Stanley Kubrick's controversial film triggered copycat violence on its initial release and as a result the director withdrew the film from circulation in Britain, keeping it suppressed right up to his death in 1999. The film follows sadistic punk Alex (Malcolm McDowell) as he takes his gang on a rape and murder spree, showing absolutely no mercy to any of his victims. When he is eventually captured, the authorities subject him to a series of experiments designed to rid him of his violent tendencies.

Director Patricia Ramos sets this film, her second feature and also written by her, in 2016 Havana. It was a time when Cuba featured regularly in the international media with Obama’s visit, a Chanel fashion show and the historic Rolling Stones concert. This film is not about that historical concert, rather that moment. Middle-aged Rita navigates troublesome relationships with her teenage son who wants to leave Cuba, her aging mother, her married lover, and her lifelong friend who is ill. On the eve of the concert, Rita she takes decisions that begin to give her some independence, as she hopes that something interesting is about to happen.

Described in the Cuban press as 'a film that seems simple, but in the end is also a treatise on what has gone and what has been lost, about the unbreakable will to cling to certain values, on the part of people who stay in their place, who are not going anywhere, animated by the crazy idea that they may find, very close to their home, what they have always been looking for.'

PLUS SHORT: Blue Pandora / Pandora Azul | Alan Gonzalez |2023, Cuba, ICAIC- Crisálida Producciones | 13m|18

Compelling award-winning fictional short. The white youth Roy regularly shows up at the doorstep of Pandora, a middle-aged Black transgender woman, in an attempt to convince her of how much he’s in love with her. She wants to stay out of trouble, and is reluctant because of past experiences with men. An interaction that transcends itself in a subtle yet poignant way, in which thoughts not spoken live in the smallest gesture or the exchange of a glance. The film delves into the complexities of love, self-acceptance, and the weight of societal judgment.

Screen Cuba: Films to Change the World is a collaborative project of the charity Music Fund for Cuba, the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, the Cuban Embassy in the UK and the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC).

Proceeds from the Solidarity ticket will to go to Cuban film institute (ICAIC) projects including restoration of classic films.

A Real Pain follows mismatched cousins David (Jesse Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) as they reunite for a tour through Poland to honour their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the odd-couple's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history.

Nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Kieran Culkin) at the 2025 Academy Awards.

The Garden Cinema View:

For better or for worse, Jesse Eisenberg resurrects a kind of Noughties indie sensibility for a very personal work that is both funnier than its heavy premise, and strives for meaning beyond the broadly drawn comic characters. The loose tone and breezy pace make A Real Pain a very watchable film. Whether the themes of historical atrocity and personal suffering can ever truly gel is another question.

The film was proposed by our member Maggie Crowe who writes: 'This highly stylised 2009 film directed by Tom Ford is a classic movie about love, loss and grieving. Based on the 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood it’s easy to forget how being gay was so taboo then. Colin Firth is simply wonderful in this film.'

George (Colin Firth) is a college professor who recently lost his lover, Jim, in a car accident. Terribly grief-stricken, George plans to commit suicide. As he goes about his daily routine and puts his affairs in order, his encounters with colleagues, students and an old friend (Julianne Moore) lead him to make a final decision as to whether life is worth living without Jim.

Our screening on 16 January was introduced by writer and filmmaker Adam Scovell.

Based on Ronald Blythe’s much-loved oral history book, Akenfield traces three generations of one Suffolk family and their lives in the farming industry, with director Peter Hall – known for his theatre direction - using to great effect a cast non-professional actors drawn from the communities of several Suffolk villages.

With all three generations grandfather, father and son performed by the same actor (local farmer Garrow Shand), the film paints a compelling picture of a traditional way of life facing a period of great change, brought about by the industrialisation of the twentieth century. A profoundly romantic work of sublime poetic realism, Akenfield boasts a sweeping, rhapsodic orchestral score composed by Michael Tippett (Fantasia Concertante on a theme by Corelli) that resonates with the film’s beautiful Impressionistic cinematography, which captures seasonal changes as the film was shot on weekends only across nine months.

Synopsis:

The Alps is a secret society including a nurse, a gym coach, a gymnast and a paramedic. They offer a unique service: the recently bereaved can hire them to act as surrogates for the deceased loved ones - wearing their clothes, adopting their mannerisms, etc. - in order to help them adjust to their loss.

'Both a companion piece to and in many ways a reversal of Dogtooth, Alps finds Lanthimos building on that film’s surreally terse style and notions of communication and identity without diluting its singularity or concentration. Working with cinematographer Christos Voudouris, he composes his images (with characters frequently decapitated by off-center framing or liquefied into out-of-focus background forms) to conjure up an atmosphere of dread that hangs over even the most deceptively tranquil scenes. By swathing every relationship in layers of hierarchical pretense and distortion, Lanthimos envisions social order itself as a continuous performance, an existential variation of Shakespeare’s dictum about the human race as players on the world’s stage. For him, the roles people assign each other can weigh as much as the stone masks of ancient Greek theater.' - Fernando F. Croce, Slant

The screening on Sunday 13 April will be followed by an in-person or Zoom Q&A with director Sophia Exarhou.

It will be introduced by film critic Savina Petkova.

Synopsis:

Under the hot Greek sun, the animators at an all-inclusive island resort prepare for the busy touristic season. Kalia is the group leader. As summer intensifies and the work pressure builds up, their nights become violent and Kalia's struggle is revealed in the darkness. But when the spotlights turn on again, the show must go on.

Curator's note:

The program concludes with Animal (2023) by Sophia Exarchou, which offers the non-Instagrammable aspect of Greek summer by focusing on the working conditions of entertainment labour in tourist resorts. Filmed with a handheld camera, the viewer can almost smell the cigarettes and alcohol seeping from the screen - an experience in stark contrast to the meticulously composed cinema of Tsangari and Lanthimos.

Savina Petkova is a Bulgarian film critic and programmer based in London, UK with a PhD in Film Studies (King's College London) and a Film Studies Master's Degree (UCL). As a critic and journalist, she has written for Cineuropa, Variety, Sight and Sound, MUBI Notebook, Little White Lies, and many others. Since 2024, she has served as the Programming Panel Lead (features) at the Cambridge Film Festival and as a Features Programmer at the Sofia International Film Festival.  Savina mentors young critics in one of the European Workshops for Film Criticism, being an alumna of Berlinale (2020) and Sarajevo (2020) Talents Press, as well as the Locarno Critics Academy (2023).

The screening on Sunday 9 March the screening will be introduced by Savina Petkova.

Synopsis:

Marina, an emotionally stunted 23-year-old, lives with her dying architect father in a seaside factory town. Finding humans strange and repellent, she keeps her distance, watching David Attenborough nature documentaries instead. Then a stranger arrives and challenges her to a foosball duel.

Curator's note:

In 2009, as the financial crisis broke and Grexit fears loomed, the Greek film industry was rocked by two cinematic grenades. First came Dogtooth (2009), by Yorgos Lanthimos, followed by Attenberg (2010) from emerging director Athina Rachel Tsangkari. Tsangari and Lanthimos reimagined Greece through an unconventional lens, deploying a cool gaze and a deadpan sense of humor that sharply diverged from traditional depictions of Zorba-esque mediterranean exuberance.

Savina Petkova is a Bulgarian film critic and programmer based in London, UK with a PhD in Film Studies (King's College London) and a Film Studies Master's Degree (UCL). As a critic and journalist, she has written for Cineuropa, Variety, Sight and Sound, MUBI Notebook, Little White Lies, and many others. Since 2024, she has served as the Programming Panel Lead (features) at the Cambridge Film Festival and as a Features Programmer at the Sofia International Film Festival.  Savina mentors young critics in one of the European Workshops for Film Criticism, being an alumna of Berlinale (2020) and Sarajevo (2020) Talents Press, as well as the Locarno Critics Academy (2023).

Our screening on 20 February will be introduced by novelist and publisher Nicholas Royle, and will be followed by a post-film discussion in the cinema bar.

Bad Timing bookended a decade of extraordinary creativity for Nicolas Roeg that includes Performance, Walkabout, Don’t Look Now, and The Man Who Fell to Earth. In these films, Roeg experimented with montage and sound to explore aspects of identity, memory, trauma, sex and time. Bad Timing represents, perhaps, the purest exhibition of Roeg’s unique style, and thematic concerns.

The film is structured around two intercut timelines. The first unfolds in the present, and concerns the suicide attempt of a young women named Milena (Theresa Russell) and the subsequent investigation into her psychology teaching ex-boyfriend Alex (Art Garfunkel) by police Inspector Netusil (Harvey Keitel). The second timeline presents a series of roughly chronological scenes depicting the meeting between Milena and Alex, and the subsequent rise and fall of their relationship.

