Hull Independent Cinema: Robot Dreams

In 1980s Manhattan, Dog is tired of living alone, bored by the same old routine of ready meals and late night TV. After seeing a TV ad, he decides to buy and build himself a robot companion. Their friendship blossoms, but one summer night Dog is forced to abandon Robot at the beach, despite his frantic efforts to rescue him. Distraught, he is forced to face the possibility of losing his new friend forever. Will they ever meet again?

Dir Pablo Berger | 2023 | Spain, France | 102 min | PG | No dialogue

Hull Independent Cinema: Queendom

Gena Marvin is a performance artist and LGBTQ+ activist from a town in Russia’s far east. They use social media, their identity and a series of remarkable costumes to stage protests in defiance of prejudice, war and police brutality. In a country where the Supreme Court has labelled the LGBTQ+ movement as “extremist” and banned LGBTQ+ activism, Marvin’s protests are acts of brave creativity that see them meet horrific bigotry and violence. An urgent documentary that lays bare the tragedy of Russia’s descent into authoritarianism.

Madrid Int’l LGBT Film Fest: Winner, Best Documentary, Best Director
Zurich Film Fest: Winner, Best Film Audience Award; Nominee, Best International Documentary
SXSW: Nominee, Best Documentary
London Film Fest: Nominee, Best Documentary

Director: Agniia Galdanova | 2023

Hull Independent Cinema: The Promised Land

In 18th century Denmark, Captain Ludvig Kahlen, an impoverished war hero, sets out to tame a new land, build a colony in the name of the King and gain a noble title for himself. This land is under the rule of Frederik De Schinkel, a nobleman who realises the threat Kahlen represents to his power. Kahlen is joined by a couple who have fled the clutches of the rapacious De Schinkel, prompting a violent and intense confrontation between the two men.

European Film Awards: Winner, Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design
Venice Film Fest: Nominee, Best Film
Danish Academy Awards (Roberts): Winner, 9 awards inc Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Actor; Nominee, 6 awards inc Best Director

Director: Nikolaj Arcel | 2023

Hull Independent Cinema: Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of the World

Overworked and underpaid production assistant Angela is assigned to film a workplace safety video for a multinational corporation in Bucharest. Hurtling from place to place in her lived-in and beaten-up car-cum-mobile office, she encounters all the vulgar indignities of modern life, and punctuates her day by live streaming crude rants from her satirical alt-right alter ego Bobiță. But when one of the company’s employees due to be filmed for the video makes a statement that ignites a scandal, Angela has to re-invent the story.

Director: Radu Jude | 2023

Hull Independent Cinema: The Taste Of Things

In 1880s France, esteemed cook Eugénie and Dodin, the gourmet she has been working for twenty years, form a great team, together sustaining his reputation as ‘the Napoleon of the culinary arts’. Growing fonder of one another, their bond turns into a romance and inspires delicious dishes that impress even the world’s most illustrious chefs. But when Eugénie’s health begins to fail her just as Dodin is about to welcome royalty to his home, it is he who must cook for and sustain her.

Starring Julietter Binoche, Benoît Magimel, Emmanual Salinger

Dir Tr?n Anh Hùng | 2023 | France, Belgium | 135 min | 12A | French

The Music of James Bond by Candlelight

From Russia with Love comes this incredible night of best-loved Bond themes, performed by candlelight.

Featuring a live cast of West End singers accompanied by an incredible live band, experience the music of James Bond as you have never heard it before.

Guaranteed to leave you on an ‘All Time High’, this concert features some of the most iconic songs of all time including Goldeneye, ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’, ‘A View to a Kill’, ‘Diamonds Are Forever’, ‘Skyfall’ and more.

Join us and The Man With The Golden Gun for an incredible night of music that will leave you shaken, not stirred.

Hull Independent Cinema: American Fiction

Monk is a novelist, constantly frustrated that ‘Black’ entertainment pandering to offensive tropes is more successful than his own more nuanced work. To prove a point he adopts a pseudonym to write a fake book full of exaggerated stereotypes, satirising the tastes of the white literary establishment. He expects it to fail, but it becomes a massive hit, leading to a publishing and film deal, and Monk is forced to choose between success and his principles. A biting and important satire on the prejudices faced by people of colour in arts and the media.

Featuring Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae

Dir Cord Jefferson | 2023 | USA | 117 min | 15 | English

Hull Independent Cinema: Audience Choice – Perfect Blue

The theme for this season’s Audience Choice Screening is animation. You let us know your favourites – anything from mainstream feelgood family classics to foreign-language dramas and documentaries – and we take all your ideas and turn them into a shortlist of four great pictures.

Perfect Blue:
Pop star Mima, her fame and fortune beginning to slide as fashions change, is persuaded to turn to acting, reluctantly accepting an ill-defined role in a television soap opera. However, Mima’s grip on reality begins to loosen as a result; she imagines that she has an identical twin who has maintained a singing career, and becomes increasingly paranoid after her friends are either threatened or killed. Can Mima unravel the truth before she is driven completely over the edge?

