite' society. Engaging prismatically with the blurring of boundaries between Austen's life and her writing, Rozema explores issues of class, power, property, enslavement and empire alongside questions of sexuality and gender. This all makes for a welcome departure from the primarily etiquette-led and familial/relational angling of most versions, while not of course ignoring those dynamics by which many of the more resonant themes are investigated.

Well-received, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times declared it "an uncommonly intelligent film, smart and amusing too, and anyone who thinks it is not faithful to Austen doesn't know the author but only her plots," while Andrew Johnston for Time Out New York wrote, "Rozema captures the writer's combination of prickly wit and hopeless romanticism as few filmmakers have."

We are delighted that Rozema will be joining us to introduce the film, and discuss it after the screening with Gareth Evans.

Jaws, first released in 1975, is a landmark film that redefined the summer blockbuster and left a lasting impact on global cinema. Based on Peter Benchley's novel, it became the highest-grossing film of the year, earning a Best Picture nomination and three Academy Awards, including one for John Williams' iconic score. Its influence extends to inspiring filmmakers and captivating audiences with its thrilling and unforgettable story.

At a political rally, bricklayer Oreste (Marcello Mastroianni) sees flower girl Adelaide (Monica Vitti) and is so thoroughly smitten that he decides he must leave his wife for her. The pair's happiness doesn't last, however, as a young pizza chef named Nello (Giancarlo Giannini) also has eyes for Adelaide. He sends her a heart-shaped pizza pie and in no time has broken up their relationship. Adelaide leaves Oreste, who becomes passionately grief-stricken and considers suicide.

Join us for an evening of screenings and a live Zoom conversation with Ken Loach as he discusses some of his most controversial and suppressed films - works that TV networks and other institutions have tried to keep from the public. We will discuss The Gamekeeper, The Navigators, The Save The Children Fund Film, Which Side Are You On?, and A Question of Leadership. Discover the untold stories behind these banned and buried films, as well as first-hand accounts of the battles Loach fought to bring them to the general public.

Estimated timings:

18:00 - 19:15  Ken Loach in Conversation

19:15 - 19:45  Break

19:45 - 20:35  The Save The Children Fund Film

20:35 - 20:45  Comfort break

20:45 - 21:35  A Question of Leadership

21:35 - 21:45  Comfort break

21:45 - 22:40  Which Side Are You On? 

Tickets for the event, which includes the conversation and all three screenings, are £20 for members, and £22.50 for non-members.

This event is preceded by a screening of The Gamekeeper at 15:30. If you choose to book this film in addition to Ken Loach in Conversation, tickets for The Gamekeeper will be discounted to £10 (members) or £12 (non-members). The discount will appear automatically after putting both tickets in the basket. You can buy tickets here.

The Navigators will screen as part of our regular Ken Loach: A Retrospective programme on 20 October and 11 November. You can buy tickets for these screenings here.

About the films:

The Save the Children Fund Film, was commissioned in 1969 by the eponymous charity, although London Weekend Television put up two-thirds of the budget in return for screening rights. However, when the charity discovered that Loach's film represented their efforts in England as characterised largely by class prejudice and one of their schools in Kenya as a hotbed of neo-colonialist attitudes, they threatened to sue Loach and destroy the film, faced with which LWT meekly wrote off their investment and agreed not to screen it. Fortunately, however, the charity agreed to the print being lodged with the BFI, and the film received its first public screening in 2011.

A Question of Leadership: Ken Loach's examination of Thatcherism's impact on the trade unions was made for ATV, and scheduled to appear on ITV network on 5 August 1980. But after the Independent Broadcasting Authority found it in breach of impartiality rules, ATV was forced to withdraw it. Eventually, cut by 12 minutes to accommodate a 'balancing' programme, it was broadcast a year later, late-night and only in the midlands region.

Which Side Are You On? was commissioned for transmission as part of the South Bank Show, but was not shown because of its 'highly partial view on a controversial subject'. London Weekend Television, the commissioning company, felt that it was more of a political film than an arts film. Loach's brief was to make a programme that showed what the striking miners were writing and singing. He felt that this was what he delivered and was angered that the programme was banned on the basis that it overstepped official guidelines on political impartiality. Loach has always felt that no documentary can ever be neutral or 'balanced' (and nor can the news) and he acknowledges that he made the film entirely from the miners' point of view. Following the decision to pull the programme he said 'It is clear that only approved people can make comments about a struggle as decisive as the miners.'

- BFI, screenonline

Join us on Friday 26 September as we celebrate the launch of Ken Loach: A Retrospective with a members' party. Your first drink will be on the house, as our friends from Lost and Grounded Brewers are contributing to the community spirit by providing a complimentary beer for each attendee. You will also receive a raffle ticket, which means you may be lucky enough to walk away with a BluRay or DVD of one of Loach's films, free tickets, or another excellent prize!

Our guest musicians Oliver Hamilton & Mataio Austin Dean will perform a selection of protest songs, and we'll end the night with a screening of Ken Loach's 1991 Riff Raff, starring Robert Carlyle and Emer McCourt.

Tickets are £15 and are restricted to 2 per member, meaning you can bring a friend along, even if they're not a member. The ticket price include access to the pre-screening event with live music, a complimentary beer (or soft drink alternative), and an unallocated seat for the screening.

Event timings:

19:30  Season launch party with live music performance & prize raffle

20:30  Screen doors open

20:45  Screening of Riff Raff

22:30  Expected finish

About the musicians:

Oliver Hamilton is member of the bands Caroline and Shovel Dance Collective. He is a fiddle player and pianist working as a performer and arranger in London. Mataio Austin Dean is a member of traditional music group, Shovel Dance Collective. He sings unaccompanied English and Guayanese folksong 'with a truly unquestionable authenticity...channelling the spirit of Ewan MacColl' - Tradfolk.

About Lost and Grounded Brewers:

Lost and Grounded Brewers is an independent brewery based in Bristol, established by Co-Founders Alex Troncoso and Annie Clements in July 2016. With a contemporary focus on sustainability and operating from their state-of-the-art brewhouse, their process echoes traditional German brewing methods to produce beers with balance, nuance and a depth of character. Renowned for their award-winning lager Keller Pils, their diverse range comprises of fine, specialty lagers, Belgian-inspired beers and Garden Cinema favourite, Garden Pale Ale.