Decried (accurately) as 'a sick film made by sick people for sick people' by its own distributor, Rank, Bad Timing is an abrasive and pessimistic examination of sexuality; an erotic film that is curiously unsensual - in part due to Garfunkel's anti-charismatic performance. It is also, nonetheless, a stylistic tour de force, full of rich symbolic detail and playful combinations of sound/music and imagery.  

Content warning: contains a scene of graphic rape.

Bar Shorts presents a programme of films curated by the dynamic duo of Scottish animation - Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson. Working together since they were students at Edinburgh College of Art in the early 2010s, their films have been described as 'inventive', 'emotional', 'hilarious' and 'fundamentally entertaining'. And they've won a bucket load of awards - BAFTAs, BAAs, MacLaren Awards to name but a few. Whether working together or individually, we think they're two of the most influential people working in UK film and animation today and we're hugely proud to have them at Bar Shorts. And they're dead funny.  

Will and Ainslie will be in conversation with Chris Shepherd after the screening.

The full programme will be confirmed shortly. It will include a selection of Will and Ainslie's award winning films and new work. And films that have influenced them:

Monkey Love Experiments

Shackle

Non-Fungible Therapy

One Little Thing

Skhizein by Jeremy Clapin

End Scene by Steffen Gebjerg

Brother by Adam Elliot

Mound by Alison Shulnik

Nuggets by Andreas Hykade

More to be confirmed soon

Join us this Valentine's day for a special screening of romantic classic Moonstruck, which was proposed by our member Kirsty. The screening will be preceded by a cosy La bohème-scored cocktail hour, and tickets will include a 'Cher-ry cocktail' to set the mood.

Event timings:

18:45 - 19:45  'Cher-ry cocktail' hour

19:45 - 21:35  Screening of Moonstruck

The cocktail will be available in both an alcoholic and non-alcoholic version, and was created in collaboration with our friends at Luxardo, who are providing their Sour Cherry Gin and iconic Maraschino Cocktail Cherries for the occasion.

£16.50 tickets are available now and are limited to 2 per member, meaning you can bring a date or mate, even if they're not a member. A complimentary cocktail (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) will be included, and seating for the screening will be unallocated.

About the film:

A full moon, a New York City night, and love and music in the air... One of the most enchanting romantic comedies of all time assembles a flawless ensemble cast for a tender and boisterously funny look at a multigenerational Italian American family in Brooklyn, wrestling with the complexities of love and marriage at every stage of life. At the centre of it all is a radiant Cher as Loretta, an unlucky-in-love bookkeeper whose feelings about her engagement to the staid Johnny (Danny Aiello) are thrown into question after she meets his hot-blooded brother, Ronny (Nicolas Cage), and one night at the opera changes everything. Winner of the Academy Awards for best actress (Cher), supporting actress (Olympia Dukakis), and original screenplay (by playwright John Patrick Shanley), this modern-day fairy tale is swept along on passionate Puccini melodies, and directed by master storyteller Norman Jewison with the heightened emotion to match.

The screening on 8 March will be introduced by director Luka Yuanyuan Yang.

To mark International Women's Day, the Chinese Cinema Project presents the debut documentary feature from visual artist and filmmaker Luka Yuanyuan Yang - a film that celebrates sisterhood, and the spirit of independent women.

Chinatown Cha-Cha originated from Yang’s research on Asian American women in show business. While tracing the films of Esther Eng, one of the earliest Asian American female directors, Yang discovered a group of former Chinatown nightclub dancers, who are deeply bonded by their passion for dancing.

As the second or third generation of Chinese immigrants in America (aged between 70-90) these dancers witnessed the rise and fall of the luminous nightclub era of San Francisco’s Chinatown. The film’s Chinese title, Women’s World, is itself a tribute to Esther Eng’s now lost 1939 film It’s A Women’s World, the world’s first all Chinese female cast movie.

The 92-year-old former owner of the illustrious ‘Forbidden City Nightclub’ and nightclub starlet Coby Yee decide to get back on stage again, after joining the senior dance troupe Grant Avenue Follies. Together they go on a final tour, bridging once isolated Chinese communities in the US, Cuba, and China.

To launch our Greek Contemporary Cinema season in style, we're thrilled to be partnering up with our friends & neighbours at The Life Goddess, just a short walk away on Store Street. For the occasion, they will be providing a sampler platter of their most delicious & authentic Greek treats, as well as a fantastic glass of wine - all included in your ticket. You'll have the chance to mingle with fellow members over these nibbles, and to purchase some of their excellent deli products in the pop-up shop in our bar area.

After this, we'll head into the screen for Alps, Yorgos Lanthimos' last Greek-language feature, that solidified his reputation as an auteur with a unique, absurdist vision, for which he is now globally known. 

The film will be followed by a panel discussion, with Dr Tonia Kazakopoulou, Dr Eleftheria Rania Kosmidou, Dr Eddie Falvey, and season curator Erifili Missiou. They will dive into Lanthimos' work and the development of Greek cinema since the turn of the century.

Event timings:

15:00 - 16:30  Greek wine, nibbles & pop-up shopping

16:30 - 16:40  Introduction by season curator Erifili Missiou

16:40 - 18:15  Screening of Alps

18:15 - 19:00  Panel discussion

Tickets are available for £18.50, which includes a glass of Greek wine, a sampler plate, and an unallocated seat for the screening and panel discussion. They are restricted to 2 per member, meaning you can bring a friend along and introduce them to the cinema.

Important info:

The team behind The Life Goddess will provide a variety of tasty nibbles, all of which are suitable for vegetarians. If you have any dietary restrictions or allergies, please notify us by emailing membership@thegardencinema.co.uk at least 72 hours in advance, so we can try to cater for them. Although we will do our best, we may not be able to provide substitutes for certain dishes.

About the film:

The Alps is a secret society including a nurse, a gym coach, a gymnast and a paramedic. They offer a unique service: the recently bereaved can hire them to act as surrogates for the deceased loved ones - wearing their clothes, adopting their mannerisms, etc. - in order to help them adjust to their loss.

About the panellists:

Dr Tonia Kazakopoulou is a Lecturer in Film & Television at the University of Reading. Her research interests include women's cinema of small nations, and particularly of Greece; contemporary European and world cinemas; the politics of representation in film and television. She has been the curator of the international standing conference Contemporary Greek Film Cultures, and she has also published on women's cinema, on Greek women screenwriters, on contemporary Greek cinema and motherhood, as well as on the female characters in Yorgos Lanthimos' films.

Dr Eleftheria Rania Kosmidou is a Lecturer in Film Production at the University of Salford. In her work Rania studies European civil war films, cultural memory, Brechtian cinema and cinematic modernisms, the cinema of Theo Angelopoulos and contemporary Greek cinema. She has published on the above subjects in journals, edited collections and in her monograph European Civil War Films: Memory, Conflict and Nostalgia (Routledge 2013; 2016). Her most recent work (Routledge, in production) is a book on intangible cultural heritage. She is currently writing her second monograph on Yorgos Lanthimos’s films, and editing a special journal issue on film and realisms.

Dr Eddie Falvey is an independent film scholar. He completed his AHRC-funded PhD in Film Studies at University of Exeter in 2018 and his work mostly focuses on industrial film histories and the diversities of cult cinema. He is author of Re-Animator (2021) and New York on Early Films: The Archive and the City (forthcoming), as well as editor of ReFocus: The Films of Nicolas Winding Refn (with Kate Moffat and Thomas Joseph Watson, forthcoming), The Cinema of Yorgos Lanthimos: Films, Form, Philosophy (2022), and New Blood: Critical Approaches to Contemporary Horror (with Joe Hickinbottom and Jonathan Wroot, 2020).

Erifili Missiou is a writer/ director from Greece, with extensive professional experience in Film and Fine Arts. She currently serves as Head Programmer at The Garden Cinema and Artistic Director of EFN Short Film Festival. She is the curator of Women Aren't Funny, Who is Luis Buñuel, Ealing Comedies, Contemporary Greek Cinema and Queer Cinema at The Garden Cinema. She has a track record of curating disability-focused film programs that promote inclusivity and accessibility and facilitating events tailored to the needs of neurodivergent, Deaf, and hard-of-hearing communities.

About The Life Goddess:

The Life Goddess, greek deli divine, is a genuine cuisine project aiming to become a reference of new hellenic kitchen to the world. The cooking philosophy is based on a rustic tradition, so unrefined and simple that is deeply friendly and relaxing. The journey of the senses starts from mother-earth and finishes at a feast on a table where all the family, friends and companions share the same nourishment and enjoy the sublime result of their efforts. For Greeks preparing a meal for someone is the ultimate token of respect, gratitude, friendship and love. Our philosophy is that good quality sustenance is the epitome of a healthy and happy life!

Synopsis:

A father and a son long lost. Love and hate. Digging deep into mud to find their roots. Revenge and Redemption. A Western, revisited.

