Directed by Edward Bennett • Drama • With Julie Covington, Ian Charleson • 1982 • 92 minutes
Set in Ireland in 1920, Ascendancy is a powerful meditation on English guilt over the tormented history of Northern Ireland. Connie (Julie Covington) is an English aristocrat driven to despair over the horrors of war, including both the residual effects of the Great War and a new wave of violence emerging on the streets of Ulster.
Produced in 1982 by the BFI and Channel 4, Ascendancy reflects the political climate of the time, when the British government’s strategy for dealing with Northern Ireland was often openly questioned. Here, Connie’s eventual refusal to eat is clearly a reference to the hunger strikes and protests then occurring in British jails. Edward Bennett’s forceful and intelligent film won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, but has since been difficult to see - it is now ripe for reappraisal.
Directed by Pat Murphy & John Davies • Drama • With Mary Jackson • 1981 • 90 minutes
Pat Murphy and John Davis’ experimental film attempts to posit an alternative, feminist perspective on the Troubles and Irish nationalism. Flitting between the various pasts and present, it follows the exper...
Directed by Pierfrancesco Diliberto • Drama • With Cristiana Capotondi, Alex Bisconti • 2017 • 90 minutes
Pierfrancesco Diliberto (a renowned TV host and political comedian, better known as Pif) wrote, directed, and stars in this subversive, irreverent feature debut about Arturo, a young boy who...
Directed by Xiaogang Feng • Drama • With Xuan Huang, Caiyu Yang, Fan Yu • 2019 • 132 minutes
After the death of his wife, a man decides to retrace their steps from the past, looking to reconnect with old friends and make right promises he made before her death.
"What could have been rather mour...