Featuring Junko Iwao, Rica Matsumoto

Dir Satoshi Kon | 1999 | Japan | 81 min | 18 | Japanese

Hull Independent Cinema: The Boy & The Heron

Mahito is mourning the loss of his mother to a WWII bombing and coming to terms with his father’s remarriage and move to the countryside. Taunted by a terrifying heron, he stumbles upon a strange boarded-up tower and is captivated by its sinister aura. Inside he meets strange and magical creatures, some kind and some malevolent. When his father’s new wife is captured within the tower, Mahito realises that it is up to him to save her. Celebrated filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki returns from retirement with a meditation on mortality inspired by events in his own life.

Featuring Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, Takuya Kimura

Dir Hayao Miyazaki | 2023 | Japan | 124 min | 12A | Japanese

Hull Independent Cinema: The Persian Version

Rebellious New Yorker Leila is trying to balance the Iranian and American aspects of her culture and dealing with the cruelty of her mother, who cannot come to terms with Leila being gay. Then, on a trip to see family back in Iran, Leila’s grandmother reveals what forced her parents to leave for the USA, and Leila, a wannabe filmmaker seeing the opportunity to write her next script, immerses herself in her mother’s life from being a young bride in the 1960s to raising children in the 1980s.

Hull Independent Cinema: Raging Grace

Joy is an undocumented Filipino immigrant struggling to do the best she can to support her daughter, Grace. Joy secures what seems to be the perfect job: taking care of an extremely wealthy but terminally-ill old man. The new position pays well and guarantees a roof over their heads, but very soon, Joy and Grace start to realise everything is not as it seems. Something is festering beneath the surface, threatening all they have worked for. An impressive combination of creepy English country house horror and urgent, sharply observed social critique.

Director Paris Zarcilla will be in attendance for a live question-and-answer period following the film – with thanks you to Modern Films.

Featuring Max Eigenmann, Jaeden Paige Boadilla, Leanne Best

Dir Paris Zarcilla | 2023 | UK | 99 min | 15 | English, Tagalog

Hull Independent Cinema: Priscilla

When teenage Priscilla Beaulieu meets Elvis Presley at a party, the man who is already a meteoric rock-and-roll superstar becomes someone entirely unexpected in private moments: a thrilling crush, an ally in loneliness, a vulnerable best friend. Through Priscilla’s eyes, Sofia Coppola tells the unseen side of a great American myth in Elvis and Priscilla’s long courtship and turbulent marriage, from a German army base to his dream-world estate at Graceland, in this deeply felt and ravishingly detailed portrait of love, fantasy, and fame.

Starring Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi

Dir Sofia Coppola | 2023 | Italy / USA | 113 min | 15 | English language

Hull Independent Cinema: Maestro

This lively biography of the composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein eschews a simple approach in favour of showing us episodes that illustrate what mattered most about his life. In large part this revolves around the lifelong relationship he had with his wife Felicia, but also gives us sparkling insights into the compulsive curiosity that sparked his creativity, and the bisexuality that he largely tried to hide. A score featuring Bernstein’s own music and superb performances from Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan power a stirring, passionate and fascinating film.

Starring Bradley Cooper, Casey Mulligan, Matt Bomer

Dir Bradley Cooper | 2023 | USA | 129 min | 15 | English language

Hull Independent Cinema: On The Adamant

The Adamant is a unique day care centre: it is a floating structure on the Seine in the heart of Paris, half Mississippi riverboat, half art studio. It welcomes adults suffering from mental illness, offering them counselling and art therapy.

The team running the facility are forward-thinking and progressive, while acknowledging the role of conventional treatment in making their approach possible. This compassionate, warm and sympathetic documentary gives us privileged access to The Adamant and its endlessly fascinating cast of staff and patients.

Hull Independent Cinema: Monica

Monica, a transgender woman, returns home to the Midwest to care for her ailing mother, Eugenia, who disowned her twenty years ago. Eugenia, fearing death is near, is abrupt and abrasive, but finds comfort from the arrival of her daughter, whose identity she is not told, and young grandchildren.

Monica still resents how she was once treated but cannot help but feel tenderness for her ill mother. As Eugenia slowly works out who Monica is, the two women begin to repair their broken relationship in a moving, moody and stylish drama.

Hull Independent Cinema: Fallen Leaves

In modern-day Helsinki, two lonely souls meet by chance in a local karaoke bar. Seeing an opportunity to find love, they each try to turn their initial spark into something more meaningful. However, the pair’s path to happiness is beset by numerous obstacles, from lost phone numbers and incorrectly noted addresses to alcoholism, via a charming stray dog.

A quietly witty script and perfectly deadpan performances from the leads ensure that this slender, unmelodramatic film is ultimately a compassionate, moving and funny tale that epitomises everything that make Kaurismäki’s films so special.