Curator's note:

Digger (2020), produced by Rachel Athina Tsangari, is another brilliant tragicomedy, set in the stunningly pictured damp woodlands of Northern Greece. Reminiscent of Rodrigo Sorogoyen's The Beasts, though distinctly its own film, conflict is at its core: between nature and machine, local community and so-called progress, and a father and his long-estranged son.

The first-ever feature documentary on acclaimed London-born artist Chris Gollon (1953 - 2017), Life in Paint explores his pioneering use of music to create new imagery; from lyrics by Bob Dylan, Neil Young or Talk Talk, to direct collaborations with musicians such as Yi Yao, Eleanor McEvoy and Thurston Moore, who has hailed Gollon’s “creative and modest genius”.

A sensitive and innovative painter of women, Gollon also expressed a powerful common humanity via his androgynous figures, and there has been a surge of interest in his work since his untimely death just seven years ago. Via found footage and BBC clips, the film shows Gollon disarmingly revealing his creative process and innovative techniques. Moving montages of Gollon’s images, combined with music by artists including The Skids, Gavin Bryars, Sleaford Mods, Yi Yao and Eleanor McEvoy, provide insights into how Gollon fused the two art forms, and how each energised and changed the other.

The film will be followed by a Q&A with the film's director Mark Calderbank.

Cinema Mentiré presents the UK premiere of Chaco.

Set in 1934, during the Chaco War fought between Bolivia and Paraguay, this spare historical drama follows a small regiment made up of Aymara and Quechua Indigenous soldiers commanded by a retired, gruff German officer fighting for the Bolivian Army. The troop is in a limbo, looking fruitlessly for the enemy, and wandering through the hostile, semi-arid lowlands in extreme weather. Isolation, despair and hunger grow with every day, every hellish march and hastily erected camp. Pitched somewhere between the bone-dry absurdism of Lucrecia Martel’s Zama and the minimalist drone of Lisandro Alonso’s Los muertos, and inspired by the experiences of his grandfather, director Diego Mondaca’s debut feature is a powerful meditation on the futility and absurdity of war.

The screening will be introduced by the Cinema Mentiré team.

This film is part of Cinema Mentiré's season of recent Bolivian films in partnership with The Garden Cinema - Echoes and Horizons: Contemporary Bolivian Cinema.

A special screening of films by animator and animation director Emma Calder who passed away in 2024.

The event, presented by London Animation Club’s Martin Pickles, will be a celebration of Emma’s work and her legacy as both an animator and a fierce advocate for independent animation.

Emma was born in London and studied Graphic Design at the Royal College of Art. Her RCA animated films, Ilkla Moor Baht Hat (1981) and Madame Potatoe (1983) went on to screen at ICA New Contemporaries, Tate Gallery and on Channel 4. In 1989 she set up Pearly Oyster Productions with long-term collaborator Ged Haney and went on to produce numerous commercial, commissioned and personal projects.

Her short The Queen’s Monastery (1998) was distributed in cinemas throughout the UK and North America and won numerous prizes, including a Silver Hugo at Chicago International Film Festival, second prize at Filmfest Dresden, Best Professional Film at Bradford International Film Festival and Special Jury Prize at Animafest Zagreb.

In 2022 Emma directed BFI-funded Beware of Trains, which has played at dozens of festivals and won prizes at the British Animation Awards, London International Film Festival, Brighton International Animation Festival and Tricky Women/Tricky Realities, where it won the Maria Lassnig Golden Film Reel prize.

Emma was a teacher, lecturer, campaigner and activist for animation and animation filmmakers and an early and active supporter of London Animation Club. Her lively, enthusiastic and positive contributions to club nights will be sorely missed. Tonight’s programme is based upon work which Emma screened there from 2012 onwards and certain films are introduced by Emma herself.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with special guests.Some of the films are preceded by a short video introduction by Emma herself.

Ilkla Moor Baht Tat + introduction (Emma Calder, UK, 1981)

Madam Potatoe (Emma Calder, UK, 1983)

The Queen's Monastery (Emma Calder, UK, 1998)

Random Person: Quantum Cloud + introduction (Emma Calder, UK, 2012)

Boudica + introduction (Emma Calder, UK, 2014)

Random Person: Vasectomy (Emma Calder, UK, 2014)

Everyone Is Waiting For Something To Happen + introduction (Emma Calder, UK, 2014)

Skateboard Heaven/Strung Out - Animation Tests (Emma Calder, UK, 2017)

Random Person: Random Walk (Emma Calder, UK, 2019)

Not Daft Intro Trailer + introduction (Emma Calder, UK, 2023)

Beware Of Trains (Emma Calder, UK, 2022)

London Animation Club is a monthly event for animators and people interested in animation in the capital, created and curated by Martin Pickles. Club members and regular guests meet and present their work in informal surroundings conducive to talking and sharing ideas. Our guests range from well-known figures, such as Phil Davies, the producer of Peppa Pig, and Peter Firmin, the co-creator of Bagpuss, through to award-winning independent animators like Emma Calder, along with experimental filmmakers and academics, with much in between.

This is a free event for children aged 12+. Each ticket will admit one child. Any child under 18 must be accompanied by a parent/ guardian throughout the duration of the workshop (the parent/ guardian will not require a ticket).

Due to the nature of the workshop there are only 15 places available.

Foley; noun: Relating to or concerned with the addition of recorded sound effects after the shooting of a film.

Foley Nights is an event where you get the opportunity to directly participate in the act of making live ‘foley’ in response to a selection of film clips. Join leading Foley Artist Ruth Sullivan (IMDB) to create sounds with objects (and celery)!

Improvise and perform live, watch, and hear others do the same. Everyone has a go!

Delivered by Modus Arts, a sonic arts organisation delivering sound-based projects across the UK. Modus provides specialist microphones and sound generating equipment so everyone can have a go at creating their own live sound effects.

Modus Arts draw on interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches to developing public-facing sound-based artworks and events. In 2023 we became a National Portfolio Organisation with Arts Council England.

https://www.foleynights.com/

@modusarts

The annual London Mountain Film Festival collection of shorter films to amaze, enlighten, surprise and inspire you! There really is something for everyone in this collection, so if your interest in adventure reaches far and wide then this is for you. Buckle up!

Many Small Steps 3’ (Rob Waugh) A young boy's passion for nature leads him to conquer his first Munro, offering a heartwarming metaphor for life's challenges and triumphs.

Eliot Jackson - Drop The Mic 2’ (Scott Secco) A thrilling ride with Eliot Jackson, a mountain biking legend with hidden superpowers.

Concrete Summer 14’ (Jacob Watson) We follow Robbo as he tries to reignite the fixed-gear scene in Liverpool, showing the sweeter side of the illegal sport of alleycat racing.

Wild Aerial 16’ (Trixie Pacis) Blending techniques from the disparate worlds of mountaineering and acrobatics, adventure aerialist Sasha Galitzki performs gravity-defying routines in subzero temperatures.

The Smoke That Thunders 4’ (Caleb Roberts) Brave the untamed Zambezi with Ben Marr as he battles upstream to conquer the legendary Minus rapids.

Tether 12’ (Laura Basil Duncan) From skateparks to sheep pastures, UK skateboarder Lois Pendlebury navigates an unplanned transition to shepherding.

Unplugged 4’ (Samuel McMahon) Liam Rivera carves through untouched snow in a breathtaking black-and-white free-ride film with only the mountains' ambient sounds.

The Road to No Man’s Land 7’ (Solomon Olsen) Will's quest for freedom leads him into the Sahara's heart, where a deteriorating motorbike tests his limits.

Defensoras 4’ (Eilidh Munro, Bethan John) A defiant and resilient collective of Bolivian indigenous female defenders risk their lives standing up to power.

My Wilderness 4’ (Rupert Shanks, Ana Norrie-Toch) Ana's passion for Scotland's wild terrains shapes her art, blending bikepacking and choreography.

Salt 12’ (Alice Ward) Unusually salty at birth, Alice is diagnosed for Cystic Fibrosis before becoming the first woman in Ireland to shoot surf films in water from a female perspective.

Travelling Home 5’ (Juliet Klottrup) A retired farrier’s heartfelt annual pilgrimage to the Appleby Horse Fair, capturing the essence of tradition and community in Cumbria.

Wolf of Wingsuit 4’ (Aaron Garcia) The beautiful and towering mountains of Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland - an off-season paradise for Wingsuit professionals.

(This programme may change)

Housewife Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is not happy. She is agoraphobic, a hypochondriac, and paranoid about animals, birds, insects, plants, and flowers. She is confrontational with everyone, especially her plumber husband Curtley and her unemployed son Moses, whom she thinks is wasting his life. Her sister Chantelle (Michele Austin) runs a thriving hair salon. A single mum, she enjoys life, and lives harmoniously with her daughters Kayla, who works in cosmetics, and Aleisha, a trainee lawyer.

Leigh’s new film explores family relationships in the post-pandemic world. After over a decade spent making his two epic period films Mr. Turner and Peterloo, Mike Leigh returns to his ongoing exploration of the contemporary world with this tragi-comic study of human strengths and weaknesses.

