UK  2024  118 mins  15

Following a life of partying and hard drinking, Rona (Saoirse Ronan) attempts to come to terms with her troubled past. After rehab, and at the tail end of her troubled 20s, she returns to the wild beauty of Scotland’s Orkney Islands where she grew up. The chastened former party animal gets a volunteer post with the RSPB on the island, trying to protect corncrake habitats. The film uses montage to striking effect, and Orkney is not sentimentalised, the feeling of being all alone in a wind-lashed cottage is fervently conveyed. The always-reliable Ronan is outstanding as she conveys Rona’s pain in this much-acclaimed and involving, addiction-recovery drama.

Spa/Fra  2023  137 mins  15

Part social-realist drama, part film noir, the film presents the real-life story of a middle-aged French couple, Olga and Antoine, who retire to the rural Spanish idyll of Galicia, where they plan to till the soil, grow their own produce, and even give something back to the community. But it takes only a visit or two to the local bar to discover how unwelcome they are. What’s going on? Well, perhaps inevitably the locals have their own conflicting ambitions and rather than continuing to enjoy the idyll where they live, they plan to sell up to a windfarm developer, and thus try to wreck the couple’s new-found Arcadia. As tensions ratchet up, who indeed are the beasts? (S)

UK  2024  105mins  18

An energetic bio-pic in which the main protagonists play themselves. JJ, a Belfast Irish-language speaker comes into contact with self-confessed ‘low life scum’ Naoise and Liam Og, and the resulting collaboration develops into a hip hop act like no other. Rapping in their native Irish, they spearhead a drive to save their mother tongue. Naoise’s republican father (Michael Fassbender) says “every word of Irish spoken is a bullet for Irish freedom.” The film follows the rise of the group and their constant battles with authority. The riotous humour and punchy editing makes for one of the more lively viewing experiences of the year, and possibly one of the funniest.

2025 FESTIVAL RUNS FROM 28th FEBRUARY TO 15th MARCH

Each year the Borderlines Film Festival, the largest rural film festival in the UK, centred on Hereford's Courtyard Arts Centre but also spread across numerous venues in Herefordshire, Shropshire and Powys, brings us a vast selection of new and old films. Presteigne Film Society participated as a venue for many years and as we continue this association Presteigne Screen will feature three movies under the Borderlines umbrella. More information available at the comprehensive website at www.borderlinesfilmfestival.co.uk.

UK  2024  120 mins  12A

When the Pope dies, a group of cardinals gather in Rome to shut themselves away and decide on a successor. Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is charged with mediating the discussion, no easy job as a number of warring factions jostle for supremacy. Much like many secular political campaigns, there are some nasty surprises lurking in the wings. While the men argue, the true heart of the film comes from Isabella Rossellini, playing a spirited nun who holds a secret. The settings may be rarefied but the bickering, humour and backstabbing are hugely enjoyable and gripping, as are the performances by Fiennes and co-star Stanley Tucci.

UK  2023  68 mins  U

A drama about the fortunes of three nurses, Prabha, Anu and Parvaty, in modern-day Mumbai, who have come to the big city from smaller home towns. These are ordinary lives, with small sadnesses, twinges of regret and sparks of joy. But through director Payal Kapadia’s empathetic lens we realise that each of these women, like the city that never entirely feels like home for any of them, contains multitudes. The movie revels in human complexity and need, reminding us that grace can find its way through any darkness. A tender, beautiful piece of work, impressively naturalistic storytelling and boldly mysterious – a wonderful film. (S)

Iran  2024  121 mins  12A

A life-affirming tale of late-blooming love set in the shadow of present-day Iran. When a widow, Mahin (the wonderful Lili Farhadpour), overhears a conversation about a man of a similar age not having anyone who can cook his lunch, she determines to make a move. The outcome is as touching as it is predictable. However, when the authorities clamp down on one young woman’s failure to wear a hijab, Mahin attempts to stage a rescue. The film poignantly captures the repressive realities of the current regime under which Mahin and her taxi-driver sweetheart live, a society that wilfully mutes its people’s voices.

UK 2022 121 mins 15

Based on Elizabeth Fremantle’s 2013 novel The Queen’s Game, this blend of fact and fiction gives us the familiar story of Henry VIII told from the perspective of his sixth and final wife, the independently-minded Katherine Parr (a mesmerising Alicia Vikander). Attention-grabbing jealousy arises between Jude Law’s ‘monstrous’ Henry and his savvy new consort Katherine as she works to side-step any accusations of insolence while protecting her religious certainties. As the mercurial Henry, rotten with festering leg wounds, continues to air his grievances, can Katherine’s pursuit of religious freedom defeat Henry’s network of spies? Spoiler alert: most of us know how it ends.

Mex/Ger  2023  102 mins  12A

To the residents of the Mexican village El Eco, the natural cycles of life and death are inseparable, not just in the sense that animals are born and must be tended to. The same is true of crops and people. This gentle and beautifully-crafted documentary has the feel of improvised drama but what we’re seeing is more, as one critic put it, ‘an intimate, immersive portrait of a way of life’ thanks to its focus on the children’s lives, the daily hardships, seasonal rituals and unquestioned mores (an almost inevitable patriarchy is accepted as the norm). But there is also love and tenderness aplenty. As Sweet Charity has it: ‘The rhythm of life is a powerful beat.’ (S)