Website | Instagram

The screening on Thursday October 16 will be followed by a Q&A with David Bradley, Kes lead actor .

Named one of the ten best British films of the century by the BFI, Ken Loach’s Kes, is cinema’s quintessential portrait of working-class Northern England. Billy (an astonishingly naturalistic David Bradley) is a fifteen-year-old miner’s son whose close bond with a wild kestrel provides him with a spiritual escape from his dead-end life.

Kes brought to the big screen the sociopolitical engagement Loach had established in his work for the BBC, and pushed the British “angry young man” film of the sixties into a new realm of authenticity, using real locations and nonprofessional actors. Loach’s poignant coming-of-age drama remains the now legendary director’s most beloved and influential film. 
- The Criterion Collection

The concluding chapter of Michelangelo Antonioni’s informal trilogy on contemporary malaise (following L’avventura and La notte), L’eclisse tells the story of a young woman (Monica Vitti) who leaves one lover (Francisco Rabal) and drifts into a relationship with another (Alain Delon). Using the architecture of Rome as a backdrop for the doomed affair, Antonioni achieves the apotheosis of his style in this return to the theme that preoccupied him the most: the difficulty of connection in an alienating modern world.

To launch our celebration of Monica Vitti in style, members are invited to join us on Friday 19 September for a pre-screening cocktail hour. We'll be serving up the drink that was named after the actress, as well as delicious tiramisù, courtesty of our friends from Agrodolce in Fitzrovia. Their restaurant, like Vitti herself, originates in Rome, and aims to bring a slice of the capital city's gastronomic heritage to the heart of Central London.

Join us in the Atrium Bar from 19:30 for drinks & dessert, while the soulful voices of Mina, Adriano Celentano, and their contemporaries croon in the background. At 20:30 we'll head into the screen to continue our dive into Rome, with Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Eclisse, which features one of Vitti's most iconic performances.

Tickets are £18.50 each and available to members only, but you are welcome to book up to 2 and bring a friend along for the occasion. They include a complimentary alcoholic or non-alcoholic cocktail, a serving of tiramisù, and an unallocated seat for the film. If you have any access needs or require a specific seat in the screen, please email membership@thegardencinema.co.uk so we can do our best to accommodate. Unfortunately, we are unable to cater to dietary restrictions or offer alternatives for the tiramisù.

About Agrodolce:

In Rome, Agrodolce has always emphasised the use of fresh, locally sourced ingredients, thoughtfully chosen from reliable suppliers. With the same dedication to excellence and authenticity, they have now embarked on their culinary expedition in London, by opening a location on Charlotte Street. Here, they are committed to supporting the local market and ensuring that only the finest and most pristine ingredients grace our dishes. Agrodolce’s menu is a celebration of Italian gastronomy, blending passion, tradition, and flavor. At its core is the art of handmade pasta, with indulgent dishes like creamy Cacio e Pepe and rich Carbonara. Each plate unites Rome’s timeless culinary heritage with the vibrant markets of London. This perfect balance of authenticity and creativity embodies their philosophy: 'tradizione fatta con amore' - tradition made with love, served with pride, and savored in every bite.

Website | Instagram

Ladybird Ladybird screenwriter Rona Munro will join us for a post-screening Q&A on Sunday 2 November.

Based on a true story, Ladybird, Ladybird tracks the heartbreaking tale of a woman whose tumultuous past and mental illnesses cause her children to be taken away from her by social services. Ken Loach once again demonstrates his proficiency for drawing excellent performances from unlikely actors with this gut-wrenching drama anchored by an award-winning central turn from erstwhile comedian Crissy Rock.

Like his previous films, Loach has a clear and resolute view on this complex and humanistic tale of a citizen let down by the establishment in place to support her. Crissy Rock won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival and it is easy to see why her startlingly raw performance as Maggie gained so much critical acclaim. - BFI

Ladybird Ladybird will be screened with English subtitles.

The screening will be followed by a conversation between Professor Paul Preston and historian and author Richard Baxell.

David is an unemployed communist that comes to Spain in 1937 during the civil war to enroll the republicans and defend the democracy against the fascists. He makes friends between the soldiers. 

Land and Freedom, though set during the Spanish Civil War, has much to say about Britain in the 1980s and 90s. Ken Loach, a committed socialist director, draws parallels between the triumph of fascism in Spain and the rise of the far right amid the widespread unemployment at the time the film was made. The film won two awards at the Cannes film festival and remains one of his most acclaimed. - BFI iPlayer

Land and Freedom won a César Award for Best Foreign Film (1995)

Our screening on 21 September will be introduced by Victor Fan (KCL).

Although most commonly associated with the wuxia genre, in 1979 King Hu directed the epic fantasy-horror, Legend of the Mountain. Heavily influenced by traditional Chinese aesthetics and Zen Buddhist philosophy, it has come to be regarded as one of his greatest filmmaking achievements.

A young scholar, Ho Yunqing (Shih Jun, A Touch of Zen, Dragon Inn), is tasked by an eminent monk to transcribe a Buddhist sutra said to have immense power over the spirits of the afterlife. To execute his work in peace, he travels to an isolated monastery deep in the mountains, where he encounters a number of strange people, including the mysterious and beautiful Melody (Hsu Feng, A Touch of Zen, Dragon Inn). As malicious spirits attempt to steal the sutra, Ho becomes entangled in a conflict between duelling forces of good and evil. Will he leave the mountain alive?

LRB Screen, the London Review Bookshop’s long-running screening series, continues its exploration of visions of London created by non-British filmmakers: films in which the city is a key player, rather than a backdrop; in which its buildings, streets, parks and rivers cast a distinctive shadow over the drama; in which a fresh encounter makes the city unfamiliar and mysterious again.

Next up is the multi-award-winning Still Life, a portrait of urban loneliness, the forging of connection and the kindness of strangers. In a moving performance, Eddie Marsan is a council worker tasked with locating the next of kin when no will has been left by the deceased. When his office is deemed financially unviable and wound down, there is a final ‘case’ to be solved, which turns out to be close to home.

