The Model Cinema which runs in partnership with Sligo Film Society – one of the longest running in the country – returns this January to it’s usual Thursday evening slot with a packed programme of the latest and best in international and independent film.
The spring season opens on Thursday 12 January with the Polish/French drama ‘The Innocents’, set in a Warsaw convent just months after the end of WWII, a young French Red Cross doctor is approached to assist a group of nuns in a distressing state. Directed and written by veteran filmmaker Anne Fontaine, the film forms part a strong sub-stream in the programme of work by women or featuring leading female stories. Following ‘The Innocents’ is Irish comedy/drama ‘A Date for Mad Mary’ starring up-and-coming actor Seana Kerslake in the title role and Mia Hansen Løve’s “Things to Come”, whose lead actor Isabelle Huppert had a bumper year in 2016 and was recently a winner at the Golden Globes.
There are further highlights from big-name directors such as Ken Loach’s Palme D’Or winner ‘I, Daniel Blake’ from Cannes; Jim Jarmusch made a return to our screens with two films last year, the latter of these ‘Paterson’ is presented in the new programme starring hot property Adam Driver; Kenneth Lonergan also made a return with ‘Manchester by the Sea’ and is currently snapping up award nominations in this period known as the Hollywood silly season. Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, whose work has been shown previously at The Model, also feature this season with ‘The Unknown Girl’, which revels in a striking performance from lead Adèle Haenel. Andrea Arnold’s epic road movie ‘American Honey’ just fresh off the festival circuit brings an energetic number to the programme about a tale of rag-tag bunch of teen magazine hustlers trouping across the American mid-west.
At the other end of the scale, much notice has been bestowed on breakout film ‘The Childhood of the Leader’ from first-time director Brady Corbett. Based on a short story by Jean Paul Sarte it is the chilling story of the makings of a fascist leader, set amidst the backdrop of the Versaille Treaty negotiations. The spectre of war features in two further films Aleksander Sokurov’s fiction/documentary hybrid ‘Fancofonia’ which revisits the Louvre in Nazi occupied France and true story ‘The Fencer’, a redemptive account of Endel Nelis, a champion fencer forced to flee from Russian secret police who becomes a teacher and father-figure to traumatised students – mostly war orphans – at a remote Estonia school.
Fans of comedy will not be disappointed either, quirky foster-father and son tale ‘The Hunt for the Wilderpeople’ is big-hearted and full of magic and rounding off the programme is Spanish family drama cum road movie caper ‘The Olive Tree’ which will bring the season to a close on 13th April.
All screenings commence at 8pm and The Gallery Café is open beforehand serving small plates, wine and hot drinks. Individual tickets for each film are available from Sligo Film Society prior to each film or alternatively a full season pass can also be purchased. See our cinema page for more details https://themodel.ie/film
Full Spring programme listing:
The Innocents | 12 Jan.
A Date for Mad Mary | 19 Jan.
Things to Come | 26 Jan.
I, Daniel Blake | 2 Feb.
Paterson | 9 Feb.
The Childhood of a Leader | 16 Feb.
The Hunt for the Wilderpeople | 23 Feb.
The Unknown Girl | 2 Mar.
Hell or High Water | 9 Mar.
The Fencer | 16 Mar.
American Honey | 23 Mar.
Francofonia | 30 Mar.
Manchester by the Sea | 6 Apr.
The Olive Tree | 13 Apr.