Your chance to catch up with some of the best recently released foreign films. There is a mixture of drama, action, comedy, thriller and tragedy, sometimes many found in one movie. The Festival not only provides the community of Sherborne with the opportunity to see foreign films which would not otherwise be shown locally, but also to raise funds for charity.
We are really looking forward to presenting four days of excellent foreign film entertainment and hope that you will join us. The 12th International Film Festival will be held from Thu 19 to Sun 22 October 2023 at the Powell Theatre, Abbey Road, Sherborne
Hunt for the Wilderpeople (New Zealand, Cert 12)
Raised on foster care, defiant city kid Ricky gets a fresh start in the New Zealand countryside. He quickly finds himself at home with his new foster family, the loving Aunt Bella, the grumpy Uncle Hec and dog Tupac.
When a tragedy strikes that threatens to move Ricky to another home, both he and Hec go on the run in the bush. As a national man hunt ensues, the newly branded outlaws must assess their options, go out in a blaze of glory or overcome their differences and survive as a family.
Luzzu (Malta, Cert. 15)
Jesmark, a struggling fisherman on the island of Malta must make an agonising choice: repair his leaking “IUZZU” – the traditional wooden boat that has been in his family for generations-or decommission it and give in to the temptation of illicit dealing on the black market.
Seven Years in Tibet (Tibet, Cert PG)
Seven Years in Tibet is a 1997 American biographical war drama film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. It is based on Austrian mountaineer and Schutzstaffel (SS) sergeant Heinrich Harrer’s 1952 memoir Seven Years in Tibet, about his experiences in Tibet between 1944 and 1951. Seven Years in Tibet stars Brad Pitt and David Thewlis, and has music composed by John Williams with a feature performance by cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
Embrace of the Serpent (Amazon, Cert 12)
Embrace of the Serpent (Spanish: El abrazo de la serpiente) is a 2015 internationally co-produced adventure drama film directed by Ciro Guerra, and written by Guerra and Jacques Toulemonde Vidal. Shot almost entirely in black and white, the film follows two journeys made thirty years apart by the indigenous shaman Karamakate in the Colombian Amazonian jungle, one with Theo, a German ethnographer, and the other with Evan, an American botanist, both of whom are searching for the rare plant yakruna. It was inspired by the travel diaries of Theodor Koch-Grünberg and Richard Evans Schultes, and dedicated to lost Amazonian cultures.
Lion (India and Australia, Cert. PG)
Lion is a 2016 Australian biographical drama film directed by Garth Davis (in his feature directorial debut) from a screenplay by Luke Davies based on the 2013 non-fiction book A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley. The film stars Dev Patel, Sunny Pawar, Rooney Mara, David Wenham, and Nicole Kidman, as well as Abhishek Bharate, Divian Ladwa, Priyanka Bose, Deepti Naval, Tannishtha Chatterjee, and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. It tells the true story of how Brierley, 25 years after being separated from his family in India, sets out to find them.
Honeyland (North Macedonia Cert. 12)
Honeyland is a 2019 Macedonian documentary film that was directed by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov. It portrays the life of Hatidže Muratova, a loner beekeeper of wild bees who lives in the remote mountain village of Bekirlija and follows her lifestyle before and after neighbors move in nearby. The film was initially planned as a short film documenting the region surrounding the river Bregalnica but its area of focus changed when the directors met Hatidže.
Waiting for Anya (France, Cert. 12)
Though Europe may be ravaged by the horrors of World War 11 life in the French Pyrenees has remained untouched for thirteen-year-old shepherd Jo Lalande That is until the he encounters Jewish refugee Benjamin hiding in the mountains and learns of an operation to smuggle Jewish children to safety in Spain In a heroic act of defiance Jo promises to assist Benjamin in his endeavours, but soon becomes embroiled in a perilous conspiracy as German troops descend upon the village.
Rotary Club of Sherborne Castles 