It’s a humane and truthful work, casting a light on aspects of city life that are all too often overlooked. Mark Kermode wrote in The Observer that he ‘was unprepared for the transcendent final moments, which left me suddenly and unexpectedly in tears.’

Introducing the film, and discussing it afterwards with regular host Gareth Evans, will be the film’s writer and director Uberto Pasolini, who was awarded Best Director at Venice for this work.

Eric Bishop (Steve Evets) is a postman and Man U supporter on the edge of a nervous breakdown. He never got over his divorce from his first wife; his second wife has left him in loco parentis for two wayward stepsons; and now he’s having visions of Eric Cantona. Is this the first sign of madness? Or are the wise words of the charismatic Frenchman just what Eric needs?

Successful on several levels, Looking for Eric is powerful enough to satisfy Loach loyalists, and appealing enough to win over everyone else – if they would only go to see it. As Ken Loach has spent a 40-year career demonstrating, there’s little justice in this world, but if there was, this would be a massive, world-beating hit. - Little White Lies

Michelangelo Antonioni invented a new film grammar with this masterwork. An iconic piece of challenging 1960s cinema and a gripping narrative on its own terms, L’avventura concerns the enigmatic disappearance of a young woman during a yachting trip off the coast of Sicily, and the search taken up by her disaffected lover (Gabriele Ferzetti) and best friend (Monica Vitti, in her breakout role). Antonioni’s controversial international sensation is a gorgeously shot tale of modern ennui and spiritual isolation.

The screening on 22 October will be followed by a panel with the Director, Max Duncan & Dr Charlotte Goodburn (Lau China Institute, KCL), chaired by PhD student Linda Calabrese (Lau China Institute, KCL).

When a massive Chinese industrial park lands in rural Ethiopia, a dusty farming town finds itself at the new frontier of globalization. The sprawling factory complex’s formidable Chinese director Motto now needs every bit of mettle and charm she can muster to push through a high-stakes expansion that promises 30,000 new jobs. Ethiopian farmer Workinesh and factory worker Beti have staked their futures on the prosperity the park promises. But as initial hope meets painful realities, they find themselves, like their country, at a pivotal crossroads.

Filmed over four years with singular access, Made in Ethiopia lifts the curtain on China’s historic but misunderstood impact on Africa, and explores contemporary Ethiopia at a moment of profound crisis. The film throws audiences into two colliding worlds: an industrial juggernaut fueled by profit and progress, and a vanishing countryside where life is still measured by the cycle of the seasons. Its nuance, complexity and multi-perspective approach go beyond black-and-white narratives of victims and villains. As the three women’s stories unfold, Made in Ethiopia challenges us to rethink the relationship between tradition and modernity, growth and welfare, the development of a country and the well being of its people.

This is a joint presentation by the Lau China Institute at King’s College London and The Garden Cinema’s Chinese Cinema Project strand.

Shyam Benegal is one of India’s most venerated filmmakers whose early films were iconic in India’s Parallel Cinema movement. Manthan is not only one of his finest films from that time, but also the story behind it was unique – that 500,000 farmers each contributed a small amount of money towards the making of the film that told the story of the birth of the milk cooperative movement while touching on so many issues like caste, class, gender and economic discrimination. The film was integral to spreading the message of the benefits of the cooperative movement to farmers across the country and a vital part of building that movement.

Manthan is presented from a beautiful new 4K restoration by Film Heritage Foundation.

Mehelli Modi from Second Run will introduce the screening. Manthan is being released on Blu-Ray by Second Run in October.

After the wonderful response to our first Members' Mingle last month, and the many requests for it to become a recurring event, we're happy to announce its return on Wednesday 1 October! Join us in the Atrium Bar from 19:00 onwards to meet fellow members - think film chat with cinema enthusiasts, great drinks, and a playlist of iconic songs from favourite features, curated by you! You can add your song suggestions for the evening's soundtrack here.

Concerned the conversation might run dry? Fear not, as our bar team have you covered! Not only will your ticket include a complimentary cocktail for a bit of Dutch courage, but your drink will also come with a film-based prompt to serve as an icebreaker to introduce yourself to fellow members. Who knows, you might meet a like-minded cinephile to attend future screenings with!

Tickets for the event are just £5, restricted to 1 per member, and include a complimentary cocktail, house wine, beer, or soft drink.

The screening on Saturday November 8 will be introduced by Assistant Programmer Joe Miller.

His name is Joe, and he’s an alcoholic. He’s only been sober for 10 months, and although AA advises against romance in the first year of recovery, Joe falls in love with a nurse named Sarah. She’s a social worker who has seen a lot of guys like Joe, but there’s something about him–a tenderness, a caring–that touches her.

A love story full of humour, passion and danger, My Name is Joe was filmed in the heart of one of the poorest and most neglected neighbourhoods of Scotland's biggest city. Two street-wise but vulnerable people struggle to overcome the harsh conditions that weigh them down, leaving few choices in their lives.

My Name is Joe won Best Actor at Cannes (Peter Mullan) and a BIFA award for best British Independent Film.

Special screening of the 20th anniversary of Next: A Primer on Urban Painting.

This documentary, co-produced with agnès b, takes place in the United States, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Germany, England, Spain, Japan, and Brazil, and features painters, writers, designers, and members of the global graffiti/street art community who show us their work and illustrate the evolution of modern graffiti from its beginnings in 1970s New York to the early 2000s. This film captured the early days of the global street art movement with many artists who are still active and even more famous today. Trailblazers like Lee Quiñones and Doze Green are given their proper treatment within contemporary art history. It also profiles the next generation of artists that are beginning to make their mark.

Made at the dawn of the digital revolution, Aravena shot his film using a combination of digital video, Super-16, and 35mm, borrowing the modus operandi of the street artists themselves to assemble a collage of sequences into a film that is as free and dynamic as the work of its subjects.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Pablo Aravena, hosted by Cedar Lewisohn.

Pablo Aravena is a London-based Chilean-Canadian filmmaker and curator. His acclaimed documentaries, including NEXT: A Primer on Urban Painting and Chile Estyle, explore street art and urban subcultures across the globe. He’s now working on Aqui Estamos, a portrait of the UK Latin club music scene.

