Once again, we will be offering the best of world cinema over 16 fortnightly Friday nights with 16 top-notch films from 16 different countries.
Friday 11 September 2026
The President's Cake
12A | Iraq | 2025 | Arabic, subtitled | 102 mins
Director: Hasan Hadi
In 1990s Iraq, a young girl is unexpectedly given the daunting task of baking a birthday cake for Saddam Hussein. Accompanied by her grandmother and her best friend, she embarks on a journey across a society shaped by fear, shortages and quiet acts of resistance. Blending humour, suspense and warmth, this coming-of-age tale offers a vivid portrait of ordinary life under dictatorship.
There’s a terrific charm and sweetness in this debut from Iraqi film–maker Hasan Hadi. - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
(a) warm and heart–tugging tale - Tomris Laffly, Variety
Friday 25 September 2026
The Room Next Door
12 | Spain | 2024 | English | 110 mins
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language feature is an intimate and emotionally rich drama about friendship, memory and mortality. Two women (Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore) reconnect after years apart, leading to conversations that are by turns painful, funny and deeply moving. Elegantly performed and beautifully composed, it is a reflective study of companionship and acceptance.
A graceful exploration of mortality and friendship. - Nicolas Rapold, Sight & Sound (BFI)
extravagant and engrossing. - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Friday 9 October 2026
Girls Will Be Girls
15 | India | 2024 | Hindi, English, subtitled | 118 mins
Director: Shuchi Talati
At a strict Himalayan boarding school, an academically gifted young woman begins to explore romance and independence, unsettling the intense bond she shares with her mother. This confident debut balances tenderness and tension in a perceptive portrait of adolescence, desire and generational conflict.
a sensitive and distinctive take on the fraught dynamics between mothers and daughters. - The Hollywood Reporter
Talati’s complicated character drama makes for a thrilling, intimate debut. - Variety
Friday 23 October 2026
The Kingdom
15 | France | 2024 | French, Corsican, subtitled | 108 mins
Director: Julien Colonna
Set against the rugged landscape of Corsica in the 1990s, this atmospheric drama follows a teenage girl reunited with her elusive father, a man entangled in the island’s violent criminal underworld. Combining family drama with thriller elements, the film explores loyalty, identity and the pull between freedom and belonging.
intense coming-of-age crime saga… bolstered by magnetic debut screen performances. - IndieWire
An intensely atmospheric, absorbing and exciting drama. - The Guardian
Friday 4 December 2026
Utama
12A | Bolivia | 2022 | Quechua, Spanish, subtitled | 87 mins
Director: Alejandro Loayza Grisi
In the drought-stricken Bolivian highlands, an elderly Quechua couple continue their traditional way of life despite mounting pressures to leave their ancestral home. Shot against breathtaking mountain landscapes, this poignant and visually stunning drama reflects on climate change, cultural continuity and the enduring strength of human relationships.
A film of dazzling visual power and genuine poignancy - RogerEbert.com
A rare depiction of life in the Bolivian highlands… highlighting the impact of environmental collapse on traditional Quechua ways of life - BFI
Friday 18 December 2026
The Marching Band
15 | France | 2024 | French, subtitled | 104 mins
Director: Emmanuel Courcol
A celebrated orchestra conductor discovers he has a younger brother working in a northern French mining town brass band. As music brings the two men together, this warm and crowd-pleasing drama explores class, family and the power of community through stirring performances and gentle humour.
A good?natured heartwarmer… a triumph in a minor key - The Guardian
the film we need right now: a story in which people learn to be their best selves - Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday 7 January 2027
All We Imagine as Light
15 | India | 2024 | Malayalam, Hindi, subtitled | 123 mins
Director: Payal Kapadia
Set amid the bustle and contradictions of modern Mumbai, this luminous drama follows three women whose lives intersect through friendship, work and longing. Rich in atmosphere and compassion, the film captures moments of tenderness and quiet resilience in a rapidly changing city.