The Garden Cinema View:

Mike Leigh’s return to contemporary social drama is a late career triumph, and one of the best British films of recent years. The cast, led by an astonishing performance from Marianne Jean-Baptiste, have emerged from Leigh’s improvisational workshop process with deeply authentic characters. This tactile sense of realism opens up the film into extremely funny, and also difficult and emotional spheres. Cinematography from the late, great, Dick Pope presents a flat and sterile North London. And whilst Hollywood still attracts criticism for photography standards which favour white actors, such high-key lighting also serves to bring out the skin tone contrasts in the predominantly British-Caribbean cast.

There is a tender approach to even the most difficult of characters that feels particular to Leigh, and Hard Truths reminds us of his unique talents in chronicling British lives.  

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Adriana Brownlee

DREAM AGAIN with Adriana Brownlee

Directed by Mathis Decroux

Adriana Brownlee is the youngest woman to climb all 14 of the world's tallest mountains that are over 8,000m high. The 23-year-old British mountaineer made history with her achievement. In this film she faces the formidable challenges of Gasherbrum I and Gasherbrum II. These two peaks, her 10th and 11th summits, mark her final climbs in Pakistan on this extraordinary journey.

In this phase, Adriana evolves her climbing style by striving for minimal assistance and forgoing supplemental oxygen, climbing alongside her trusted partner, Geljen Sherpa. This not only brings her incredible encounters, powerful emotions and painful moments, but it also opens her eyes on the 8000 industry.

This story is about more than reaching summits. It’s about a young woman chasing her dreams, rediscovering the joy and wonder of her childhood passion, and inspiring others to pursue their own aspirations. Adriana’s journey captures the essence of resilience, the power of dreaming big, and the drive to push beyond limits in pursuit of something extraordinary.

EVEREST REVISITED 1924-2024

Directed by John Porter and Dom Bush

Everest Revisited 1924-2024 explores the characters on the 1924 expeditions, both the British and those they hired to support the expedition - Sherpa, Bhotia and Tibetans. It uses extensive historical film and photographic material as well as interviews with Everest scholars and mountaineers. Moving from the past to the present, the film asks: What the mountain means to climbers and Nepalis 100 years on from this famous expedition that lost a Bhotia, a Ghurkha and of course Mallory and Irvine on the mountain.

Julie Summers, the great niece of Sandy Irvine and mountaineer Matt Sharman seek insights from many well-known climbers including Sir Chris Bonington, Rebecca Stephens, Krish Thapa, Stephen Venables, Dawson Stelfox and Leo Houlding. Observations on historical and social impacts are provided by Dr. Jonathan Westway and Ed Douglas, while Dr. Melanie Windridge talks about the beginnings of the science of Everest.

In 1971 Brazil, facing the tightening grip of a military dictatorship, Eunice Paiva, a mother of five children, is forced to reinvent herself after her family suffers a violent and arbitrary act by the government.

I’m Still Here is based on Marcelo Rubens Paiva's biographical book and tells the true story that helped reconstruct an important part of Brazil’s hidden history.

As The Garden Cinema members community is not just made up of cinema enthusiasts, but also covers a large range of film creatives, we like to help connect our members working across all departments of the industry.

For our regular industry panels, we invite knowledgeable speakers to discuss their specific branch of the industry, leaving plenty of time for asking questions. After the discussion, we all head into the Garden Bar, to network with fellow members.

On Monday 17 February we will be joined by editors Kate Miller and Dan Noall, who will discuss their experiences and approaches to editing trailers, and their role within the promotional campaigns of both film and tv productions, as well as curated cinema programmes.

Tickets are restricted to 1 per member, and available for just £5, which includes a token for a complimentary house wine, beer or soft/hot drink.

About the speakers:

Kate Miller

Kate Miller is a London based Film Editor and Musician. Over the past decade Kate has worked both freelance and in-house composing and more recently editing. She is currently working in-house at Silk Factory, a specialist entertainment marketing agency. Kate edits trailers for Film, TV and branded content.

Kate Miller is a Central Saint Martins Alumni with a degree in Fine Art. She works for both independent film makers and produces works in-house for clients such as Disney, HBO, BFI and Netflix.

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Dan Noall

Dan Noall is a trailer editor based in London, and has worked on campaigns for Curzon, BFI, Dogwoof, Park Circus and Picturehouse, among others. His trailers strive to capture the unique qualities of each release in the most creative way possible. His love of classic film has lead him to specialise in re-release and film season trailers, most recently for Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles and the accompanying Chantal Akerman season at BFI Southbank. In 2024 he set up Fade Out, a boutique trailer agency specialising in independent, art-house and classic film.

Website | Instagram

Check out our Youtube channel for videos of our previous industry panels, which have included:

• Screenwriting, with Luna Carmoon (Hoard) and Daniel Kokotajlo (Starve Acre)
• Casting, with Rebecca Wright (Chuck Chuck Baby) and Lucy Jordan (Kinds of Kindness, Poor Things)
• Animation, with Michaël Dudok de Wit (The Red Turtle) and Alexandra Sasha Balan (The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse)
• Cinematography, with Evelin van Rei (Passenger), Bebe Dierken (Midas Man) and Nanu Segal (Hoard)
• Costume, with Joanna Johnston (Lincoln) and Charlotte Finlay (Barbie)
• Documentary, with Edward Lovelace (Name Me Lawand) and Tom Howson (Dogwoof)
• Film festivals, with Christina Papasotiriou (Raindance Film Festival) and Philip Ilson (London Short Film Festival)
• Film journalism, with Jacob Stolworthy (The Independent) and Jack Shepherd (Total Film)
• Production, with Georgia Goggin (Pretty Red Dress) and Susan Simnett (Fadia's Tree)

Our screening on 13 February is introduced by BFI artist's moving image Curator William Fowler, and will be followed by a post-film discussion group in the cinema bar.

When Queen Elizabeth I asks her court alchemist to show her England in the future, she’s transported 400 years to a post-apocalyptic wasteland of roving girl gangs, an all-powerful media mogul, fascistic police, scattered filth, and twisted sex. With Jubilee, legendary British filmmaker Derek Jarman channeled political dissent and artistic daring into a revolutionary blend of history and fantasy, musical and cinematic experimentation, satire and anger, fashion and philosophy. With its uninhibited punk petulance and sloganeering, Jubilee brings together many cultural and musical icons of the time, including Jordan, Toyah Willcox, Little Nell, Wayne County, Adam Ant, and Brian Eno (with his first original film score), to create a genuinely unique, unforgettable vision. Ahead of its time and often frighteningly accurate in its predictions, it is a fascinating historical document and a gorgeous work of film art.

In anticipation of Bi Gan’s third feature Resurrection (following his Long Day's Journey Into Night), the Chinese Cinema Project revisits his aesthetically remarkable and poetry-filled debut Kaili Blues, which premiered at Locarno Film Festival 10 years ago. The film follows a small-town doctor who finds himself interacting with people from his past and future, whilst travelling the countryside to locate his nephew. Shot primarily in Kaili, Guizhou Province, Bi Gan’s hometown, using local dialect, the screening will have both Chinese and English subtitles.

This special screening also celebrates Chinese New Year 2025, and which is the third successive Garden Cinema CNY special event, following the UK Premiere of Kong Dashan’s Journey to the West in 2023, and an immersive screening of Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love in 2024.

A very brief greeting video from director Bi Gan will be played before both screening on 29 January (Chinese New Year's Day) and 16 February. 

'The intense blues and greens, the saturated, tangibly thick light and shade of the settings, the impossible visions of twirling, ever-present disco mirror balls, defying space, are conjured into light and sound, and, via poetry, into cinema.' -  Cinema Scope

The screening on Monday February 24 will be introduced by film programmer Nathasha Orlando Kappler.

This film was proposed by our member Evelyn Griffiths, who writes: 'Miranda July has many talents- director, screenwriter, actress and author. Following on from the success of her latest book All Fours which topped many book charts last year, it would be great to see her film Kajillionaire on the big screen!'

From acclaimed writer/director Miranda July comes a profoundly moving and wildly original queer comedy. Con-artists Theresa (Debra Winger) and Robert (Richard Jenkins) have spent 26 years training their only daughter, Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood), to swindle, scam, and steal at every opportunity. During a desperate, hastily conceived heist, they charm a stranger (Gina Rodriguez) into joining their next scam, only to have their entire world turned upside down.

Evan Rachel Wood in an interview with Pride.com:

"One of the things I absolutely loved about this movie that really made me emotional was the fact that there was that element, and there was a love story in the film, but the film is not a queer love story. They just happen to be queer. It's never talked about. Gender is never discussed, sexuality is never discussed. It just is. And that in itself is the statement."

