Cheltenham Film Society

Synopsis

Perfect Days tells a story celebrating the hidden joys and minutiae of Japanese culture. Hirayama is a contemplative middle-aged man, who lives a life of modesty and serenity, spending his days balancing his job as a dutiful caretaker of Tokyo’s numerous public toilets with his passion for music, literature and photography. As we join him on his structured daily routine, a series of unexpected encounters gradually begin to reveal a hidden past that lies behind his otherwise content and harmonious life.

​Combining a fascinatingly unusual depiction of the Japanese capital with a wonderful soundtrack, this is a subtle and ultimately life-affirming reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us.

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Location

Cheltenham Film Society, Bacon Theatre, Hatherley Rd, Cheltenham, GL51 6EP

Synopsis

The Night of the 12th is a police thriller with a difference which is gripping throughout. Although transposed to a rural setting the film is based on a shocking real murder case which is graphically shown.

Detective Yohan Vives has only just taken over as head of the detective bureau of the local police department when he is assigned to the horrific murder of a young woman in a quiet mountain village. But what starts as a meticulous investigation into the victim's life soon turns into a dogged obsession for ‘Chief’ Yohan and his team as the killer continues to remain at large. The intelligent screenplay follows an unconventional route as the police uncover the sad underbelly of a small community where the victim is thought to be in some way to blame for her own tragedy. Winner of six César awards, The Night of the 12th is an engaging and superior crime thriller from acclaimed French director Dominik Moll.

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Location

Cheltenham Film Society, Bacon Theatre, Hatherley Rd, Cheltenham, GL51 6EP

Synopsis

A film from Pakistan which has much to say about the cultural values of its country of origin. A beautifully observed human drama focusing on Haider and Mumtaz, who live with their well-to-do extended family in Lahore where traditional patriarchal assumptions are taken for granted. The expectations of family and culture drive the plot. We first see Haidar helping around the house, looking after the family’s children. He is unemployed. His wife, Mumtaz, enjoys her work as a beauty therapist. Pressed to find a job Haidar finds a role as a dancer in an erotic burlesque show - something he tries hard to conceal from his family - while Mumtaz is forced by her father-in-law to stop work to fulfil the family’s care needs. Haidar soon becomes infatuated with Biba, the trans woman who runs the show and begins to find peace in world where he feels he belongs. Mumtaz becomes increasingly depressed and frustrated and the family starts to disintegrate. There are touches of humour, sadness and poignancy, and dancing! A brave and passionate plea for understanding.
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Location

Cheltenham Film Society, Bacon Theatre, Hatherley Rd, Cheltenham, GL51 6EP

Synopsis

The year is 1943. Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig strive to build a dream life for their family: their idyllic home, complete with a thriving garden, is separated only by a wall from the horrors of Auschwitz, where Rudolf, a commandant, oversees the Final Solution. As Rudolf's stature in the government grows, his family remains blissfully ignorant of the atrocities going on just outside their front door – and the fact that their patriarch is a key player in one of history's darkest chapters.

Told with masterful restraint by director Jonathan Glazer, aided by powerful performances and an utterly haunting soundscape from his Under The Skin collaborator Mica Levi, The Zone of Interest transforms Martin Amis's novel into a chilling and unforgettable treatise on complicity.
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Location

Cheltenham Film Society, Bacon Theatre, Hatherley Rd, Cheltenham, GL51 6EP

Synopsis

A period drama, adventure, comedy, fantasy, romance? With its inventive storytelling, it really is all of these! Picaresque characters abound in this eccentric and beguiling film from director, Alice Rohrwacher (Happy as Lazzaro, also shown at CFS); her trademark magic realism elevating this fascinatingly chaotic story.

Disgraced archaeologist Arthur, recently released from prison, reluctantly reunites with his gang of tombaroli (tomb robbers). They use his mysterious divination skills to locate ancient tombs and plunder Etruscan artefacts which are sold on to a dealer and ultimately end up in the hands of the world’s wealthiest collectors. Opportunities to make money are few in this crushingly poor region of rural Italy but Arthur’s reason is much more opaque. He is haunted by past memories of his lost love, Beniamina; in his dreams he follows a 'mythical' thread of her red dress unravelling. His loss takes him back to a remote mansion in Tuscany where her mother still lives. Influenced by the best of Italian cinema, 1980s Italy is beautifully realised by the production design and wonderful cinematography. A captivating story with a great cast, notably an impressive performance by Josh O'Connor as Arthur. Despite the melancholy, there is beauty here and it is full of life; enhanced by an excellent use of music and songs.
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Location

