The Mountain Within Me

Director: Polly Steele

Year: 2024

Nicholas (O’Shea) and Isabel (Skelly) are made for each other, but fate does not always choose the easiest path to true love. As destiny pulls them together, so do family, passion, and faith drive them apart. Nicholas’ father, William (Brosnan), comes home one day to shatter his family’s quiet, modest life. He tells them that in a moment of divine intervention, God has instructed him to dedicate his life to painting. He quits his job and sets off for the coast, leaving his shellshocked wife and son to fend for themselves. Meanwhile Isabel and her family live a charmed existence on a nearby small neighbouring island, their house full of music and poetry. When tragedy strikes and her brother suffers a terrible accident, the music stops, and Isabel’s parents (Bonham Carter, Byrne) decide in their grief to send Isabel to a convent school on the mainland. The young lovers embark on their own individual journeys of heartache and misplaced love, before fate contrives to pull the threads of their lives together. When they meet, it will be like a miracle.

Director: Polly Steele

Year: 2017

Based on the true-life story of Helga Schneider who was abandoned by her mother in 1941 when she was only four years old. Helga’s mother had gone to join the Nazi SS where she underwent special training to qualify as a concentration camp guard in Auschwitz. The film is set in the year 2000, following not only Helga and her mother’s journeys but the next two generations of their family and the suffering they endure following revelations of long held secrets around the horrific events that took place over 70 years ago.

Director: Lauren Gee

Year: 2024

Documenting and celebrating the Black British female roller-skating community, showcasing its long history and fixture within popular culture. Blurring the boundaries between documentary and music video, this experimental film reveals the expansive network of London’s Black skate scene through two key individuals that share their stories and delve into what this space and their skate crews and mentors provide them. This joyous exploration gives visibility to a subculture that to many outsiders is unknown but is made familiar through its nostalgic lens which pays homage to the sports DIY and music-led roots. Official Selection Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival 2025