Nathasha Orlando Kappler is a Mexican-German freelance film programmer based in London, with a Master’s Degree in Film Studies, Programming, and Curation at the National Film and Television School. She has previously served as a programmer for Cambridge Film Festival, Irish Film Festival London, Berlin Film Society, Deptford Cinema, and Reverie Cineclub. As a writer, she has contributed to publications such as Sight and Sound Magazine and Photogénie.

Le Mépris is screening to celebrate the centenary of the great Georges Delerue, and will be introduced by Oscar nominated composer Gary Yershon.

Jean-Luc Godard’s subversive foray into commercial filmmaking is a star-studded Cinemascope epic. Le Mépris stars Michel Piccoli as a screenwriter torn between the demands of a proud European director (played by legendary director Fritz Lang), a crude and arrogant American producer (Jack Palance), and his disillusioned wife, Camille (Brigitte Bardot), as he attempts to doctor the script for a new film version of The Odyssey.

Please note, this screening will take place in our new Screen 3, which will not yet have step-free access whilst we wait for our platform lift to be installed.

The screening on Sunday 23 February will be followed by a Zoom Q&A with director Yannis Economides.

It will be introduced by season curator and Garden Cinema head programmer, Erifili Missiou.

Content Warning: This film contains explicit language.

Synopsis:

Dimitris, a grumpy middle-aged man, is having a hard time with his business partner on a particular decision as to opening a new business; and he’s also having a hell of a time with his family members. He has a really short temper, and the unpleasant behaviour of his nasty wife and his disrespectful children don’t contribute much to his health.

Curator's note:

Matchbox viscerally portrays the dark side of the Greek family. Taking the Greek audience by surprise, and now a cult classic, it was an outright slap in the face in 2002, and its heightened realism continues to shock audiences to this day.

Grace Pudel is a lonely misfit with an affinity for collecting ornamental snails and an intense love for books. At a young age, when Grace is separated from her fire-breathing twin brother Gilbert, she falls into a spiral of anxiety and angst. Despite a continued series of hardships, inspiration and hope emerge when she strikes up an enduring friendship with an elderly eccentric woman named Pinky, who is full of grit and lust for life. From Academy Award-winning animation writer and director Adam Elliot, Memoir of a Snail is a poignant, heartfelt, hilarious chronicle of the life of an outsider finding her confidence and silver linings amongst the clutter of everyday life.

Nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the 2025 Academy Awards.

Winner Best Film at London Film Festival 2024

The Garden Cinema View:

This delightful stop-motion feature contends with difficult subjects with easy going charm and idiosyncratically Aussie humour. Featuring a life narrated in (predominantly) flashback, Memoir of a Snail presents a bleakly hilarious vision of 1970s Melbourne and Canberra. Exploring surprisingly raw material, including suicide and child abuse, this is not a film for children. Nonetheless, the inventive Claymation evokes a kind of childlike wonder which channels a direct emotional response from the audience. The slimy trail of despair is addressed in an amusingly matter-of-fact tone, which is both funny and relatable. Eventually, its all quite moving.  

Moana 2 is the thrilling sequel to Disney's beloved 2016 animated musical. This time, Moana, now a seasoned wayfinder, receives an unexpected call from her ancestors that leads her on a daring new adventure beyond the familiar shores of Motunui.

Accompanied by the ever-powerful demigod Maui and a fresh crew of unlikely seafarers, Moana embarks on a journey deep into the far seas of Oceania. Their mission: to break an ancient curse that threatens a long-lost island once vital to her ancestors. Along the way, Moana and her companions must face dangerous waters, hidden islands, and mysterious foes—including a formidable sea monster.

Featuring returning stars Auli’i Cravalho as Moana and Dwayne Johnson as Maui, Moana 2 promises a heart-pounding voyage filled with new songs, vibrant animation, and the signature Disney magic.

Moana 2 contains several sequences with flashing lights that may affect those who are susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy or have other photosensitivities.

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

In Morocco Marlene Dietrich plays Amy Jolly, a wandering cabaret singer with a shady past who ends up on the shores of North Africa and falls for legionnaire Tom Brown, played by Gary Cooper. In one of Dietrich's iconic screen moments, she performs one of the first ever female-to-female kisses on a Hollywood screen. Morocco was also one of her most famous collaborations with auteur Josef von Sternberg.

Sam Mills will introduce the film and discuss how Dietrich's bisexuality influenced her acting, how the famous kiss made it past Hollywood censors, and how Dietrich's creative partnership - and tussles - with her director von Sternberg flavoured her performance.

Sam Mills

Sam Mills is the author of numerous works of non-fiction and novels, including Uneven: On Bisexuality, which explores bisexuality across the last two centuries through the lives and lives of various cultural figures such as Oscar Wilde, Colette, Bessie Smith, Susan Sontag, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Madonna and Marlene Dietrich. Her previous publications include the novels The Watermark (Granta) and The Quiddity of Will Self (Corsair) and the memoir The Fragments of My Father (4th Estate), which was shortlisted for the Barbellion Prize. She has written for a number of publications, including The Guardian, The Independent, The Spectator and The London Magazine. She is the co-founder of indie press Dodo Ink, a publisher dedicated to publishing daring and difficult fiction.

Pablo Navarrete's parents were forced to leave Chile after a military coup on 11 September 1973. They arrived in the UK as political refugees after spending time in the Pinochet dictatorship’s torture centres. They didn’t know it then, but Britain would be where they would settle, have a family, and still live, nearly 50 years later.

Filmed over more than three years, Mother, Country is a deeply personal film that follows the director as he travels to Chile with his parents in 2020 to witness a people’s uprising and finally confront their past.

The screening will be followed by a live Q&A with director Pablo Navarrete and his mother, Cristina Godoy-Navarrete, hosted by Mariela Kohon, Assistant Director, Strategy & Delivery, Trade Union Congress (TUC).

Click here to listen to a Q&A with them chaired by journalist Matt Kennard, after a sold-out September 2024 screening of the film at the Garden Cinema.

Matt's new book The Racket will be available to buy at the cinema.

'Pablo Navarrete focuses on his family in a simple yet poignant story about Chile’s traumatic past' Dmovies.org

Told in flashbacks, the story introduces Mufasa as an orphaned cub, lost and alone until he meets a sympathetic lion named Taka - the heir to a royal bloodline. The chance meeting sets in motion an expansive journey of an extraordinary group of misfits searching for their destiny - their bonds will be tested as they work together to evade a threatening and deadly foe.

Blending live-action filmmaking techniques with photoreal computer-generated imagery, Mufasa: The Lion King is directed by Barry Jenkins and features songs by Grammy Award-winning songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda.

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 30 March will be introduced by ethnomusicologist Ed Emery.

Synopsis:

The story of songwriter Eftyhia Papagiannopoulou (1893-1972), who escaped the burning of Smyrna and journeyed to Athens, Greece, where she became a major figure in Greek popular music and the beloved lyricist of the country.

Curator's note:

My Name is Eftuxia (2019) is the most "sane" film in this program. An engrossing biopic of Rebetiko genre songwriter Eftihia Papagianopoulou, it traces the life of this feisty woman whose life challenged societal norms, against the backdrop of tumultuous challenges - both the country’s and her own.

Ed Emery is an ethnomusicologist and Research Associate in the Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies [SOAS, London]. For 25 years he has been engaged with Rebetiko Studies both in London and in Greece (the annual Hydra Rebetiko Gathering). He is the organiser of the famous SOAS Rebetiko Band, where his chosen instruments are tzoura and baglama. In January 2025 he completed the editing of the SOAS Rebetiko Reader. Copies will be on display at the film showing. The book is freely downloadable from www.geocities.ws/soasrebetikoreader.

This screening will be introduced by John Wischmeyer (City Lit).

Nothing and nobody is spared from Lindsay Anderson and writer David Sherwin’s caustic gaze in their inexhaustibly inventive and sometimes horrifying satire, the second in their ‘state of the nation’ trilogy. Sparked by an idea proposed by star Malcolm McDowell, it follows the continuing adventures of the Mick Travis character, now an ambitious coffee salesman, as he travels around a Britain of Kafka-esque bureaucracy and absurdity, his exploits commented on throughout by Alan Price’s musical interludes.

Content warning: Contains scenes of blackface and racist stereotyping.

Set against a landscape dominated by an algorithm-driven gig economy, in a world designed to keep us apart, On Falling explores the silent, vital struggle to find meaning and connection. It tells the story of Aurora, a Portuguese migrant working as a warehouse picker in Edinburgh, Scotland. Trapped between the confines of a vast distribution centre and the solitude of her own bedroom, Aurora seeks out every opportunity to resist the alienation and isolation that threaten her sense of self.

The screening on Sunday 16 March will be followed by an in-person or Zoom Q&A with director Filipos Tsitos.

It will be introduced by Dr. Tonia Kazakopoulou.

Synopsis:

The title of Plato’s Academy is a little misleading because no Greek sages are in sight. Rather the film’s Greeks are four scruffy lay-abouts, three of whom own convenience stores at the same quiet Athens intersection. This allows them to sit and guzzle coffee or beer all day while studying the hard-working foreign laborers who have invaded “their” neighborhood.