Cheltenham Film Society, Bacon Theatre, Hatherley Rd, Cheltenham, GL51 6EP

Synopsis

​A first fiction film for documentarian, Tatiana Huezo. A subtle, tender story of a young girl’s upbringing in a village menaced by the drug cartels and people traffickers. With its visual beauty, poetry and honesty this film is immersive and powerful. Set In Jalisco in Mexico, poverty, corruption and the ongoing drug war have produced a hostile environment. Most of the men have fled or been killed. Left behind are the women and girls who are at the mercy of the cartel; and violence, although not explicitly seen, is destroying their lives. Following Ana from girl to young teen, this is her 'coming of age' story. Through Ana’s eyes and experiences her story gives us an extraordinary look at the slow poisoning of childhood innocence. With its quality of realism immersing us in Ana’s world, this beautiful film says more than any documentary ever could.

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Location

Cheltenham Film Society, Bacon Theatre, Hatherley Rd, Cheltenham, GL51 6EP

Synopsis

An autumn romance set very much in the kitchen and around the preparation of French cuisine back in 1889. Juliette Binoche excels as the experienced cook Eugénie who, for twenty years, has worked for the celebrated gourmet Dodin Bouffant. The gourmet and the cook enjoy one another’s company as well as sharing a love of food, and their romance has undoubtedly developed, slowly and subtly, over a long period. The relationship reaches a critical point as preparations are made for a dinner where a prince will be the guest of honour. Sumptuous and precise filmmaking. The Taste of Things was chosen over Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall for France’s 2024 International Feature Oscar submission and Tran was named Best Director at Cannes last year for this film.

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Location

Cheltenham Film Society, Bacon Theatre, Hatherley Rd, Cheltenham, GL51 6EP

Synopsis

What happens in the teachers' lounge stays in the teachers' lounge, or does it?

​Dedicated young teacher, Carla Nowak has just started work in her first job in a middle school when a series of petty thefts occur. The faculty follows procedure and holds an investigation where the two student representatives are pressured into identifying those they believe to be guilty. One of Carla’s students is suspected, based on little more than his ethnicity. She believes he has been falsely accused and decides to take the matter into her own hands to find the thief and exonerate him. Her actions result in a series of unexpected consequences leading to accusations and mistrust among parents and colleagues. Carla is caught in the middle as it spirals out of control.

This taut and cleverly plotted Oscar-nominated International Feature drama plays out like a thriller, asking troubling questions and provoking many conflicting opinions and ideas. There is plenty to talk about afterwards!

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Location

Cheltenham Film Society, Bacon Theatre, Hatherley Rd, Cheltenham, GL51 6EP

Synopsis

An absorbing, quietly compelling thriller as well-to-do doctor’s wife, Carmen, strays into the terror of Chile’s Pinochet dictatorship. Whilst her immediate concerns revolve around decorating their beach house and entertaining guests, she is persuaded by her priest friend to aid a wounded man he is sheltering. As they begin to talk and she learns more about the political divide, Carmen begins to step outside her comfortable yet unfulfilled bourgeois life and its collusion of silence about the regime. She becomes unwittingly drawn into events and into a web of intrigue. With the eerie sound design underlining her fear, the suspense intensifies. Who should she trust?

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Synopsis

Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal excel in this poignant and emotional love story. Adam, a 40 something writer lives alone in a London tower block. While working on a script about his parents, he returns to the house he grew up in, where he finds his parents, seemingly alive but still at the age they were when they died. Making repeated visits to the house as he tries to come to terms with his unresolved grief and loneliness, we see him asking them the questions he was denied from asking by their early deaths. Adam’s interactions with his parents are intertwined with his developing relationship with Harry, another tenant in his block. Blurring memories, dreams and fantasy with reality it is both beautiful and profound. A must see.

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In 1930’s Czechoslovakia, the corpse of a newborn intersex child is found sitting in rubble at a newly built chemical plant. It might sound like the setup to a Nordic noir thriller, and there certainly is a detective story at play as the factory director’s wife Helena sets out to solve the mystery, but this stylish period drama is also concerned with very contemporary issues of gender and sexuality, which it probes against the flawed dreams and ideology of rising fascism and increased industrialisation. Helena’s investigation runs in parallel with her own pregnancy, her inquisitiveness putting her in great danger as she links the body to a political cover up with implications for the whole community.

With a compelling lead performance and ravishing cinematography, this engrossing, thought provoking historical drama holds a mirror to current hot button issues.

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