Cedar Lewisohn is a writer, artist and curator based in London. He curated the exhibition Street Art at Tate Modern in 2008 and is the author of the book Street Art: The Graffiti Revolution, published in the same year.  

When their evil enemy resurfaces after 16 years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunites to rescue one of their own's daughter.

The Garden Cinema View:

Paul Thomas Anderson seizes his moment. With a reported budget around £100 million, he has made an epic and absurd sprawling action comedy which retains his idiosyncratic style, and contains themes and political gestures which feel personal to him.

Loosely working from Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, One Battle After Another is (thankfully) less inscrutable than its source, but faithfully evokes the novel’s bizarre vision of a USA contorted with conspiracy, failed revolution, and a burnt out counterculture. Pynchon allows Anderson to work in broad stereotypes and cartoonish cameos, while still honing a political edge – neo-fascism being the butt of the jokes here. It’s a thrilling, bewildering, often very funny, and occasionally quite sweet, viewing experience.

Very few ‘auteur’ filmmakers are able to operate in this budget/major studio space (possibly only Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan) successfully. To shoot your shot with an adaptation of such an inscrutable piece of American postmodernism is truly bold, and looks like it will pay off for PTA.  

After leaving her pop idol group and starting a new life as an actress, Mima soon finds herself overwhelmed by a wave of provocative offers - including photo shoots and roles in a TV drama - that go against her wishes. But before long, a string of murders begins to unfold, targeting those around her...

This film marks the directorial debut of Satoshi Kon, who fascinated audiences around the world with Paprika, Millennium Actress, and Tokyo Godfathers. Blending a play within a play, the story unfolds as fiction and reality, dreams and delusions, and cyberspace intertwine.

We find ourselves in a year of atomic anniversaries, 80 years since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and with a strong sense that a resurgent nuclear arms race is underway again. However, another more oppositional date is being marked with this event, 60 years to the day and time since the proposed first transmission by the BBC of Peter Watkins' truly remarkable and deeply disturbing documentary drama The War Game. Charting a (fictional) Cold War escalation of tension up to the explosion of a single megaton warhead over Kent and its appalling aftermath, the film fuses news-style reportage, vérité documentary techniques and dramatisations to devastating effect. Indeed, so powerful was it that it caused the broadcaster and government to withdraw the work, with the BBC declaring that "the effect of the film has been judged... to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting."

Following cinema and festival screenings in 1966, it won the Academy Award for best documentary in 1967 and was finally broadcast on BBC2 on 31 July 1985, in the week before the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Japan. Roger Ebert called it "[o]ne of the most skilful documentary films ever made... They should string up bedsheets between the trees and show The War Game in every public park."

Joining Gareth Evans to discuss the film, and his own hugely influential campaigning photomontage works on these themes from the 1980s onwards, we are delighted to welcome the acclaimed artist Peter Kennard.

Many thanks to Peter and Patrick Watkins. Please visit Peter's website to find his important statements on the nature and intentions of the mass audiovisual media.

This brooding psychological drama stars Russell Tovey and Tom Blyth who meet under complicated circumstances. An undercover cop, tasked with arresting men cruising public bathrooms, is suddenly faced with hidden desires. Using lo-fi VHS footage to explore voyeuristic notions of surveillance, this story of forbidden love addresses pertinent themes of state surveillance and societal intolerance.

Poor Cow is Ken Loach's debut feature film.

Following his Wednesday Plays Up the Junction (1965) and Cathy Comes Home (1966), Ken Loach directed his first feature film with the powerful Poor Cow. Reuniting him with his Cathy Comes Home star Carol White, the film follows Joy (White) as she copes with working-class pressures while her husband is in jail. However, she suddenly finds herself romantically involved with young crook Dave (Terence Stamp) in what could be a hopeful change. What follows is a unique character study and portrait of London in one of its most colourful, textured periods, seen through the eyes of one of Britain’s most acclaimed filmmakers. - BFI, iPlayer

Having just moved from Beijing, elderly tai chi master Mr. Chu (Sihung Lung) struggles to adjust to life in New York, living with his Americanised son Alex (Ye-tong Wang). Chu immediately butts heads with his put-upon white daughter-in-law, Martha (Deb Snyder), a writer who seems to blame him for her own paralysing inability to focus. But when Chu begins teaching tai chi at a local school, his desire to make a meaningful connection comes to fruition in the most unexpected of ways.Pushing Hands is the debut film from Oscar-winning director Ang Lee, forming the first chapter in his 'Father Knows Best' trilogy, which depicts the tensions between the traditional Confucian values of the older generation and the realities of modern life.

Our screening on Sunday 7 September was introduced by Chris Berry (KCL).

Winner of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1993.

Bob Williams is a survivor: he supplements his dole by becoming embroiled in whatever scam is on offer. From rustling sheep to rodding drains, he does what he can to keep his family fed. But now, life has dealt him a bitter blow. His van has been stolen and his daughter, Coleen, is approaching her first communion. She needs the traditional white dress, shoes, veil and gloves. Where on earth is the money going to come from?

'What I liked best was the underlying humour, even in this desperate situation. These are characters whose minds have not been deadened and who are naturally articulate and even poetic.' - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times, 1994

Winner of Best European Film at Berlin, 1991.

Fresh out of Barlinnie prison, young Glaswegian Stevie arrives in London and lands a job on a construction site. Life in the capital is unforgiving, but when he meets Susan, a struggling singer chasing her own dreams, he begins to navigate the brutal ups and downs of survival with something approaching hope.

Riff Raff marks Robert Carlyle's breakout starring role in what's also a rousing ensemble piece that finds its humor in the rough camaraderie of the building site. The film mines its laughs from the authentic banter and brotherhood of men scraping by, while never losing sight of the harsh realities that bind them together. - BFI

The screening on Saturday 20th will be dubbed in English. The screening on Sunday 21st will be in French with English Subtitles.

Claude Barras follows My Life As a Courgette with a stop-motion gem about a girl and an orangutan facing up to deforestation in Borneo.

Keria, who has Indigenous Penan heritage on her mother’s side, lives in Borneo with her father, who works on a palm oil plantation. News that the family home is under threat from deforestation only makes her more passionate about her environment, especially when she meets Oshi, an orphaned orangutan with whom she uncovers the joys and dangers of this beautiful but threatened world. Using his distinctive stop-motion style, Barras has produced a memorable and moving tale whose eco-message is seamlessly integrated into this hugely entertaining and highly relevant film.

