PAST PRODUCTIONS 2019/20

Director: Kenneth Branagh
Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench and Ian McKellen

The year is 1613 and William Shakespeare is acknowledged as the greatest playwright of the age. But, disaster strikes when his renowned Globe Theatre in London burns to the ground. A devastated Shakespeare returns to his home in Stratford-upon-Avon to face his neglected family. He is haunted by the untimely death of his only son, Hamnet, and struggles to mend the broken relationships with his wife and daughters. In doing so he is forced to examine his own failings as a husband and a father.

“Impressively cast and beautifully filmed” (Rotten Tomatoes)

“I envy the Japanese”  Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo. In the exhibition on which this film is based – VAN GOGH & JAPAN at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam – one can see why. Though Vincent van Gogh never visited Japan it is the country that had the most profound influence on him and his art.

One cannot understand Van Gogh without understanding how Japanese art arrived in Paris in the middle of the 19th century and the profound impact it had on artists like Monet, Degas and, above all, Van Gogh. Visiting the new galleries of Japanese art in Paris – Van Gogh’s encounter with Japanese artworks gave his work a new and exciting direction.

In this little known story of Van Gogh’s art we see just how important his study of Japan was. The film travels not only to France and the Netherlands but also to Japan to further explore the remarkable heritage that so affected Van Gogh and made him the artist we know of today.

Director: Aneesh Chaganty
Cast: John Cho, Debra Messing, Joseph Lee

After David Kim’s daughter, Margot, goes missing a local investigation is opened and a detective assigned to the case. But when, after 36 hours, there are still no leads David decides to search in the one place no one has yet thought of looking – his daughter’s laptop.

This is a taut modern mystery-thriller with a powerful emotional content told via the technology that most of use every day to communicate with others. David must trace his daughter’s digital footprint if has any hope of finding her.

“An ingenious drama” (London Evening Standard)

Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Cast: Lily Franky, Sakura Andô, Kirin Kiki

Osamu and his family are a dysfunctional band of outsiders living ‘below the radar’ on the fringes of Japanese society, supplementing their income with some petty thieving.

After one of their shoplifting sessions Osama and his son come across a little girl, apparently abandoned, and decide to take her home to join the chaotic household.  They appear to be one big happy family living in a tiny house belonging to the grandmother, but when the son is arrested secrets are revealed testing the bonds that unite them.

Runner-up as best foreign film at 2019 Oscars.

“A satisfying and devastating gem” (Peter Bradshaw)