SHREWSBURY FILM SOCIETY

Season 4

Once again our members were great in helping us choose films, so we knew that there was something for everyone. From the obscure gems such as Deep End and Times and Winds, to the extraordinary Of Horses and Men, ending on a high from the little known ‘feel good’ film Machan from Sri Lanka, we hope that everyone enjoyed our choices as much as we enjoyed screening them.

Cinema Paradiso

PG | Italy | 1988 | Italian, English, Portuguese
Drama
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Date Shown: Friday 12 September 2014

A famous film director remembers his childhood at the Cinema Paradiso where Alfredo, the projectionist, first brought about his love of films. He returns home to his Sicilian village for the first time after almost 30 years and is reminded of his first love, Elena, who disappeared from his life before he left for Rome.


Point Blank

15 | France | 2010 | French
Action, Crime, Thriller
Director: Fred Cavaye
Date Shown: Friday 26 September 2014

Samuel Pierret (Gilles Lellouche) is a nurse who saves the wrong guy -- a thief (Roschdy Zem) whose henchmen take Samuel's pregnant wife (Elena Anaya) hostage to force him to spring their boss from the hospital. A race through the subways and streets of Paris ensues, and the body count rises. Can Samuel evade the cops and the criminal underground and deliver his beloved to safety?


Deep End

15 | Poland | 1970 | English
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director: Jerzy Skolimowski
Date Shown: Friday 10 October 2014

15-year-old Mike takes a job at the local swimming baths, where he becomes obsessed with an attractive young woman, Susan, who works there as an attendant. Although Susan has a fiancé, Mike does his best to sabotage the relationship, to the extent of stalking both her and her fiancé. Mike becomes increasingly desperate to have Susan for himself, with tragic results.


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Like Father, Like Son

PG | Japan | 2013 | Japanese
Drama
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Date Shown: Friday 24 October 2014

Would you choose your natural son, or the son you believed was yours after spending 6 years together? Kore-eda Hirokazu, the globally acclaimed director of "Nobody Knows", "Still Walking" and "I Wish", returns to the big screen with another family - a family thrown into torment after a phone call from the hospital where the son was born... Ryota has earned everything he has by his hard work, and believes nothing can stop him from pursuing his perfect life as a winner. Then one day, he and his wife, Midori, get an unexpected phone call from the hospital. Their 6-year-old son, Keita, is not 'their' son - the hospital gave them the wrong baby. Ryota is forced to make a life-changing decision, to choose between 'nature' and 'nurture.' Seeing Midori's devotion to Keita even after learning his origin, and communicating with the rough yet caring family that has raised his natural son for the last six years, Ryota also starts to question himself: has he really been a 'father' all these years...


Paths of Glory

PG | USA | 1957 | English, German, Latin
Drama, War
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Date Shown: Friday 7 November 2014

The futility and irony of the war in the trenches in WWI is shown as a unit commander in the French army must deal with the mutiny of his men and a glory-seeking general after part of his force falls back under fire in an impossible attack.


Wadjda

PG | Saudi Arabia | 2012 | Arabic
Comedy, Drama
Director: Haifaa Al-Mansour
Date Shown: Friday 21 November 2014

WADJDA is a 10-year-old girl living in a suburb of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Although she lives in a conservative world, Wadjda is fun loving, entrepreneurial and always pushing the boundaries of what she can get away with. After a fight with her friend Abdullah, a neighborhood boy she shouldn't be playing with, Wadjda sees a beautiful green bicycle for sale. She wants the bicycle desperately so that she can beat Abdullah in a race. But Wadjda's mother won't allow it, fearing repercussions from a society that sees bicycles as dangerous to a girl's virtue. So Wadjda decides to try and raise the money herself. At first, Wadjda's mother is too preoccupied with convincing her husband not to take a second wife to realize what's going on. And soon enough Wadjda's plans are thwarted when she is caught running various schemes at school. Just as she is losing hope of raising enough money, she hears of a cash prize for a Koran recitation competition at her school. She devotes herself to the memorization and recitation of Koranic verses, and her teachers begin to see Wadjda as a model pious girl. The competition isn't going to be easy, especially for a troublemaker like Wadjda, but she refuses to give in. She is determined to continue fighting for her dreams...


