Blown

Director: Martha Fiennes

Year: 2006

What do you do when your wife Iona Aylesbury (Kristin Scott Thomas) can’t tell the difference between a shrink and a shop, your eight-year-old son Orlando spray paints his rabbit’s name on the walls to get attention, while his gay godfather Stephen (Ralph Fiennes) lies half beaten to death in hospital. Your boss is drawing you into a scam which could cost you your career, your father Edward Aylesbury has an illegitimate love child with his former mistress Gloria (Penelope Cruz), her social worker Colin (Rhys Ifans) can’t help prying into her past and present, and your stepmother Penelope's (Harriet Walter) bond with her dogs is your best role model of a loving relationship. Every family has secrets it hides behind the walls of its home - these are the dilemmas and secrets of Marcus Aylesbury (Damian Lewis). When Marcus’s old ‘friend’ Trent (Ben Chaplin), an intelligent investigative journalist, gets wind of a story he knows will make him a media star the good old virtues of honesty, loyalty and friendship are sacrificed to the new morality of success and celebrity. Pushed by his powerhouse editor, Trent is forced to bend his ideals of using journalism to make a difference - and instead focuses on writing ‘sexy stories that sell’. This darkly comedic drama relentlessly pulls these characters into situations which threaten their stable place in a society where privilege and birth are no longer powerful enough to protect the fortunate few, and where the American values of money, beauty and success have become the cornerstones of contemporary London life.

Director: Martha Fiennes

Year: 2000

With it's compelling tale of romantic tragedy in nineteenth century Russia, Alexander Pushkin's epic novel 'Eugene Onegin', has moved and intrigued audiences for 150 years. Captivated by its powerful narrative about love and loss, award winning actor Ralph Fiennes (The English Patient, Schindler's List) and his sister, director Martha Fiennes, have assembled a talented and exciting team to bring Pushkin's story to the screen. Evgeny Onegin is a jaded and disaffected young man who leaves St Petersburg unexpectedly when he inherits an estate from a wealthy uncle. In the country, he is a city sophisticate out of place, with little affinity for the countryside or its people. Nevertheless he strikes up a warm friendship with a neighbour, Vladimir Lensky and, despite his natural cynicism, he is charmed by Lensky's love for his fiancée Olga. He is also intrigued by Olga's sister, Tatyana, a spirited beauty who surprises him with a passionate declaration of love. Onegin is disturbed by her directness but unable to respond and, coolly and politely, rejects her love. As if needing to demonstrate the cruelty of his nature, Onegin later insults Olga and is challenged to a duel by Lensky who's code of honour prevails when Onegin attempts to extricate both of them from the confrontation. Onegin's shot is fatal and, grief-stricken, he cradles his best friend's body in his arms. Afterwards he leaves and goes into self-imposed exile. Six years later, Onegin returns to St Petersburg where he again encounters Tatyana, now married to his cousin Prince Nikitin. In realisation of the bitter mistake he made years ago, Onegin determines to claim her and Tatyana is faced with the most difficult decision of her life.

Director: Anna Maguire, Kyle Greenberg

Year: 2026

What if you went on a holiday and the apocalypse happened? GALICIA! is a found-footage, hybrid-documentary following a couple through home video footage as they visit their friends at a winery in rural Spain and inadvertently capture the end of days. We live in a time where the sense of our impending mutually assured destruction is more real than it’s ever been. GALICIA! Takes the form of a holiday video - a document of a couple before - and after the great cataclysm. The film starts as something that feels unedited - an accidental video diary of an ordinary couple that feels somewhat ghostly as much as it is also pedestrian. As the film evolves and degrades, we are led to question the fragility of humanity, as well as its power to endure.