On Sunday mornings our Family Screenings are followed by a free activity for Children.

The screening is Pay What You Can, which means you’re free to pay as much or as little as you can afford. By paying for a ticket, you will enable us to keep offering Pay What You Can screenings to families struggling with the cost of living. Thank you.

Have you ever filmed something that felt risky to share? In an age where your phone can be both a witness and a weapon, Resisters in Borderland offers a powerful look at what it means to document truth under threat. Directed by Toru Kubota (Best New Director 2025, ATP, Japan), the film follows exiled Burmese filmmakers who continue to resist the Myanmar junta – armed only with their cameras.

Paired with a live panel hosted by the Secure Storyteller Network (SSN), this event explores how we protect our footage, our communities, and ourselves. Whether you're an activist, artist, or everyday phone user, this screening invites you to rethink how stories are captured and secured.

All proceeds (excluding expenses) will be donated to Docu Athan, supporting filmmakers in exile.

In Burmese with English subtitles

Hong Kong Film Festival UK returns for its third edition from 12–28 September in London, presenting reflective, boundary-shifting cinema from Hong Kong and the ESEA diaspora. This year’s programme foregrounds transient and transitioning identities, exploring perspectives on migration, activism, marginalised communities, and gender, highlighting also the creative lens of women filmmakers. From dynamic contemporary works to intimate personal narratives, the festival centres voices that challenge, navigate, and reimagine belonging. Supported by the BFI.

Sense and Sensibility is the story of two sisters: pragmatic Elinor (Emma Thompson) and passionately wilful Marianne (Kate Winslet). When their father Henry Dashwood dies, by law his estate must pass to his eldest son from his first marriage. Suddenly homeless and impoverished, his current wife and daughters find themselves living in a simple country cottage

This screening will be followed by a Zoom Q&A with director Huang Hui-chen.

Excutive produced by Hou Hsiao-hsien and featuring music from composer Gong Lim (Millennium Mambo), Small Talk is one of Taiwan’s most widely-acclaimed documentaries, and the first such film to be selected as Taiwan’s submission to the Academy Awards. The film is an intimate portrait of the director herself, and her mother, A-nu, a Taoist priestess in rural Taiwan.

Through a series of long-shots, Huang Hui-chen interviews A-nu about her troubled past - as a lesbian pressured into an arranged marriage at an early age with an abusive husband - and their uncomfortable estrangement that persists even after decades living under the same roof. Further conversations with A-nu’s siblings and ex-lovers produce a frank and complex portrait that reflects the prejudices and mores of a society at large, while remaining both universally significant and courageously intimate.

Simon (Glory Gore), a dazzling star of Montreal's drag scene, finds his world turned upside down when he meets Oliver (Dragona), the captivating new recruit at his club. Their

passionate romance quickly morphs into a dangerous dynamic, jeopardising Simon's shining career. Complicating matters,

Simon's estranged mother, a renowned opera diva, returns, prompting him to confront his idealised vision of her. As he navigates the heartache of these two relationships, Simon realises that he deserves better.

The Garden Cinema View:

Sophie Dupuis brings a fresh energy to this All About Eve set-up, with a dazzling dive into the power games and friendships at a Québécois drag club. There's a raw, Cassavetes-esque, edge to the performances (especially the arguments), but Solo truly comes alive in the thrilling performance sequences.    

Ricky and his family have been fighting an uphill battle against debt since the 2008 financial crash. An opportunity to regain some independence appears by becoming a self-employed delivery driver, but when he and his wife are pulled in different directions, everything will come to a breaking point.

It’s difficult to imagine a more socially engaged or powerful condemnation of the exploitative gig economy than Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, which places the viewer on the ground with an English family trudging through the muck left behind by the erosion of workers’ rights in Europe. Here, the supposed economy of free choice promulgated by neoliberal policies manifests as a domestic realm in which one’s job penetrates into every waking moment, leaving stressed bodies and minds with no time and little wherewithal for a personal life or obligations. - SLANT

The film was nominated for a BAFTA and the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival.

Sorry we Missed you will be screened with English subtitles.

Something bad happened to Agnes. But life goes on… for everyone around her, at least.

Blending heartache, humour and healing, Sorry, Baby is the stunning and star-making debut from director, writer and actor Eva Victor, also starring Naomi Ackie and Lucas Hedges.

As sharp as it is tender, Sorry, Baby is a quietly powerful tale of seizing back your footing after pain, and of the friendships that sustain you along the way. An authentic, bitingly funny drama that marks the arrival of a brilliant new voice in cinema.

The Garden Cinema View:

A tremendous debut from director/writer/star Eva Victor which is at once a highly literate campus comedy, an ode to female (and feline) friendship, and a clear-eyed study of a life stuck in the wake of trauma. With cinematographer Mia Cioffi Henry, Victor constructs a kind of cosy-yet-chilly, coastal Massachusetts setting of always-winter. Along with a handsome liberal arts college, this idyllic environment becomes a physical manifestation of protagonist Agnes’ grief. Her office at the college is her attacker’s; her isolated (and possibly haunted) house still the one she lived in as a grad-student. Sorry, Baby is emotionally raw in places, but ultimately comforting. It’s also frequently very funny (if jokes about Nabokov and Woolf float your boat).      

As he pedals through the streets of Paris to deliver meals, Souleymane repeats his story. In two days, he has to go through his asylum application interview, the key to obtaining papers. But Souleymane is not ready.

Set in the mid-90s, Steve is a reimagining of Max Porter's Shy. The film follows a pivotal day in the life of headteacher Steve and his students at a last-chance reform school amidst a world that has forsaken them. As Steve fights to protect the school’s integrity and impending closure, we witness him grappling with his own mental health. In parallel to Steve’s struggles, we meet Shy, a troubled teen caught between his past and what lies ahead as he tries to reconcile his inner fragility with his impulse for self-destruction and violence.

