SEASON ELEVEN: 2009-20103rd and 4th September 2009: The Band’s Visit
1st and 2nd October 2009: Special People 29th and 30th October 2009: The Orphanage (Hallowe’en special) 3rd and 4th December 2009: La Vie en Rose 7th and 8th January 2010: Far North 4th and 5th February 2010: Persepolis 18th February 2010 (after the HFS AGM): Waking Ned 4th and 5th March 2010: Man on Wire and Blindsight (Docufilm double bill) 1st and 2nd April 2010: I’ve Loved you so Long 6th and 7th May 2010: The Visitor |
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SEPTEMBER 2009: The Band's Visit7.30 pm 3rd and 4th September 2009
An Egyptian police band get stranded in a small Israeli town. Confusion follows when they are forced to seek shelter with the bemused locals. Directed by Eran Kolirin, there are some sharp comments on Jewish-Arab relations, but most of the laughs come from good old-fashioned miscommunication and embarrassment. This film charmed a good few juries and was showered with awards.
Israel 2007 (English and sub-titles) Certificate 12A, 87 mins |
 Number of beans: 63
Average bean score: 3.08 out of 4 |
OCTOBER 2009: Special People7.30pm 1st and 2nd October 2009
When a less than successful movie wannabe takes on a community project, directing a film with disabled youngsters, he finds his prejudices challenged by their indifferent response. This feature-length version of Justin Edgar’s short points the camera at the life of a bunch of more or less ordinary adolescents whilst exploring attitudes to disability on the way.
UK 2007, English Certificate 12, 81 mins |
 Number of beans: 30
Average bean score: 2.93 |
HALLOWE'EN 2009: The Orphanage7.30pm 29th and 30th October 2009
Something to send a shiver down the spine for Halloween…. Produced by Guillermo Del Toro, director of the disturbing Pan’s Labyrinth, this chilling film relies on plot and location to grip the imagination rather than gore and action. A woman returns to the now abandoned orphanage where she was raised, but the past comes back to haunt her. Her mind fragments and what is real and what is imagined tangle to horrific effect.
Spain 2007, Spanish with sub-titles Certificate 15, 105 mins |
 Number of beans: 28
Average bean score: 3.25 out of 4 |
DECEMBER 2009: La Vie en Rose7.30pm 3rd and 4th December 2009
Edith Piaf is brought back to screen in an intense performance by Marion Cotillard. The ‘little sparrow’ staggered through her pain-filled life with the help of the stage, her lovers and a few drugs to become a national icon. The film captures the melodrama in flashbacks that show the pathos and strength of a woman who came to symbolise the indomitable spirit, with some great music too.
France 2007, French with sub-titles Certificate 12A, 140 mins |
 Number of beans: 38
Average bean score: 3.39 out of 4 |
JANUARY 2010: Far North7.30pm 7th and 8th January 2010
Two women, struggling for survival somewhere in the Arctic, encounter a lost soldier. They become rivals for his love, with tragic consequences. Michelle Yeoh and Sean Bean star in this beautiful, shocking tale, based on a story by Sara Maitland.
UK 2007, English Cert. 15, 89 mins |
 Number of beans: 36
Average bean score: 2.44 out of 4 |
FEBRUARY 2010: Persepolis7.30pm 4th and 5th February 2010
Marjane Satrapi is a child of the Iranian revolution of 1979, and the child of dissident intellectuals. She told the story of her childhood and adolescence in a successful graphic memoir then made into this striking animation. Funny and intelligent, the sharp black and white graphics capture the ridiculous as well as the tragic sides of the political turmoil and exile from her family and her country.
France 2007, English Certificate 12A, 96 mins |
 Number of beans: 32
Average bean score: 3.07 out of 4 |
FEBRUARY 2010 (HFS AGM): The Pope's ToiletAfter the HFS AGM 18th February
César Charlone, the cinematographer for City of God and The Constant Gardener teamed up with Enrique Fernández to write and direct this wee gem. Perhaps the first Uruguayan film Heartland Film Society has shown The Pope’s Toilet is a small town film, with small townconcerns, some of which may be familiar…
2007, Spanish with English subtitle 97 minutes |
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MARCH 2010: Docufilm Double BillMan on Wire7.30pm 4th March 2010
A heist thriller that examines leadership and charisma. 1973 and Philip Petit, a French wire walker, gathered a team of loyal, and not so loyal accomplices to break-in to the World Trade Center. Their gripping story is pieced together through reminiscence and contemporary footage of the man who walked between the two towers.
UK 2008, English and French with sub-titles Certificate 12A ,118 mins |
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Blindsight7.30pm 5th March 2010
Our second documentary takes us to the heights of the Himalayas and another portrait of leadership against the odds. Blind mountaineer Erik Weihenmayer leads six Tibetan teenagers from their Lhasa school to 23,000 feet on Everest. The fact that the youngsters are all blind too makes for a remarkable story, beautifully directed by Lucy Walker.
UK 2006, English Certificate PG, 108 mins |
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APRIL 2010: I've Loved you so Long7.30pm 1st and 2nd April 2010
Kristin Scott Thomas dominates this elegant film as Juliette, a marginalized forty something woman, recently reunited with her sister. But with her return she brings back her secret and triggers turmoil in her family as they struggle to cope with painful memories. The director, Philippe Claudel, takes an adroit path through the narrative to produce a powerful story out of family secrets.
France 2008, French with sub-titles Certificate 15, 106 mins |
 Number of beans: 42
Average bean score: 3.81 out of 4 |
MAY 2010: The Visitor7.30pm 6th and 7th May 2010
What do you do when you find two illegal immigrants in your New York apartment, and Muslims at that? If you’re Walter, a weary academic, attending a conference on third world development, you get on with them and learn some funky music on the way. But when one of his tenants falls into the hands of US Immigration he only has Walter to help him. This film, directed by Thomas McCarthy, explores the clash between individual lives and the bureaucracy of the so-called ‘war on terror’.
USA 2008, English Certificate 15, 106 mins |
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