Sligo Film Society will meet every Thursday at 8pm.
Admission €9 / €7 (conc.)

Tickets can be purchased on the door.

Fallen Leaves

Thu. 18 Jan. 2024, 8pm 

Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Cast: Alma Poysti, Jussi Vatanen, Alina Tomnikov
INFO: 81 minutes, Finland, Germany, 2023, Cert: 12A

In Helsinki, Ansa and Holappa spend their lonely days in drab workplaces, bars full of stone-faced patrons, and sparsely decorated homes. When they meet randomly, their chance of happiness together is threatened by Holappa’s dependence on alcohol. Will they find their way back to each other? Aki Kaurismäki’s new film is typically melancholic, wryly humorous, life affirming, and wonderful fun.

The Old Oak

Thu. 25 Jan. 2024, 8pm 

Director: Ken Loach
Info: 113 minutes, 2023

THE OLD OAK is the story of a village in the Northeast of England, where the mine closed, and people feel deserted by the system. Many young ones have left and what was once a thriving, proud community struggles to keep old values alive. But there is growing anger, resentment, and a lack of hope. Houses are cheap and available. This makes it an ideal location for the Syrian refugees that have been accepted by Britain in recent years. How will the Syrians be received? And what will be the future for the last remaining pub in the village, The Old Oak?

Anatomy of a Fall

Thu. 1 Feb. 2024, 8pm 

Director: Justine Triet
Cast: Sandra Hüller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado Graner
FILM INFO: 152 minutes, France, 2023, Cert: 15A

Sandra, a successful German writer, has been living in the French Alps with her husband Samuel and son Daniel. When Samuel’s dead body is found below one of their chalet’s windows, a police investigation raises many questions. One year later, Sandra is on trial for murder.
This Cannes Film Festival 2023 winner became one of the year’s most anticipated films.

May December

Thu. 8 Feb. 2024, 8pm 

Director: Todd Haynes
Starring: Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Charles Melton
Film info: 117 mins. USA. 2023. 16 (IFCO rating)

20 years after being at the centre of a tabloid scandal, Gracie and her much younger husband Joe are seemingly happily married and sending their children off to college. When actress Elizabeth - set to play Gracie in a new film - arrives to meet and observe the family, the carefully crafted image of a happy marriage begins to unravel.

The Peasants

Thu. 15 Feb. 2024, 8pm 

Director: Hugh Welchman, Dorota Kobiela
Cast: Kamila Urzędowska, Robert Gulaczyk, Mirosław Baka
INFO: 114 minutes, Lithuania, Poland, Serbia, 2023, Cert: 16

From the Oscar-nominated directors of Loving Vincent comes another captivating hand-painted animation. Set in the 19th-century Polish village of Lipce, free-spirited Jagna (Kamila Urzedowska) is compelled to marry wealthy farmer Boryna (Mirosław Baka), despite her love for his son. Overwhelmed, the fearless Jagna becomes the object of envy and hate within her village. The Peasants is a ravishing visual triumph.

Tchaikovsky’s Wife

Thu. 22 Feb. 2024, 8pm 

Director: Kirill Serebrennikov
Cast: Alyona Mikhailova, Odin Lund Biron, Filipp Avdeev
FILM INFO: 143 minutes, Russia, France, Switzerland, 2023, Cert: CLUB

The marriage of Antonina Milioukova (Alyona Mikhailova) and Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Odin Biron) lasted three months. Tchaikovsky, already a celebrated composer, entered the marriage to quell rumours about his sexuality—a mistake that plunged him into depression. Humiliated, disgraced, and discarded, Antonina refuses divorce and is slowly driven to madness. ‘Tchaikovsky’s Wife’ is a powerful depiction of delusion and loneliness.

The Taste of Things

Thu. 7 Mar. 2024, 8pm 

Director: Trần Anh Hùng
Cast: Juliette Binoche, Benoît Magimel, Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire
INFO: 134 minutes, France, 2023, Cert: TBC

1880s France. For over 20 years skilled cook Eugénie (Juliette Binoche) has worked for gourmet chef Dodin (Benoît Magimel), with the two living under the same roof. As they reach middle-age, they can no longer deny that their professional relationship and shared passion for cooking has become something more. The Taste of Things is both a culinary and romantic delight.

Poor Things

Thu. 14 Mar. 2024, 8pm 

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Cast: Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef
INFO: 141 mins, Ireland, UK, USA , 2023

Scientist Dr Godwin Baxter spent years attempting wild experiments before his greatest, still secret success: bringing a young woman, Bella, back from the dead. Initially childlike and naive, reanimated Bella is kept locked inside the Baxter house. However, an encounter with sleazy lawyer Duncan Wedderburn leads Bella to flee the Baxter house to see the world. She embarks on an intoxicating odyssey of discovery and liberation.