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Times and Winds

15 | Turkey | 2006 | Turkish
Drama
Director: Reha Erdem
Date Shown: Friday 5 December 2014

A small, poor village leaning over high rocky mountains, facing the immense sea, flanked by olive yards. Villagers are simple and diligent people who struggle to cope with a harsh nature. They earn their living, on a daily survival basis, out of the earth and of a few animals they feed. Just like the animals and trees around them, they have the knowledge of their temporary existence, hence a sober resignation prevails. They live according to the rhythm of the earth, air and water, day and night and seasons. The daily time is divided into five parts by the sound of the call to prayer. Every day, all human events are lived through within these five time slices. In child raising, grownups go on with the practice they have experienced by their parents. They expose their love awkwardly and consider beating a favorable method. Fathers always prefer one of their sons. Mothers command their daughters ruthlessly. Omer, Yakup and Yildiz, three children of about 12,13 years old, just between childhood and youth, are the prominent characters in this movie of five times. ?mer, the son of the imam, wishes hopelessly for the death of his father. When he understands that wishful thinking does not have any concrete results, he begins to search for childish ways to kill his father. He shares his guilty thoughts with his friend Yakup. Children study in the village school consisting of only one classroom. Families show their gratitude to the young woman teacher by giving her presents -the bread they cook themselves, the milk of their own sheep. Yakup is in love with his teacher. He hides his guilty feelings even from his best friend ?mer. When some day he sees his father spying the teacher, he dreams, like Yakup, of killing his father. Yildiz both studies and tries to manage the household works imposed by her own mother. She tries to be a mother for her baby brother. On the other hand, she learns with irritation about the secrets of the relationship between men and women. Five times elapse. Children, oscillating between rage and guilt, grow up slowly. ?mer gives up killing his father. Stuck between love and hate, he cries desperately.


Twenty Feet from Stardom

12A | USA | 2013 | English
Documentary, History, Music
Director: Morgan Neville
Date Shown: Friday 19 December 2014

The backup singer exists in a strange place in the pop music world; they are always in the shadow of the feature artists even when they are in front of them in concert while they provide a vital foundation for the music. Through interviews with veterans and concert footage, the history of these predominately African-American singers is explored through the rock era. Furthermore, special focus is given to special stand outs who endeavored to make a living in the art burdened with a low profile and more personal career frustrations, especially those who faced the very different challenge of singing in the spotlight themselves.


Blue Jasmine

12A | USA | 2013 | English
Drama
Director: Woody Allen
Date Shown: Friday 9 January 2015

Jasmine French used to be on the top of the heap as a New York socialite, but now is returning to her estranged sister in San Francisco utterly ruined. As Jasmine struggles with her haunting memories of a privileged past bearing dark realities she ignored, she tries to recover in her present. Unfortunately, it all proves a losing battle as Jasmine's narcissistic hangups and their consequences begin to overwhelm her. In doing so, her old pretensions and new deceits begin to foul up everyone's lives, especially her own.


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Of Horses and Men

15 | Iceland | 2013 | Icelandic, Swedish, English, Spanish, Russian
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director: Benedikt Erlingsson
Date Shown: Friday 23 January 2015

Kolbeinn loves Solveig and Solveig loves Kolbeinn but Kolbeinn is in love with his prized possession and darling, the mare Grana and Grana is obsessed with the stallion Brunn. Spring is coming and the whole community is following the story. This cannot end well. Vernhardur is in love with vodka and the horse Jarpur loves Vernhardur, his master. Aboard a Russian trawler is a mate by the name of Gengis who doesn't have vodka but loves horses like Jarpur. This not going to end well. Grimur has a passion for ancient horse roads but Egill admires barbed wire fences. Grimur owns a horse and a pair of pincers and Egill owns a tractor. This cannot end well. Johanna loves Raudka, her mare, but Raudka is in love with freedom. On the heath by an old summer cottage lies an injured old man. This could have a happy ending. Juan Camillo loves life and nature and is seeking God in the Icelandic highlands but the horse Old Piebald is tired and longs for rest. How will this end? Well, it all ends in the autumn when the horses are herded and men and horses become one great strand of excitement. The autumn round-up of the horses unifies theme, place, objects, time and characters into an ensemble film.


