Berlin 1940. The city is paralyzed by fear. Otto and Anna Quangel are a working class couple living in a shabby apartment block trying, like everyone else, to stay out of trouble under Nazi rule. But when their only child is killed fighting at the front, their loss drives them to an extraordinary act of resistance. They start to drop anonymous postcards all over the city attacking Hitler and his regime. If caught, it means certain execution. Soon their campaign comes to the attention of the Gestapo inspector Escherich and a murderous game of cat-and-mouse begins. But the game serves only to strengthen Otto and Anna’s sense of purpose and a renewed love for each other. Slowly their drab lives and marriage are transformed as they unite in their quiet but profound rebellion...
Over 60 years after its initial publication, Hans Fallada’s novel, written directly after the Second World War, became a worldwide bestseller. Based on a true story, the powerful and redemptive novel was described by Primo Levi as “the greatest book ever written about German resistance to the Nazis.”
Berlinale 2016 - World premiere
A narrative resistance group makes underground deposits of elaborate porcelain suggested to belong to an entirely fictional civilisation. Their aim is to influence history and support future claims to their vanishing lands.
This film resides in the cross-section between science-fiction, archaeology and Middle Eastern politics. Combining live action, computer generated imagery and historical photographs the film explores the role of myth in history, fact and national identity.
Official Selection Berlinale 2016 - Forum Expanded - World premiere
A signal from the other side of the universe is received by a hive-like society. Two scientists, Cane and Eva, are chosen to leave their Home planet and journey many light years to find and colonize the distant world that sent this transmission. As their telepathic connection to Home weakens, they begin to question the morality of the mission and the very meaning of their own existence in the isolation of deep space.
Boston Science Fiction Festival 2016 - World premiere
A chronicle of Max Perkins' time as book editor at Scribner. A renowned and highly respected literary editor, Perkins oversaw seminal works by Thomas Wolfe, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. 'Genius' centres on Perkins' relationship with literary giant Thomas Wolfe, a blazing talent with a larger-than-life personality. They formed a complex, transformative and irrepressible friendship that changed the lives of these brilliant but very different men forever.
Berlinale 2016 - World premiere
The story of American poet Emily Dickinson from her early days as a young schoolgirl to her later years as a reclusive, unrecognized artist.
Dickinson wrote a poem a day, but only a fraction of her output was published throughout her lifetime. She was extremely shy, but with a wry, lively sense of humour and loved to laugh or to be made to laugh. Her friendships were intense but it was within the family that she found her greatest happiness. Her life is one of quiet dignity, and the poetry magnificent. All the terror and beauty of the world distilled down to the quintessence of meaning and expression.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Official Competition
A man doles out fifteen years worth of advice to a young woman with thoroughly unexpected results.
Official Selection Berlinale 2016 - Generation 14 Plus - World premiere
Downtown Cairo, 2009. Khalid, a 35-year-old filmmaker is struggling to make a film that captures the soul of his city while facing loss in his own life. With the help of his friends, who send him footage from their lives in Beirut, Baghdad and Berlin, he finds the strength to keep going through the difficulty and beauty of living In the last days of the city.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Debate Strand
A jet-black comedy about two corrupt cops in New Mexico who set out to blackmail and frame every criminal unfortunate enough to cross their path. Things take a sinister turn, however, when they try to intimidate someone who is more dangerous than they are. Or is he?
Berlinale 2016 - World premiere
An eight year-old tomboy challenges gender expectations when forced to make an Easter Bonnet with the girls. Then, when confronted with a family with two mums, she begins to question traditional family dynamics. Bravely subverting convention, her vivid imagination and resourcefulness leads her on a journey of discovery around her neighbourhood that will have radical and far reaching effects.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Journey Strand
It is 1944 and World War II is reaching its climax. The Allies are poised to invade France and finally defeat the German army. But in Walmington-on-Sea morale amongst the Home Guard is low. Their new mission then – to patrol the Dover army base – is a great chance to revive spirits and reputation, that is until glamorous journalist Rose Winters arrives to write about their exploits, setting the pulses racing and putting the local women on red alert. MI5 then discover a radio signal sent direct to Berlin from Walmington-on-Sea. There’s a spy on the loose! The outcome of the war is suddenly at stake, and it falls to our unlikely heroes to stand up and be counted.
A cinematic remake of the classic British television sitcom 'Dad's Army'.