The cult phenomenon of Rocky Horror is explored in depth like never before with an extraordinary cast of contributors. From humble origins as a London fringe theater play to its meteoric rise as the biggest cult film of all time, this is the definitive story of the Rocky Horror Show. With intimate access to its creator Richard O’Brien and other major players such as Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and Lou Adler, the documentary explores what makes the play and film so singular: its groundbreaking and transgressive themes, iconic performances and epic songs that took over popular culture.

The Garden Cinema View:

You may well know the major stops on this journey, but it’s nevertheless a pleasure and a comfort to have the trajectory of this cult classic laid out in the words of the main players. There’s some quite touching father-son moments between a sprightly Richard O’Brien and director Linus O’Brien, and it’s equally delightful to see a happy and healthy Tim Curry. A perfect appetiser for your next visit to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. And if you’ve never seen it? What are you waiting for?

After the screening on Friday, November 14, Ken Loach's longtime collaborator Rebecca O'Brien will join Gareth Evans for a post-film discussion.

To mark the publication of the new edition of Loach on Loach (edited by Graham Fuller, published by Faber and Faber), copies will be available for purchase at our Atrium bar both before and after the screening.

Determined to have a normal family life once his mother gets out of prison, a Scottish teenager from a tough background sets out to raise the money for a home.

A typically powerful social realist drama, Sweet Sixteen represents Ken Loach's fourth collaboration with Glaswegian scriptwriter Paul Laverty. Shot around the council estates of Greenock, an economically depressed, former shipbuilding town near Glasgow, the film revisits themes familiar from their previous work, featuring the hardships of people at the bottom of the social hierarchy.

The film won Best Screenplay Award at Cannes Film Festival (Paul Laverty) and a BIFA Award for Best British Independent Film.

Our screening on 27 September will be followed by a Zoom Q&A with co-director Shih-Ching Tsou.

The American dream has rarely seemed so far away as in Shih-Ching Tsou and Sean Baker’s raw, vérité Take Out, an immersion in the life of an undocumented Chinese immigrant struggling to get by on the margins of post-9/11 New York City. Facing violent retaliation from a loan shark, restaurant deliveryman Ming Ding has until nightfall to pay back the money he owes, and he encounters both crushing setbacks and moments of unexpected humanity as he races against time to earn enough in tips over the course of a frantic day. From this simple setup, Tsou and Baker fashion a kind of neorealist survival thriller of the everyday, shedding compassionate light on the too often overlooked lives and labour that keep New York running.

With Tsou's new feature, Left-Handed Girl, playing at festivals to critical acclaim, this screening offer an opportunity to revist the start of her wonderful career as a director, writer, and producer.

UK restoration premiere. All screenings will be preceded by a video introduction from Tony Rayns.

Edward Yang’s first theatrical feature film (which also marked the debut of the cinematographer Christopher Doyle) is a visually and emotionally arresting melodrama of fractured romance, disaffection, and the intergenerational breakdown felt across Taiwan in the 1980s. It focuses on the reunion of two old friends - Chia-li (Sylvia Chang), a housewife trapped in a crumbling marriage, and Ching-ching (Terry Hu), a concert pianist newly returned to Taiwan after many years abroad. As they reminisce about their 13 years apart, Yang moves gracefully from past to present, and between perspectives to reflect on his two protagonists’ present stations in life. An intricate memory piece that unfolds with the pacing of a mystery, That Day, on the Beach is one of the greatest debuts of the late 20th century and announced Yang as an artist already in full command of densely layered, compositional storytelling.

Set in Glasgow, Scotland, Angel's Share tells the story of a young father who narrowly avoids a prison sentence. He is determined to turn over a new leaf and when he and his friends from the same community payback group visit a whisky distillery, a route to a new life becomes apparent. More light-hearted than some of his earlier films, this warm, funny caper from Ken Loach is set in Glasgow, with a cast of non-professional, first-time actors.

The film won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2012.

Angel’s Share will be screened with English subtitles.

The Big Flame was writer Jim Allen's second Wednesday Play and his first with director Kenneth Loach. After The Lump, about the exploitation of casual labour in the building trade, Allen used his Marxist credentials to depict striking Liverpool dockers enacting a Communist-style system of workers' control.

The play was filmed in Loach's accustomed drama-documentary format, honed on previous Wednesday Plays like Up the Junction and Cathy Come Home. Real dockers appear, and the actors speak not well-rehearsed lines but in the disjointed, often incoherent, manner of authentic speech. It is captured on murky 16mm film, giving the picture the same quality as contemporaneous newsreel footage. Only the occasional voiceovers diverge from the apparent objectivity of this fly-on-the-wall aesthetic. - BFI, screenonline

For Halloween, the smaller beings in our audience can enjoy a mildly macabre film of their own, with pay-what-you-can screenings of The Book of Life.

On Friday 31 October there will be prizes for the best Halloween costume.

From producer Guillermo del Toro (Pinocchio, Pan's Labyrinth)  comes an animated comedy drawing on Mexican folklore. The Book of Life is the journey of Manolo, a young man who embarks on an incredible adventure that spans three fantastical worlds where he must face his greatest fears. Rich with a fresh take on pop music favorites, The Book of Life encourages us to celebrate the past while looking forward to the future.

'Guillermo del Toro’s creative fingerprints are everywhere in this refreshingly sparky and laugh-out-loud funny family film'- The Guardian

'The Book of Life is bursting with vibrant colours and magic – a constantly expanding, neverending party.' -Sight & Sound

On Sunday mornings our Family Screenings are followed by a free activity for Children.

The screening is Pay What You Can, which means you’re free to pay as much or as little as you can afford. By paying for a ticket, you will enable us to keep offering Pay What You Can screenings to families struggling with the cost of living. Thank you.

A pioneer of Japanese avant-garde cinema, Michio Okabe’s (1937-2020) films span the late 60s to the mid 70s, capturing the zeitgeist of an era defined by global political upheaval and counter-cultural movements. They collage performance art, historical references, and pop music with a freely associative approach to editing, destabilising fixed meanings of tradition and modernity. Okabe’s playful irreverence is on full display in the three short films of this programme, each one a kaleidoscope of radical possibility as disorientating as it is delightful.

The Doctrine of Creation (1967)

Inspired by Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising (1963), Okabe’s debut film subverts the creation myth of Adam and Eve into a cacophony of consumerist symbols, pop culture references, and absurdist performance.

