Projects in genres: Drama

Synopsis

Set in the same south-east London streets where he himself had grown up, and drawing on his own experience of a violent family home, Oldman’s debut as a writer-director captures a particular corner of London life – one marked by petty crime, drug-taking, domestic abuse and hair-trigger violence – with an unflinching authenticity rarely seen in British cinema. Oldman draws stunning performances from his cast, in particular from Ray Winstone as the rage-filled patriarch Ray, and Kathy Burke as his wife Val, who yearns for more from life than the cycle of abuse and low expectations. Shot with a visceral, up-close intimacy, the film has been remastered to 4K from the original camera negative, and its impact remains every bit as searing today. (London Film Festival)

Synopsis

A dance drama on the situation of Winston Silcott and three young men wrongly convicted of killing a policeman during riots in October 1985 during the Broadwater Farm riot in Tottenham, North London.

Synopsis

1936. David, an unemployed young man, leaves Liverpool to join the fight against Fascism in the early days of the Spanish Civil War. He joins an international section of the Republican Militia on the Aragon front where he experiences the trials and anguish of the war. Wounded, he convalesces in Barcelona and is caught in the conflict on the Republican side between the Communist Party and his revolutionary comrades in the militia. The resolution of this conflict and David's return to the front may seem tragic but his belief in the possibility of revolutionary change is unshaken. His story is revealed only after his death, sixty years later, in letters discovered by his granddaughter.

Synopsis

Inspired by real events, Ladybird, Ladybird is a love story; the story of Maggie and Jorge and their struggle to have a family. Maggie has had four children, by four different fathers, removed by Social Services because of a previous violent relationship. When she meets Jorge, a gentle Latin American refugee, she gradually sees her chance for happiness, but her history still haunts her and she finds it difficult to escape the image that is described in her official records. Ladybird, Ladybird is an emotional and harrowing story of a woman's fight to keep her children and her relationship intact.

Synopsis

Bob Williams is a survivor. He supplements his dole by becoming embroiled in whatever scam is on offer, from rustling sheep to rodding drains. But now life has dealt him a bitter blow. His van has been stolen and his daughter, Coleen, is approaching her first communion. She needs the traditional white dress, shoes, veil and gloves. Bob's pride is at stake. Where on earth is the money going to come from?

Synopsis

Margaret Schlegel (Emma Thompson) and her sister Helen (Helena Bonham Carter) become involved with two couples: a wealthy, conservative industrialist Henry J. Wilcox (Anthony Hopkins) and his wife Ruth (Vanessa Redgrave), and a working-class couple Leonard Bast (Sam West) and Jacky (Niccola Duffet). The interwoven fates and misfortunes of these three families and the diverging trajectories of the two sisters’ lives are connected to the ownership of Howards End, a beloved country home. An adaptation of E.M. Forster’s 1910 compelling study of one woman’s struggle to maintain her ideals and integrity in the face of Edwardian society’s moribund conformist values. A classic novel of class relations and changing times in Edwardian England. Cannes 2016 - Cannes Classics

Synopsis

Based on the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Derek Jarman's nearly wordless visual narrative intercuts two main stories and a couple of minor ones. A woman, perhaps the Madonna, brings forth her baby to a crowd of intrusive paparazzi; she tries to flee them. Two men who are lovers marry and are arrested by the powers that be. The men are mocked and pilloried, tarred, feathered, and beaten. Loose in this contemporary world of electrical-power transmission lines is also Jesus. The elements, particularly fire and water, content with political power, which is intolerant and murderous. THE GARDEN was originally screened in the Forum programme of the Berlinale in 1991, garnering an OCIC Award - Honourable Mention. Official Selection Berlinale 2019 - Forum Archival Constellations

Synopsis

A mythic recreation of the private world of the black artists and writers such as Langston Hughes who formed the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. The film switches from archive footage to a stylized version of the jazz and blues era of Harlem to explore white society’s barriers against black homosexuality and self-imposed ‘discretion’. Official Selection Berlinale 2016 - Panorama Teddy 30

Synopsis

An Asian family who become homeless are placed in a bed and breakfast hotel by the local authority. There they come into contact with other people from different backgrounds who are waiting to be housed. Their plight is depicted with sensitivity and humour. Jonathan Pryce plays a single Irishman who drifts around London sleeping rough. HOTEL LONDON was originally produced in 1987. The film was remastered in 4K in 2025 by the BFI National Archive. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2025 - World premiere (Remastered version)

Synopsis

Young Cambridge graduate Maurice Hall is trapped by the oppressiveness of puritanical Edwardian society as he tries to come to terms with his sexuality. He must strive to realise his dreams. The restoration, by the Cohen Media Group, used a 4K scan of the original camera negative. Director James Ivory gave the nod to the digitally restored version of his film, and cinematographer Pierre Lhomme supervised the colour correction. Official Selection Berlinale 2017 - Berlinale Classics - World premiere (Digital Restoration)

Synopsis

The life and work of the painter whose death in 1610 followed years on the run as a murderer. The film links the characters in Caravaggio's art with the violent events of his career. On its initial release, Caravaggio won a Silver Bear for outstanding single achievement in visual composition at the 1986 Berlinale. To coincide with the 20th anniversary of Derek Jarman's death, the film has now been digitally restored.

Synopsis

New York. Desperate for work, Christine takes a job selling tickets at the Variety, a sex cinema. This somewhat alienates her boyfriend Mark, who is investigating a story about union links with the Mob at the wholesale fish market. Christine finds herself drawn towards events on-screen, and also follows one of the customers, Louie, when he enters a sex shop, apparently on business. Louie, who is clearly both wealthy and powerful as a result of his shady activities, takes her to a ball game at Yankee Stadium. When he is suddenly called away, she again follows him and observes him at work. Variety inverts the traditional narrative structure of cinema – whereby a man watches and a woman is watched – without showing, and thus flaunting, the object of female desire. Creating a counter-narrative to Hollywood, Bette Gordon asks the same question formulated by Teresa de Lauretis in “Oedipus Interruptus”: “How did Medusa feel upon seeing herself in Perseus' mirror just before being slain?” Official Selection Berlinale 2019 - Forum Archival Constellations