Curator's note:

A hilarious satire, Plato's Academy (2009), is the purest comedy in this assembly. Released at a time when Albanian and Chinese immigrants flooded the country to take on low-paid jobs, it skewers Greeks’ xenophobic attitudes, and exposes their existential fears.

Tonia Kazakopoulou is a Lecturer in Film & Television at the University of Reading. Her research interests include women's cinema of small nations, and particularly of Greece; contemporary European and world cinemas; the politics of representation in film and television. She has been the curator of the international standing conference Contemporary Greek Film Cultures, and is the co-editor of the book Contemporary Greek Film Cultures form 1990s to the Present (Peter Lang, 2017). She has also published on women's cinema, on Greek women screenwriters, on contemporary Greek cinema and motherhood, as well as on the female characters in Yorgos Lanthimos's films.

Followed by a Q&A with the Brothers Quay.

Gareth Evans, series co-curator for Kinoteka writes: ‘Surely the world’s greatest practising stop-motion artist animators, the Brothers Quay have been painstakingly crafting their own unique, interlinked universe of astonishingly imagined animated worlds for over 45 years. Creating across the short, medium and long form, as well as in production design for opera, ballet and theatre, theirs is a startling cosmology, one informed and inhabited by the mystery and melancholy dreaming of Central and Eastern European artists, writers and wayward wanderers, most notably from the Polish constellation.'

Programme 1:

Stille Nacht I, 1’40’’

Street of Crocodiles ,21’30’’

Stille Nacht II, 3’30’’

In Absentia, 19’

Stille Nacht III, 3’30’’

Kinoteka Ident I, 30’’

Alice in Not so Wonderland, 3’30’’

Q&A with the Brothers Quay.

In a London premiere – and a world first for an assembly at this scale – 23 of their immaculately hand-crafted puppet film sets by the Brothers Quay will be on display in Bloomsbury’s Swedenborg House.

Organised by the Polish Cultural Institute in London and supported by the Polish Film Institute, the Kinoteka Polish Film Festival is an annual celebration of Poland’s rich cinematic output that showcases not only the best of contemporary filmmakers but also classics that make up Poland’s rich filmography. Kinoteka will return to celebrate its 23rd year from 6 March - 25 April 2025, featuring over 30 cinema screenings in leading venues around London. Alongside New Polish Cinema, Documentaries and Polish Cinemas Classics, this year's edition will also feature a retrospective of films by Wojciech Has as well as exciting Special Events and screenings of selected films from the Kinotkea programme in 8 UK cities as part of Kinoteka On Tour.

Gareth Evans, series co-curator for Kinoteka writes: ‘Surely the world’s greatest practising stop-motion artist animators, the Brothers Quay have been painstakingly crafting their own unique, interlinked universe of astonishingly imagined animated worlds for over 45 years. Creating across the short, medium and long form, as well as in production design for opera, ballet and theatre, theirs is a startling cosmology, one informed and inhabited by the mystery and melancholy dreaming of Central and Eastern European artists, writers and wayward wanderers, most notably from the Polish constellation'.

Programme 2

The Calligrapher, 1’

Kinoteka Ident II, 30’’

This Unnameable Little Broom, 11’

Unmistaken Hands, 26’’

The Comb, 18

In a London premiere – and a world first for an assembly at this scale – 23 of their immaculately hand-crafted puppet film sets by the Brothers Quay will be on display in Bloomsbury’s Swedenborg House.

Organised by the Polish Cultural Institute in London and supported by the Polish Film Institute, the Kinoteka Polish Film Festival is an annual celebration of Poland’s rich cinematic output that showcases not only the best of contemporary filmmakers but also classics that make up Poland’s rich filmography. Kinoteka will return to celebrate its 23rd year from 6 March - 25 April 2025, featuring over 30 cinema screenings in leading venues around London. Alongside New Polish Cinema, Documentaries and Polish Cinemas Classics, this year's edition will also feature a retrospective of films by Wojciech Has as well as exciting Special Events and screenings of selected films from the Kinotkea programme in 8 UK cities as part of Kinoteka On Tour.

This celebrated film won multiple awards, having started out as a movie-workshop for a group of students in Havana. With echoes of Ken Loach’s Kes, 11-year-old Chala keeps pigeons and illegally trains fighting dogs in order to support himself and his alcoholic mother. Chala is understood by his teacher Carmela, but when a new less experienced teacher sends him to a school for children with behavioural problems, controversy breaks out. Broader issues are exposed when intolerance and bureaucracy overtake the wellbeing and needs of the child. The movie kindled an intense social debate and the Ministry of Education promoted its discussion in schools.

 'A restrained portrayal of the tenderness between Chala and Carmela, who care for each other when family members who should cannot.” '

PLUS Short: An adventure of Elpidio Valdes | Una Aventura de Elpidio Valdes | Juan Padron | 1974, Cuba, ICAIC | animation | 7m |

Juan Padrón is the godfather of animation in Cuba and also revered across Latin America. Elpidio Valdés is a famous and much loved cartoon character in Cuban culture, who entertained generations of Cuban children as a symbol of rebellion against colonialism and imperialism. Recently restored by ICAIC in collaboration with Screen Cuba.

Screen Cuba: Films to Change the World is a collaborative project of the charity Music Fund for Cuba, the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, the Cuban Embassy in the UK and the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC).

Proceeds from the Solidarity ticket will to go to Cuban film institute (ICAIC) projects including restoration of classic films.

Please bear in mind that the age and rarity of this film means that the quality may not be what you are used to, however this is the last remaining version and a rare opportunity to see a hugely important and influential Cuban film of the 1970s.

A crisis between husband and wife in a working class marriage is the focus for a dramatic examination of the changes generated by the Revolution as many more women entered the workforce. This film sparked a widespread debate throughout Cuban society. The Family Code (1975) had declared household chores and childcare should be shared equally. The film depicts Teresa’s exhausting double shift and when she takes on extra duties as a factory union delegate, her husband berates her for neglecting her family. Yet she persists in her quest for control over her life.

Today an unmissable classic, at the time a very controversial film, it showed the Revolution was an ongoing struggle against entrenched attitudes for everyone. It also marked a turning point in filmmaking, shifting away from the fast moving close-ups of the 1960s to more documentary-style shots.

Screen Cuba: Films to Change the World is a collaborative project of the charity Music Fund for Cuba, the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, the Cuban Embassy in the UK and the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC).

Proceeds from the Solidarity ticket will to go to Cuban film institute (ICAIC) projects including restoration of classic films.

In 2018 an exciting historic artistic exchange took place hosted by the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC. For the first time, up to 400 Cuban artists (living on and outside the island) were set to perform together in a festival. Planning began when Obama was US president and talks were taking place between the US and Cuba. By the time of the festival, Trump was president and busy increasing the unilateral US blockade against the island. When Inti and his team finally arrived they were refused permission to film so instead delved into the artistic ties that connect the two countries. The resulting documentary is a moving collective testimony of artists and musicians, historians and politicians. As the hopeful director says 'In the future, what unites us will prevail over what separates us'.

Includes interviews with Cuban musicians Arturo O’Farril, Aymée Nuviola, Yissy García, Aldo López-Gavilán, Yosvany Terry, artists José Parlá and Manuel Mendive and many more.

Screen Cuba: Films to Change the World is a collaborative project of the charity Music Fund for Cuba, the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, the Cuban Embassy in the UK and the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC).

Proceeds from the Solidarity ticket will to go to Cuban film institute (ICAIC) projects including restoration of classic films.

Please bear in mind that the age and rarity of this film means that the quality may not be what you are used to, however this is the last remaining version and a rare opportunity to see a hugely important and influential Cuban film of the 1980s.

It’s Havana, a year before the 1959 revolution, and a group of young people are fighting against President Batista's tyranny in a clandestine action cell. A dramatic story of love, solidarity, illusions and sacrifice based on real events. An incredible first film, with a tight script like a thriller, by the most important current Cuban director. The fictional characters of Nereida and Ernesto made the actors, Isabel Santos and Luis Alberto García, an inseparable part of the history of Cuban cinema.

Pérez commented on his multiple award winning feature: 'I always knew that my first film was going to be about [this], because at the age of fifteen, when I was discovering cinema, I discovered that people my age were fighting for the Revolution. I felt that there was an epic that I had to tell…I did not participate in the armed struggle…but my memory was what most marked the film. I always tried to make every image alive, credible.'

Content Warning: Contains some scenes of violence

Screen Cuba: Films to Change the World is a collaborative project of the charity Music Fund for Cuba, the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, the Cuban Embassy in the UK and the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC).

Proceeds from the Solidarity ticket will to go to Cuban film institute (ICAIC) projects including restoration of classic films.

