21st Keswick Film Festival

The Film Festival starts this Thursday with Mike Tweddle’s short film The Curator and Richard Heap's The Runaways, "a ray of British sunshine on film". Both directors will be at the screening to get the festival off to a great start. The rest of the weekend features great films from around the world; the award winning Parasite is just about sold out but you don't want to miss the unique opportunity to see Ken Russell's Dance Of The Seven Veils. Other acclaimed films include Monos, The Nightingale, For Sama, So Long My Son, Midsommar, The Farewell, The Kingmaker, The Souvenir and Portrait Of A Lady On Fire. Don't forget to check out the lesser known films, it's often these ones that really make the festival: Amanda, Aga, Noah Land, The Tobacconist, Tumbbad, Belonging, A Picture Of Yuki, No Fathers In Kashmir. And there are some big stars in films which aren't set for a UK release until later in the year like Hope Gap and Blackbird. Add in the Osprey Short Film Awards and the The Patron's Legacy Project work from Carlisle College students and it should be a weekend to remember.

The Two Popes - Sunday 23rd February 5pm

If I tell you The Two Popes is basically a dialogue between Pope Benedict and (soon to be) Pope Francis you might expect some weighty discussions...but would you expect comedy? If I tell you they are played by Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, you will expect some great acting. All of this is true here:

"Fernando Meirelles' film deftly pulls off the knotty challenge of dealing lightly with complex dynamics and weighty themes, all delivered by pitch-perfect performances from two veteran British thesps. Funny, engrossing and thoughtful, the result is Meirelles' most entertaining and watchable film since 'City Of God'"  - Ian Freer, Empire.

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Bait - Sunday 16th February 5pm

Winner of Outstanding British Film of the Year and Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer at this years BAFTAs, Bait "looks set to become one of the defining British films of the year, perhaps the decade" (Mark Kermode).

A local pub, for local people...well, no more. The tourists are taking over this Cornish village and the fishermen are losing out. Do they give in and make money from the tourist trade, or try to soldier on with what little fish they are allowed to catch?

"'Bait' is both an impassioned paean to Cornwall's proud past, and a bracingly tragicomic portrait of its troubled present and possible future. It's a genuine modern masterpiece, which establishes Jenkin as one of the most arresting and intriguing British film-makers of his generation..." - Mark Kermode

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Sons Of Denmark - Sunday 9th February 5pm

"Shakespeare famously proclaims in Hamlet: 'There is something rotten in the state of Denmark'. In 'Sons of Denmark' something is indeed very rotten in the Scandinavian country.

This superb Danish movie operates like a police thriller mixed with politics, and it raises many urgent questions. Those who like Scandi-noir will enjoy the twists and turns of the plot, accompanied effectively by the score of Mozart's Requiem" - Michael McClure, DMovies.

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