Camp (1970)

An eclectic troupe of Butoh dancers, yakitori sellers, and vampires construct a fantastical freak show in this anarchic exploration of Japanese camp aesthetics.

Boy-Taste (1973)

Naked men play innocently in an Esoteric Buddhist temple, painting an idyllic yet unsettling portrait of boyhood.

This screening will preceed our Ken Loach in Conversation event. If you choose to book this in addition to the film, tickets for The Gamekeeper will be discounted to £10 (members) or £12 (non-members). The discount will appear automatically after putting both tickets in the basket. You can find more details about Ken Loach in Conversation, and what's included in the event, here.

George Purse (Phil Askam) is a former steelworker who has taken the job as gamekeeper on the Yorkshire estate of a duke. He’s not popular with locals in the pub after expressing forthright views on poaching, and with his aristocratic boss mostly absent, George measures out his seasons on the land, tending to the animals and patching up his rundown cottage.

Based on Barry Hines’ novel, The Gamekeeper is a haunting critique of the class system, its understated manner betraying nothing of its power and pertinence. - Irish Film Institute

Dating back to neolithic times, few culinary traditions have survived as long as the hearty bowl of morning porridge. Despite its simple recipe of oats, salt and water there is a lot that can vary.

Each year the sleepy highland village of Carrbridge awakens with excitement as locals and competitors from around the globe vie for the honour of winning The Golden Spurtle in the World Porridge Making Championships.

For ageing, charismatic, and soon-to-retire protagonist Charlie Miller, this competition means so much more than just a bowl of steaming oats. With ailing health but a responsibility to his fellow porridge committee members, Charlie is on a mission to secure the future of the championships - and his own legacy.

The Garden Cinema View:

An utterly charming documentary that captures something of the low-stakes-high-effort competition of The King of Kong whilst bumping against Christopher Guest’s wonderful mockumentaries, particularly Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show. Behind the oats, The Golden Spurtle is, at heart, a lovely portrait of a Scottish village and its inhabitants which is never patronising, and relishes the idiosyncrasies of small communities.

Scripted by former railwayman Rob Dawber The Navigators lays bare the unappetising choice faced by railway workers after the still contentious privatization of British Rail in the mid-1990s. Either they can continue existing jobs for lower pay and safety standards, or accept redundancy and break up long-established teams, the quality of whose work is at least as much due to personal camaraderie as effective management. The film’s tragic conclusion is as inevitable as it is shocking - and matched by real-life incidents, since filming commenced in the wake of the 2001 Hatfield train crash. It went straight to television in Britain, but was a top-ten box-office hit in Paris, whose audiences must have been bewildered by the British notion of how to run a railway. – BFI

After getting a flat tire in the middle of nowhere, newly engaged couple Brad and Janet encounter the eerie mansion of the flamboyant, seductive Dr. Frank-N-Furter and a variety of eccentric characters. Through elaborate dance and rock music, the mad scientist unveils his latest creation: a perfect, muscular man.

Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa find themselves caught up in a typically hilarious yarn as TV's favourite family makes its movie debut. Homer accidentally polutes the local water supply, so Springfield must be encased in a giant protective dome, leaving the Simpsons in a whole heap of trouble.

Into Film recommends this film for ages 7+

It contains mild language and comic violence. For more details see the BBFC website

On Sunday mornings our Family Screenings are followed by a free activity for Children.

The screening is Pay What You Can, which means you’re free to pay as much or as little as you can afford. By paying for a ticket, you will enable us to keep offering Pay What You Can screenings to families struggling with the cost of living. Thank you  

UK resotration premiere. Our screening on Saturday 4 October will be followed by an online Q&A with Tsai Ming-liang.

The Wayward Cloud is arguably Tsai Ming-liang’s least understood and most neglected work. The film has, moreover, gathered a notorious reputation for its unusual mixture of strange musical numbers and very explicit, deliberately sordid sex - all filtered through Tsai’s signature stylistic minimalism. Like so many of Tsai’s best films, The Wayward Cloud is an offbeat love story, the tale of two lonelyhearts struggling to connect in a drought-stricken Taipei. Complicating things is the fact that one of the lovers - played, as always, by Lee Kang-sheng - is a porn actor, a profession that Tsai uses to evince the ambivalence about both filmmaking and sexuality that run throughout his films.

Content warning: Contains a scene of non-consential sex which viewers may find extremely disturbing.

The breakthrough film in the West for Oscar-winning director Ang Lee, The Wedding Banquet is the moving and, for its time, groundbreaking, New York–set story of a gay Taiwanese immigrant, Gao Wai-Tung who marries Wei-Wei, a woman from China, both to help her procure a green card and to convince his parents that he is straight. This creates emotional and practical concerns for his boyfriend, Simon, and increasingly manic complications when Wai-Tung’s parents arrive from Taiwan.

Our screening on Saturday 6 September was introduced by Chris Berry (KCL).

On Wednesday, 19 November, the screening will serve as a fundraiser for a Palestinian cultural charity. Irish musicians will perform before the screening and crafts will be on sale in the Atrium bar. The doors will open from 19:00. It will be introduced by historian Geoffrey Bell, author of several books about Ireland, including The Twilight of Unionism.

Cillian Murphy and Pádraic Delaney play brothers who join the Irish Republican Army in 1920 after witnessing the killing of a friend at the hands of the Black and Tans, the British body employed to suppress revolution in Ireland. As the conflict gets increasingly violent and friends and family are tortured and murdered, the brothers become ideologically divided, with tragic results.
The film provoked controversy, with many critics decrying it (some without having seen it) for its negative view of the British. – BFI

The film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival (1996)

The Wind That Shakes The Barley will be screened with English subtitles.

This event will help us raise funds for the Jenin Cultural Centre. Crafts on sale will include ceramics,photography, collages, badges by Croí na Gaeilge, lin prints and Films of Resistance tote bags. Proceeds from items by @mosaicsforpalestine will go to the Ghassan Abu Sittah Children's Fund.