In his latest film Fernando Pérez, Cuba’s most important contemporary director, has created a dark comedy drama exploring perception and imagination through the eyes of a disabled autistic teenager with little means to communicate. When Nelsito is involved in an accident he observes life from his hospital bed, and imagines the dark, hidden and sometimes humorous sides of those around him - wicked children, murderous women, runaway grandmas, a swindler. Characters like these feature in five stories in the film that play with melodrama, absurdity, and black humour, and the director ensures that the spectator is never able to differentiate what is reality or the imagination of the protagonist-narrator.

Cuba selected the film for the 96th Academy Awards (2024).

Screen Cuba: Films to Change the World is a collaborative project of the charity Music Fund for Cuba, the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, the Cuban Embassy in the UK and the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC).

Proceeds from the Solidarity ticket will to go to Cuban film institute (ICAIC) projects including restoration of classic films.

Sisters July and September are thick as thieves, though very different - September is protective and distrustful of others, while July is open to and curious about the world. Their dynamic is a concern to their single mum, Sheela, who is unsure what to do with them. When September is suspended

from their school, July is left to fend for herself and begins to assert her own independence - which does not go unnoticed by September. Tension among the three women builds when they

take refuge in an old holiday home in Ireland, where July finds her bond with September shifting in ways she cannot entirely understand or control - and a series of surreal encounters test the family to their limit.

From a small cabin deep in the Białowieża Forest Simona Kossak (1943 - 2007) studied nature and made history, largely on her own terms. Adrian Panek’s engaging dramatised biography of the pioneering scientist (played by Sandra Drzymalska, EO) centres on her journey from family misfit (her grandfather was artist Wojciech Kossak) to ecological activist. Jakub Gierszał (Doppelganger, Ultima Thule) is her freedom loving photographer companion Lech Wilczek. The natural landscape, especially the deer, plays a pivotal role, exposing issues still relevant today around the position of women in science and our need to take care of the planet.

Followed by a Q&A with actress Sandra Drzymalska (TBC)

Organised by the Polish Cultural Institute in London and supported by the Polish Film Institute, the Kinoteka Polish Film Festival is an annual celebration of Poland’s rich cinematic output that showcases not only the best of contemporary filmmakers but also classics that make up Poland’s rich filmography. Kinoteka will return to celebrate its 23rd year from 6 March - 25 April 2025, featuring over 30 cinema screenings in leading venues around London. Alongside New Polish Cinema, Documentaries and Polish Cinemas Classics, this year's edition will also feature a retrospective of films by Wojciech Has as well as exciting Special Events and screenings of selected films from the Kinotkea programme in 8 UK cities as part of Kinoteka On Tour.

The screening on Sunday 2 March will be followed by a Q&A with director Panos Koutras.

It will be introduced by Prof. Dimitris Papanikolaou.  

Synopsis:

Yorgos is released from prison after 14 years of incarceration for a murder he committed. He meets Strella, a young trans sex worker. They spend the night together and soon they fall in love. But the past is catching up with Yorgos.

"I think that Strella is perhaps the most important cultural contribution in recent years to thinking about oedipalization within queer kinship, as well as about contemporary challenges to understandings of sexuality and kinship, all through a meditation on very contemporary modes of living and loving that nevertheless draw on ancient norms." - Judith Butler, Dispossession: The Performative in the Political (with A. Athanasiou, 2013)

Dimitris Papanikolaou is Professor of Modern Greek and Comparative Cultural Studies and Fellow of St. Cross College, University of Oxford. He studied Classics, Modern Greek and Comparative Literature at the University of Athens and University College London (London).

Synopsis:

Kostis is a 40-year-old doctor that finds himself in the small island of Antiparos, in order to take over the local clinic. His whole life and routine will turn upside down when he meets an international group of young and beautiful tourists and he falls in love with Anna, a 19-year-old goddess.

Curator's note:
A brilliantly idiosyncratic film that sits slightly outside of the Weird Wave constellation, SUNTAN (2016), resists classification. Half uproarious comedy, half thriller, the film shares the bleak satirical undertones of Dogtooth and Attenberg whilst turning expectations for a typical Greek island holiday story on their head.

When visionary architect László Toth and his wife Erzsébet flee post-war Europe in 1947 to rebuild their legacy and witness the birth of modern America, their lives are changed forever by a mysterious and wealthy client.

Nominated for 10 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Directing.

The Garden Cinema View:

Starting with an overture and a strikingly unique credits sequence, The Brutalist boldly presents itself as a monumental work of cinema. This is an immigrant story and an exploration of American capitalism that can be compared to Citizen Kane, The Godfather Part II, and There Will Be Blood (time will tell whether it belongs alongside such luminous company). Undoubtedly, there is something indelibly energising about watching this attempt at serious, epic drama. A series of committed and intense performances play out across a sprawling canvas made cohesive by the production design and Lol Crawley’s cinematography, that moves from claustrophobic intimacy to massive images which rival the work of Victor Kossakovsky. Embelishing and guiding the experience is Daniel Blumberg’s extraordinary, and partially improvised, score.

Watching The Brutalist is exhausting and exhilarating in equal measure, and is a viewing experience that feels pulled from an older age of film.

Includes a 15 minute intermission

A gang of kids try to stop ruthless property developers from building a golf course on their beloved den - and somehow get mixed up in an adventure involving treasure maps, human skulls, crazy gadgets, snogging, murderous crooks and a pirate king called One-Eyed Willie! Can the Goonies survive Willie's booby traps and get their hands on the old rogue's hidden riches? Or will the scheming Fratelli gang get there first - and make our heroes walk the plank?

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 was proposed by our member Seraphina Bewick, who writes: 'I would love the opportunity to see the animated film The Last Unicorn on the big screen.'

In this animated musical, the villainous King Haggard (Christopher Lee) plots to destroy all the world's unicorns. When a young unicorn (Mia Farrow) learns that she's in danger and that she may soon be the last of her kind, she leaves the safety of her protected forest and enlists the help of Schmendrick (Alan Arkin), a gentle, albeit clumsy, sorcerer. Together, they embark on a long and dangerous journey with one goal: to defeat Haggard and save the unicorns from extinction.

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

As the city of Chengdu changes, the future of Funky Town, a beloved queer-friendly techno club, is unclear. For a vibrant group of DJs, drag performers, artists, lovers, ravers, and skaters, the club is a sanctuary for underground partying and allows them to thrive after the sun sets. It’s the one place that accepts them for who they are, while during the day they battle depression, question their sexuality, and struggle to make a living. But with construction cranes looming as a metro station encroaches, the partygoers are forced to face what brought them to the club in the first place - and make the most of their remaining time there. A love letter to the Chengdu underground scene, The Last Year of Darkness is a coming-of-age documentary that celebrates the ephemerality of youth.

Queer East is a cross-disciplinary festival that showcases boundary-pushing LGBTQ+ cinema, moving image work and live arts from, and about, East and Southeast Asia and its diaspora communities.

We’ve dug deep into the LIAF archives and have selected 7 of the best short animated films full of visually dazzling joy from all around the world, for kids of all ages and the whole family.

Here you will meet charismatic characters such as a group of bonkers playful singing children, a frog in a school class of rabbits and the mysterious Burry Man - in a series of stunning visuals mixed with captivating storylines, showing that animation is the best tool to transform the everyday into the magical.

Animation is the most imaginative and engaging of all art forms and is the perfect platform to enthral and inspire the wide-open imaginations of kids. This programme, carefully selected with our youngest audience in mind, is always popular, and not a toy ad in sight.

For more information about the London International Animation Festival and our programmes please look at the website at www.liaf.org.uk

Films Screening:

Latitude du printemps

An abandoned dog by the side of the road, a young astronaut wannabe and a professional cyclist and the connection between all three.

France 2020 Dir: Various 7min

The Most Boring Granny in the World

Greta has the most boring grandma in the world. When she falls asleep on the sofa, Greta gets the idea to play ‘funeral’ with her, initiating a sensitive conversation about death and memory.

Germany 2022 Dir: Damaris Zielke 7 min

A Film About a Pudding

Ronin’s dropped groceries start to mix and bubble, transforming into a small pudding. Over the next few days, the pudding grows bigger and bigger.

UK 2021 Dir: Roel Van Beek 9 min

Burry Man

When a Pictish farm is besieged by an endless winter, an adolescent girl must defy her father and his traditions to venture out beyond their family glen in search of a mysterious figure, the Burry Man.

UK 2022 Dir: Simon P Biggs 6 min

Migrants

Two polar bears are driven into exile due to global warming. They encounter brown bears along their journey, with whom they try to cohabitate.

France 2021 Dir: Various 8 min

A Stone in the Shoe

A student arrives in his new class. He is not a student like the others – he is a frog in a class of rabbits.

France 2020 Dir: Eric Montchaud 12 mins

Choir Tour

A world-famous boys’ choir goes on tour. In the hands of their conductor they are obedient but when he gets trapped in an elevator they become playful children.

