Loveless - Sunday 4th March 5pm

Loveless is the story of an unloved Russian boy Alexey, neither of whose unlikeable separating parents want to take him with them and who disappears one day. Most of the film is the sometimes desultory search the couple make for their son, the disinterest of the police and the volunteer group who take up the search. It is shot in muted colours with a background of unremittingly bad national news. We shouldn’t assume that views in one film are relevant to all of Russian society, but there is an undercurrent of unconcern – just another missing child. Don’t let that put you off – it is a mesmerising film that won the Jury prize at Cannes and best film at the London Film Festival last year and was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe.

19th Keswick Film Festival

It is time for the 19th Keswick Film Festival at last! Starting on Thursday at 6.30 with a free drink and ‘Edie’ at 7.00, going right through to Sunday at 8.00 with ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri’, there are over 30 films, guests and the Osprey Awards to keep us engrossed.

So... get your tickets, start deciding what you really HAVE TO see and what you will just have to miss because of it; make sure you know which venue your choices are at and then just get ready to relax and watch movies all weekend..! Take a look www.keswickfilmfestival.org for all the details; see you there!

Thelma - Sunday 18th February 5:00 PM

Thelma, a shy young student, has just left her religious family in a small town on the west coast of Norway to study at university in Oslo. While at the library one day, she experiences a violent, unexpected seizure. Soon after, she finds herself intensely drawn toward Anja, a beautiful young student who reciprocates Thelma’s powerful attraction. As the term continues, Thelma becomes increasingly overwhelmed by her intense feelings for Anja – feelings she doesn’t dare acknowledge, even to herself – while at the same time experiencing even more extreme seizures. As it becomes clearer that the seizures are a symptom of inexplicable, often dangerous, supernatural abilities, Thelma is confronted with tragic secrets of her past, and the terrifying implications of her powers.

Félicité - Sunday 11th February 5pm

We are off to Africa this Sunday at 5.00 for the Senegalese Félicité... "a proud, free-willed woman working as a singer in a bar in Kinshasa. Her life is thrown into turmoil when her 14-year-old son has a motorcycle accident. To save him, she sets out on a breakneck race through the streets of Kinshasa - a world of music and dreams - where she'll cross paths with Tabu..." – Rotten Tomatoes.

This is the first film ever selected as a Senegalese entry for the Best Foreign language film after winning six awards at the Africa Movie Academy (the most ever) and the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. It stars Véro Tshanda Beya Mputu in the title role, a real life singer in Senegal "who arrives fully formed here as a figure of enormous dignity and warmth, a pillar of resilience who is nonetheless all-too-humanly susceptible to exhaustion, grief and despair" so says Justin Chang in the Los Angeles Times, who also points out the importance of music in the film: "so it's fitting that music should become the movie's emotional filigree, ranging from the band's jubilant jam sessions to the heart-stopping occasional interludes featuring the Kinshasa Symphony Orchestra, performing their renditions of Arvo Pärt in an enormous warehouse space. The mix of improvisation and classicism goes beyond mere eclecticism. It reflects the movie's own generous embrace of life in its endless capacity for joy, sorrow and awe". Sounds too good to miss!