The Jenin Cultural Centre currently provides shelter and therapeutic art activities to hundreds of children and adults in the city of Jenin and those who have been made homeless since the destruction of the Jenin refugee camp in Spring 2025. A team from the Centre is also planning a tour of the UK in Spring 2026 to showcase Palestinian music and films, and give talks on life in Jenin and the West Bank. If you wish to support or donate to this project, please visit the fundraiser page.

This Sidney Lumet film gives a makeover to the classic children's book The Wizard of Oz. Adapted from the 1974 Broadway musical of the same name, and set in 1970s Harlem, the film boasted Quincy Jones as the musical supervisor, and an impressive, all-star cast with Diana Ross as Dorothy, Michael Jackson (in his feature film debut) as Scarecrow, Nipsey Russell as Tin Man, Ted Ross as Cowardly Lion, and Richard Pryor as The Wiz.

Requested by Garden Cinema member Ed Gutteridge who writes: 'It’s so underseen and a total visual and aural delight!'

On Sunday mornings our Family Screenings are followed by a free activity for Children.

The screening is Pay What You Can, which means you’re free to pay as much or as little as you can afford. By paying for a ticket, you will enable us to keep offering Pay What You Can screenings to families struggling with the cost of living. Thank you.

The screening on Sunday 28 September will be followed by a Q&A with director Sonum Sumaria. The screening on Thursday 2 October will be followed by a panel discussion with the director, producer Sienna Beckman, and social activist Sushma Iyengar.

Under The Open Sky is a beautifully-crafted observational documentary that offers a rare, intimate portrait of a nomadic camel-herding family in the desert lands of Western India. Spanning five years, the film follows Ahmed and his family, as they face an existential dilemma: to continue their traditional way of life or to adapt to a rapidly modernising world. The film traces their quiet but powerful struggle to hold onto their ancestral way of life as they are increasingly displaced by industrialisation, climate shifts, and economic pressures.

"An unflinching fly-on-the-wall portrayal ...  a refreshing and honest insight " - Geographical Magazine

The film screened at a number of international festivals, including DC South Asian Film Festival (USA)

Perspectives on Pastoralism Film Festival (Europe), Montevideo World Film Festival (Uruguay), FICCSUR (Chile), and Someplace Else – Living Lightly Film Festival (India)

Sonum Sumaria is an award-winning British-Gujarati filmmaker and has been making films with marginalised communities for the past thirteen years. She read Spanish and Russian at Cambridge University, and studied at The International School of Film and Television in Cuba, going on to complete an MA in Cinematography at MetFilm School in London. She has a deep interest in indigenous and nomadic communities and is particularly drawn to the themes of identity and belonging.

This screening will be followed by an in-person panel discussion with Rahila Gupta, Prof. Dinesh Bhugra, and Rachel Kelly moderated by  Prof. Carmine Pariante.

After enduring years of abuse from her husband, Deepak (Naveen Andrews), Kiranjit Ahluwalia (Aishwarya Rai) tries to end her torment by incinerating him while he sleeps. When Deepak dies from his injuries, Kiranjit gets a life sentence in a British prison. There, she befriends her cellmate, Ronnie (Miranda Richardson), who asks her stepbrother (Robbie Coltrane) to take up Kiranjit's appeal in the hope that some real justice can be found.

Unspoken - A Mental Health Film Festival is organised by Tongues on Fire. It includes feature films and panel discussions and Q&As, that reflect on emotional resilience, trauma, family dynamics, identity, and silence within South Asian and global communities.

Nell Dunn's Up the Junction, directed by Ken Loach, is a controversial and mould-breaking TV drama, watched by an audience of nearly 10 million on first transmission. A record 400 viewers complained to the BBC, mostly about the programme's bad language and depiction of sexual promiscuity. Now, these aspects seem relatively mild. At the time, Up the Junction's depiction of abortion had a major impact, contributing to the national debate which led to the legalisation of abortion in 1967. -BFI, screenonline

Urchin follows Mike, a rough sleeper in East London, who is trapped in a cycle of self-destruction as he attempts to turn his life around. Premiering at Cannes to rave reviews and a Best Actor award for Frank Dillane, Urchin is an outstanding directorial debut from Harris Dickinson that marks him as an exciting new talent in British filmmaking.

The Garden Cinema View:

Harris Dickenson’s directorial debut plunges us into what looks, at first, like a classic piece of British Social Realism, albeit one set on very vibrant East London streets, akin to the New York of Safdie Brothers or early Sean Baker films. Then something happens, the film’s score kicks in for the first time, and we realise that Urchin is operating on an elevated level of expressionism; a bold, and broadly successful, effort to find poetry on the margins of London.

That this all holds together is due, in no small part, to Frank Dillane’s mesmerising, tender, and brittle central performance as Mike. This, combined with propulsive music and cinematography, results in arguably the finest London street life film since Mike Leigh’s Naked.  

In a hidden Orthodox monastery in Belarus, Mother Vera weaves the inner world of an unorthodox young nun with the community that saved her life. After 20 years as a monastic, Vera faces deep inner conflict. Now, she must confront her past and trust her instincts to find the liberation she desires.

'absorbing and majestically shot' -The Film Verdict  

‘transfixingly beautiful film’-Screen Daily

‘sublime and sensorial debut feature’- The Film Verdict

WADW Presents is a series of documentary screenings featuring Q&As with the women creatives behind the camera. It comes from the team behind We Are Doc Women, a group that was founded in 2017 to provide peer support for women directors working in factual television in the UK. They have grown to become a collective of directors, producers, assistant producers and executive producers advocating for equal opportunities, greater support and fair recognition within the industry.

This film was proposed by our member William Reynolds, who writes: 'If there ever was a film that captured the essence of teen summer - a season where possibilities seem endless. This brings together two teenage boys and a woman on a road trip to a beach in Mexico. Cuarón’s finest creates such vibrant characters and the juxtaposition between the boys and older woman works wonders in confronting the audience with classic questions regarding the importance of living a free life, true to who you are. So beautifully subtle in how it builds a portrait of the cruel realities that still exist in the world during a carefree summer..'

In Mexico, two teenage boys and an attractive older woman embark on a road trip and learn a thing or two about life, friendship, sex, and each other.

Please note, the screening on Wednesday 10 September is our free members' screening, while the one on Tuesday 16 September is a regular screening, which is open to the general public.