Latvia 2012 Dir: Edmunds Jansons 5 mins

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

This film was proposed by our member Mandy Russell.

Albert Lamorisse’s exquisite The Red Balloon remains one of the most beloved children's films of all time. In this deceptively simple, nearly wordless tale, a young boy discovers a stray balloon, which seems to have a mind of its own, on the streets of Paris. The two become inseparable, yet the world’s harsh realities finally interfere. With its glorious palette and allegorical purity, the Academy Award–winning The Red Balloon has enchanted film lovers, young and old, for generations.

This is a 'Pay What You Can' Family Screening, 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 Sundays our family screenings are followed by a free activity for children.

Shot entirely in secret, Mohammad Rasoulof's award-winning thriller, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, centers on a family thrust into the public eye when Iman is appointed as an investigating judge in Tehran. As political unrest erupts in the streets, Iman realizes that his job is even more dangerous than expected, making him increasingly paranoid and distrustful, even of his own wife Najmeh and daughters Sana and Rezvan.

Nominated for Best International Feature at the 2025 Academy Awards.

The Garden Cinema View:

Inspired by the events of the Iranian Woman Life Freedom movement, Mohammad Rasoulof's exquisitely crafted film serves as taut thriller, social commentary, and as a piece of activism. Rasoulof, like fellow Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, made this film in secret and smuggled it to European festivals. Appearing in the film without hijabs, three actresses have subsequently fled to Berlin to avoid persecution.

Despite a long running time, the narration never loses momentum with each action leading to irrevocable consequences and building to a grand, unpredictable finale. The direction is poised and controlled, never relying on elaborate production design, but rather allowing tension between parents and daughters to develop naturally. Rasoulof draws excellent performances from the entire cast, particularly Soheila Golestani, who delivers a compelling transformation from a submissive wife reinforcing regime attitudes to a radical ally of her awakened daughters.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the film is its ability to depict Iran's divided society without exterior scenes. In the family, each member represents one aspect of the revolution: the newly awakened young generation, those who work for the regime, and the initially complacent wife who slowly changes her attitude and understanding. In spite of this, The Seed of the Sacred Fig features nuanced characterisation; even the patriarch of the family, who represents the state and old values, is portrayed in a complex  manner.

Mr. Jeremy Fisher, Mrs. Tiggy-winkle, Jemima Puddle-duck, Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland – indeed all the delightful and famous Beatrix Potter characters – come to life in this colourful and imaginative musical interpretation of her tales, choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton, composted and scored by John Lanchbery, and danced by members of the Royal Ballet. Five of the famed Victorian author’s most well-known stories – with guest appearances of characters from other themes – have been linked to present an enchanting story-line that will thrill adults and children alike.

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

Chatila and Reda are saving to pay for fake passports to get out of Athens. But when Reda loses their hard-earned cash to his dangerous drug addiction, Chatila hatches an extreme plan, which involves them posing as smugglers and taking hostages in an effort to get him and his best friend out of their hopeless environment before it is too late.

The Garden Cinema View:

To a Land Unknown is a gripping, entertaining film, the seeds of which were planted in Mahdi Fleifel's previous feature, the excellent documentary A World Not Ours, which provides the context of desperation and forced exile that shed light on the motivations of this film's protagonists. To a Land Unknown does however pose a bit of an ethical dilemma. At a time when Palestinian men are subject to dangerous tropes and politically motivated caricatures, the portrayal of Chatila and Reda's less than righteous journey can make for an uneasy watch. Yet, credit to Fleifel for giving his leads agency, for his nuanced depiction of desperation, and for crafting a well-executed crime caper.

1944. In Vermiglio, a high mountain village of the Italian Alps where war looms as a distant but constant threat. The arrival of Pietro, a refugee soldier, disrupts the dynamics of the local teacher’s family, changing them forever. During the four seasons marking the end of World War II, Pietro and Lucia, the eldest daughter of the village teacher, instantly drawn to each other, leading to marriage and an unexpected fate. As the world emerges from tragedy, the family will face its own.

Winner of the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at Venice Film Festival and Italy’s Entry to the Oscars.

Jane Campion has written an open letter praising the film:  

"Vermiglio has put a spell over me... I feel deep appreciation for Maura Delpero’s formidable skills as a director."

The Garden Cinema View:

Set in a village beneath Mount Boai, Vermiglio's sophisticated cinematography and sound design immerses you in the wildly beautiful landscapes and sounds of the Alps, transporting us to a simpler era untouched by modern technology. Taking place during WWII in 1944, it's interesting to monitor the behaviours and interactions of people of this specific time and place. The characterisation of each member of this extended family is entirely convincing - not least due to the great performances from the cast. Through this journey, the film poses several questions. Should a military deserter be protected or condemned? Is the patriarch truly loving or deeply oppressive? Does the mother of numerous children find fulfilment in her role, or is she merely enduring it?

Despite the film's many merits, some of these themes could have been explored in greater depth. Nevertheless, Vermiglio has an engaging narrative, featuring fully fledged characters offering a powerful snapshot of a vanished era.

This film was proposed by our member Gregg Stone, who writes: 'I think showing the 1933 german film Victor /Victoria and the Blake Edwards /Julie Andrews musical of the same name, would be a great pick me up, along with some great 1920’s inspired Cocktails at the bar….'

In this dazzling musical romance, a young woman (Renate Müller), unable to find work as a music hall singer, partners with a down-and-out thespian (Hermann Thimig) to revamp her act. Pretending to be a man performing in drag, Victoria becomes the toast of the international stage. But she soon finds that her playful bending of genders enmeshes her personal and professional life in a tangle of unexpected complications.

Produced in the final days of the Weimar Republic, Victor and Victoria was the most successful film of its year at the German box office. Today it is best known by Blake Edwards’s 1982 remake and the 1995 Broadway production.

Please note, the screening on Tuesday 11 February is our Free Members' Screening. The screening on Tuesday 18 February is open to the general public.

Revel in the twisted side of romance with Video Bazaar this Valentine's Day, for a late night screening of Nikos Nikolaidis' legendary arthouse horror, Singapore Sling. This screening will also feature a video introduction from Annie Rose Malamet, host of the podcast Girls, Guts and Giallo.

Content Warning: This film contains explicit sexual content, violence and disturbing imagery

The film follows a nameless private detective's descent into a surreal nightmare as he searches for his lost love, only to become ensnared by a depraved mother-daughter duo who have a penchant for macabre and sadistic rituals. Forced into these disturbing acts, the detective's search for his lover spirals into a nightmarish ordeal. As disturbing as it is playful, this rarely screened transgressive masterpiece defies genre, blending eroticism, violence, noir, and black comedy into a surreal cocktail.

Nikolaidis himself, was a celebrated underground auteur whose films often explored themes of alienation, obsession and the darkest corners of human psychology. With Singapore Sling and its fragmented narrative, tormented characters and dreamlike atmosphere, Nikolaidis cemented his reputation as a fearless visionary who was not afraid to delve into taboo territory.

So to all lovers and sweethearts, join Video Bazaar this Valentines Day and celebrate love in all its darkest and most unsettling manifestations.

This screening is presented by the cult film collective, Video Bazaar, who are proud to show this rarely screened film, and are dedicated to bringing the weird and the obscure to London audiences at The Garden Cinema. Please note that this film will feature an introduction.

Eliza Kubarska (The Wall of Shadows) returns to the mountains for this award winning exploration of the life and disappearance of mountaineering icon Wanda Rutkiewicz. The first woman (and the first Pole) to climb Everest, Rutkiewicz’s independent spirit drew antagonism and dissent from the media and set her apart from the largely male climbing community. Using previously unseen extensive archives alongside interviews with family, climbers and monks this film explores the price she paid for success, and asks if she might in fact still be alive. Her body was never found after she vanished in the Himalayas in 1992.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the film's producer Monika Braid.

Organised by the Polish Cultural Institute in London and supported by the Polish Film Institute, the Kinoteka Polish Film Festival is an annual celebration of Poland’s rich cinematic output that showcases not only the best of contemporary filmmakers but also classics that make up Poland’s rich filmography. Kinoteka will return to celebrate its 23rd year from 6 March - 25 April 2025, featuring over 30 cinema screenings in leading venues around London. Alongside New Polish Cinema, Documentaries and Polish Cinemas Classics, this year's edition will also feature a retrospective of films by Wojciech Has as well as exciting Special Events and screenings of selected films from the Kinotkea programme in 8 UK cities as part of Kinoteka On Tour.

Nominated for 10 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actress.

After two decades, the beloved and enduring stage musical makes its journey to the big screen as a spectacular, generation-defining cinematic event. The untold story of the witches of Oz stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, a young woman, misunderstood because of her unusual green skin, who has yet to discover her true power, and Ariana Grande as Glinda, a popular young woman, gilded by privilege, who has yet to discover her true heart. As they forge an unlikely friendship, their extraordinary adventures will see them fulfill their destinies as Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.

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