Programme Notes

BFI Southbank

Kes

+ intro and discussion. 15-year-old Billy Casper struggles every day. Not conforming to anyone’s expectations he is repeatedly humiliated at school and home. Discovering falconry transforms his ...

The Home and the World

In the chaotic aftermath of the disastrous 1905 partition of Bengal into Muslim and Hindu states, progressive landlord Nikhilesh finds his wife Bimala’s attentions stolen by his more passionate and...

Reggae Futures

A defining factor of reggae over the decades has been how, as the music perpetually shifts, the sound system culture remains constant; what began as Jamaican has adapted to new audiences and enviro...

Where Is Anne Frank

Director Ari Folman on ‘Where Is Anne Frank’ Why did you decide to use animation as a medium for your film? As a way to reach young audiences. And it is exactly for that reason that the Anne Fran...

My Old School

Director’s Statement My Old School is a documentary which finally reveals the truth behind one of the most incredible stories of the past 30 years. Featuring interviews with my old classmates and t...

The Feast

In a modern, luxurious house situated in remote Welsh mountains, a wealthy family prepare for an extravagant dinner party. They are on a mission to impress their neighbour and broker a business dea...

Burning an Illusion

Reigniting the flame: Menelik Shabazz’s Burning an Illusion, 40 years on When Menelik Shabazz died on 28 June 2021, aged 67, he left behind a body of work that stands as a pioneering contribution t...

12 Views of Kensal House

With pre-recorded introduction by Steven Foxon, BFI Curator (Non-Fiction) In 1936 Kensal House, situated in the west of London, was opened by the Gas Light and Coke Company as a model estate. Des...

Days and Nights in the Forest

Days and Nights in the Forest… the very title rings with enchantment, and the old Ray magic is soon at work again. This time the spell is a rug spread out in the sun, a picnic by the river, a charm...

3 Faces

We are screening this film and There Is No Evil (Sheytan vojud nadarad) in solidarity with Jafar Panahi, Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Aleahmad. The BFI strongly condemns their prison sentence and...

The Frog

Introduced by Vic Pratt, Producer, BFI Video Publishing Edgar Wallace’s 1925 novel The Fellowship of the Frog centres on the investigation by two Scotland Yard policemen, Captain Richard Gordon an...

There Is No Evil

We are screening this film and 3 Faces (Se rokh) in solidarity with Jafar Panahi, Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Aleahmad. The BFI strongly condemns their prison sentence and the oppression of artis...

Bigger than Life

Nicholas Ray’s Bigger than Life is among the most radical examples of what may be the most radical genre in American cinema: the small-town melodrama. Though long considered unworthy of serious att...

Notorious

ALICIA: My car is outside. DEVLIN: Naturally. ALICIA: Wanna go for a ride? DEVLIN: Very much. Seven decades after its premiere in New York on 15 August 1946, it’s impossible to shake the feeling t...

The White Ribbon

Michael Haneke on ‘The White Ribbon” Did you always envisage having a narrator? Right from the start. As in my other films, I wanted to nourish a certain sense of distrust regarding the veracity ...

Kes

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Kes was Ken Loach’s second feature film, and marks his move away from the self-conscious experimentalism of his earlier work. As be...

Kanchenjunga

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. In Satyajit Ray’s view, Kanchenjunga differs from all his previous work: the story being his own, ‘the difference is between interp...

Being Blacker

+ Q&A with Molly Dineen, Blacker Dread and Naptali, hosted by the renowned DJ and remixer, Radio 1Xtra’s Seani B After a ten-year absence, BAFTA award-winning filmmaker Molly Dineen returned w...

Kinuyo Tanaka
Film Pioneer

Join us for this richly illustrated talk exploring the career of Kinuyo Tanaka, which guides you through our film selection. This season introduction event will trace how Tanaka came to be consider...

Teen Kanya

To mark Tagore’s centenary year, Ray adapted three short stories by the writer. In The Postmaster, a young man from Calcutta arrives as postmaster of a small village and soon forms a bond with an o...