Glows with an all-too-familiar ache… It’s beautiful. - The Independent
(a) graceful vision of Mumbai (that) marks (Kapadia) out as a filmmaker of significant promise. - Sight and Sound
Thursday 21 January 2027
I'm Still Here
15 | Brazil | 2024 | Portuguese, subtitled | 135 mins
Director: Walter Salles
Based on real events during Brazil’s military dictatorship, this moving drama follows a woman whose life is transformed by political violence and disappearance. Anchored by a powerful central performance, it becomes both an intimate family story and a wider reflection on memory, resilience and justice.
immersive and unhurried, and quietly devastating - RogerEbert.com
Profoundly Moving Sense-Memory Portrait of a Family - and a Nation - Ruptured - Variety
Thursday 4 February 2027
Las Acacias
12 | Argentina | 2011 | Spanish, subtitled | 85 mins
Director: Pablo Giorgelli
A taciturn long-distance truck driver reluctantly agrees to transport a young woman and her baby from Paraguay to Buenos Aires. As the miles pass, small gestures and shared silences gradually forge a fragile connection. This understated road movie is a beautifully observed study of loneliness, trust and companionship.
This is a very satisfying love story. - The Guardian
articulates emotional transformation with simplicity and grace. - New York Times
Thursday 18 February 2027
Black Narcissus
U | UK | 1947 | English | 100 mins
Director: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
In one of the great achievements of British cinema, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger create a dazzling tale of nuns attempting to establish a convent high in the Himalayas. As isolation and suppressed desire intensify, the film builds towards a remarkable psychological and visual climax. Famous for its extraordinary colour cinematography and production design.
a perfect fusion of all the elements of cinematic art - New York Times
an extraordinary melodrama of repressed love and Forsterian Englishness - The Guardian
Thursday 4 March 2027
Memoir of a Snail
15 | Australia | 2024 | English | 95 mins
Director: Adam Elliot
This bittersweet stop-motion animation follows an introverted young woman whose passion for collecting snails reflects her retreat from the world around her. Funny, eccentric and unexpectedly emotional, the film becomes a touching exploration of loneliness, grief and the importance of human connection.
It’s a gorgeous film, but it’s also an emotionally intelligent movie - RogerEbert.com
As hilarious as it is heart-wrenching - Screen Daily
Thursday 18 March 2027
Decision to Leave
15 | South Korea | 2022 | Korean, Chinese, subtitled | 138 mins
Director: Park Chan-wook
A detective investigating a suspicious death becomes fascinated by the victim’s enigmatic widow. As professional duty gives way to obsession, Park Chan-wook crafts a visually elegant and intricately layered romantic thriller full of longing, deception and moral uncertainty.
a gorgeously and grippingly made picture - The Guardian
seamlessly strings together complex yet high-impact images - Sight and Sound
Thursday 1 April 2027
Stolen Kisses
15 | France | 1968 | French, subtitled | 91 mins
Director: François Truffaut
Like François Truffaut, we continue the adventures of Antoine Doinel in this delightful and freewheeling portrait of youthful uncertainty. Drifting between jobs, romances and comic mishaps in 1960s Paris, Antoine searches for direction in a film full of warmth, charm and New Wave energy.
strong, sweet, wise and often explosively funny - The New York Times
This beautifully conceived and brilliantly acted film confirms Truffaut’s high place in the French humanist tradition. - Sight and Sound
Thursday 15 April 2027
On Falling
15 | UK/ Portugal | 2024 | English, Portuguese, subtitled | 100 mins
Director: Laura Carreira
Set within the isolating world of warehouse work and zero-hours employment, this quietly powerful drama follows a Portugese migrant worker struggling to maintain dignity and connection. Observant and restrained, it offers a compassionate portrait of precarious modern labour and everyday resilience.
(a) quietly devastating study of late-stage capitalism in action - Sight & Sound
This is a very impressive debut. - The Guardian
Thursday 29 April 2027
Frantz
12 | France/ Germany | 2016 | French, German, subtitled | 113 mins
Director: François Ozon
In the aftermath of the First World War, a young German woman mourning her fiancé encounters a mysterious French visitor claiming to have known him. Beautifully photographed and emotionally nuanced, this haunting drama from François Ozon explores grief, guilt and reconciliation in a divided Europe.
a beautifully calibrated tale of postwar love and loss - The Washington Post
(a) sumptuous period war drama - The Guardian
Thursday 13 May 2027
Woman at War
12A | Iceland | 2018 | Icelandic, Ukrainian, subtitled | 101 mins
Director: Benedikt Erlingsson
By day, Halla is a respected choir conductor in Iceland. In secret, she wages a one-woman campaign against environmental destruction. Blending deadpan comedy, suspense and social satire, this inventive and uplifting film celebrates courage, activism and the possibility of change. A proper finale to our season!
As Halla, Geirhardsdóttir is phenomenal. Showing a flair for both drama and comedy - Sight and Sound
the director’s yarn-spinning… has warmth, humour and nimbleness. - Sunday Times