Oasis

15 | South Korea | 2002 | Korean
Drama, Romance
Director: Chang-dong Lee
Date Shown: Friday 6 February 2015

Jong-du, a young man just out of prison for manslaughter, is a social misfit: fidgety, snuffling, laughing inappropriately, without a super ego. When released, he calls on the family of the victim; they send him away, but not before he has seen Gong-ju, a young woman disabled severely by cerebral palsy. Both are abused by their families, and both are used by them as well. Although their relationship begins with Jong-du's criminal behavior, a friendship develops. They talk of favorite things; he washes her hair; they go out; in late night phone calls, he helps her past her fears of the dark. Is there a place in the world for these two inarticulate people?


Italian for Beginners

15 | Denmark | 2000 | Danish, Italian, English
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director: Lone Scherfig
Date Shown: Friday 20 February 2015

A young minister, a widower, is temporarily assigned to a church whose suspended pastor drove parishioners away; he stays at a hotel where he meets Jurgen, who's alone approaching middle age. Jurgen's friend Finn, a temperamental restaurant manager, may be about to be fired. Finn's assistant is Giulia, a lovely young Italian who prays for a husband. Olympia, a clumsy bakery clerk, has an ornery father; Karen, a hairdresser, has a mother who is very ill. The paths of these six characters cross at church, in the restaurant, at the hotel, and at an Italian class at the local adult school. Loneliness, grief, solace, romance, and love may meet 'nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita.'


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In the Mood for Love

PG | Hong Kong | 2000 | Cantonese, Shanghainese, French
Drama, Romance
Director: Kar Wai Wong
Date Shown: Friday 6 March 2015

Set in Hong Kong, 1962, Chow Mo-Wan is a newspaper editor who moves into a new building with his wife. At the same time, Su Li-zhen, a beautiful secretary and her executive husband also move in to the crowded building. With their spouses often away, Chow and Li-zhen spend most of their time together as friends. They have everything in common from noodle shops to martial arts. Soon, they are shocked to discover that their spouses are having an affair. Hurt and angry, they find comfort in their growing friendship even as they resolve not to be like their unfaithful mates.


Locke

15 | UK | 2013 | English
Drama
Director: Steven Knight
Date Shown: Friday 20 March 2015

Leaving the construction site on the eve of a major project, construction manager Ivan Locke receives news that sends him driving the two hours from Birmingham to London, but even further from the life he once knew. Making the decision that he has to make, he then calls his wife, his sons, his co-workers and boss telling them the secret that he is bearing and trying to keep his job and family intact. But even more importantly, he will have to face himself and the choices he has made.

Tom Hardy is brilliant in Locke, a film that manages to turn the logistics of pouring concrete into one of the most nail-biting thrillers of the year - The Daily Telegraph
An exceptional one-man show for Tom Hardy, this ingeniously executed study in cinematic minimalism has depth, beauty and poise - Variety


Wakolda, The German Doctor

12A | Argentina | 2013 | Spanish, German, Hebrew
Drama, History, Thriller
Director: Lucia Puenzo
Date Shown: Friday 10 April 2015

Patagonia, 1960. A German doctor (Alex Brendemuhl) meets an Argentinean family and follows them on a long desert road to a small town where the family will be starting a new life. Eva (Natalia Oreiro), Enzo (Diego Peretti) and their three children welcome the doctor into their home and entrust their young daughter, Lilith (Florencia Bado), to his care, not knowing that they are harboring one of the most dangerous criminals in the world. At the same time, Israeli agents are desperately looking to bring THE GERMAN DOCTOR to justice. Based on filmmaker Lucia Puenzo's (XXY) fifth novel, the story follows Josef Mengele, the "Angel of Death," a German SS officer and a physician at the Auschwitz concentration camp, in the years he spent "hiding", along with many other Nazi's, in South America following his escape from Germany. Mengele was considered to be one of WWII's most heinous Nazi war criminals.


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Machan

15 | Sri Lanka | 2008 | Sinhalese, English
Comedy
Director: Uberto Pasolini
Date Shown: Friday 24 April 2015

A group of desperate slum dwellers, living on the margins of society under impossible pressures, find an invitation to a handball tournament in Bavaria to be the answer to their prayers, a one way ticket to the West and the wealth that will solve all their problems.


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Regular film screenings at the Hive, Shrewsbury, Shropshire. SY1 1TE
The Hive Media and Arts Centre Cinema For All Film Audience Network