Yorgos Lanthimos follows up The Favourite with this delirious, darkly comic fantasy – a film simply overflowing with outrageous characters, lavish art design and surreal flourishes. The beating heart of the film is a career-best performance from Emma Stone, who gloriously brings the film’s endearingly odd heroine to life

The Zone of Interest

Thu. 21 Mar. 2024, 8pm 

Director: Jonathan Glazer
Cast: Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller, Ralph Herforth
INFO: 105 mins, UK, USA, Poland, 2023

In the grounds of Auschwitz, commandant Rudolf Höss and his family live in luxury. As unspeakable atrocities unfold in the concentration camp, the family members go about their lives – wilfully ignoring the ever-present sounds of terrible things happening just over their garden wall.

The Zone of Interest – director Jonathan Glazer’s first film since 2013’s Under the Skin – is a deeply unsettling, masterfully directed cinematic study of the banality of evil. Loosely based on the novel by Martin Amis, Glazer’s film refuses to show the audience the atrocities of the Holocaust. Instead, we’re kept at a devastating, chilling remove – artfully enhanced by pristine camerawork, extraordinary sound design and an eerie, bone-shaking score from Mica Levi.

The Settlers (Los colonos)

Thu. 28 Mar. 2024, 8pm 

Director: Felipe Gálvez Haberle
Cast: Sam Spruell, Mark Stanley, Alfredo Castro
INFO: 97 mins, 2023

A 2023 revisionist Western drama film directed by Felipe Gálvez Haberle (in his directorial debut). In 1893, Segundo, a Chilean mestizo, MacLennan, a British soldier and Bill, an American mercenary, embark on an expedition on horseback to delimit and reclaim the lands that the State has granted to José Menéndez. What appears to be an administrative expedition turns into a violent hunt for Onas, the natives of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. The Selknam genocide lies at the core of the film.

20,000 Species of Bees

Thu. 4 Apr. 2024 8pm

Director: Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren
Cast: Sofia Otero, Patricia López Arnaiz, Ane Gabarain
INFO: 129 minutes, Spain, 2023, Cert: CLUB

Eight-year-old Coco doesn’t identify with the male name Aitor she was assigned at birth. She would in fact prefer to be called Lucia. But her family, even her open-minded sculptress mother, are struggling to see Lucia for who she really is. Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s moving debut film approaches its young lead character’s story of self-discovery with great sensitivity and humanity.

Promised Land

Thu. 11 Apr. 2024, 8pm 

Director: Nikolaj Arcel
Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Amanda Collin, Simon Bennebjerg
INFO: 127 mins, DK, DE, SE, 2023

From BAFTA nominated writer and director, Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal affair, The girl with the Dragon Tattoo) comes a powerful Nordic epic starring Mads Mikkelsen (The Hunt, Another round). In 1755, the impoverished Captain Ludvig Kahlen sets out to conquer the uninhabitable Danish heath in the name of the King. But the sole ruler of the area, the merciless Frederik de Schinkel, who believes the land belongs to him, swears revenge when the maid Ann Barbara and her serf husband escape for refuge with Kahlen.

If only I could hibernate (Baavgai Bolohson)

Thu. 18 Apr. 2024, 8pm 

Director: Zoljargal Purevdash
Cast: Battsooj Uurtsaikh, Nominjiguur Tsend, Tuguldur Batsaikhan
INFO: 96 mins, Mongolia, 2023

A 2023 Mongolian film of the film production company Amygdala Films. It was written and directed by Zoljargal Purevdash, with the Mongolian actor Battsooj Uurtsaikh as the lead actor in the role of Ulzii. A poor but prideful teenage boy, Ulzii, who lives in the Ger district of Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar, is determined to win a physics competition for a scholarship. Still, his illiterate mother finds a job in the countryside and leaves him with his siblings in the middle of winter.

Perfect days

Thu. 25 Apr. 2024, 8pm 

Director: Wim Wenders
Cast: Koji Yakusho, Tokio Emoto, Arisa Nakano
INFO: 124 mins, JP, DE, 2023

A 2023 film directed by Wim Wenders. Middle-aged Hirayama’s (a fantastic Koji Yakusho) leads a modest existence balancing his work as a Tokyo public toilet caretaker with his love of music, reading and photography. But when a young woman appears on his doorstep, it leads to revelations about Hirayam’s past and the simple life he cherishes is disrupted. Wim Wenders Japan-set latest is a charming, moving gem.