Writer/director Ben Hackworth brings us a retired opera singer, Celeste, a star fifteen years ago who is now attempting a come-back. At forty something she is living in a crumbling paradise somewhere in the lush rainforest of north-eastern Australia. Set against this wondrous tropical backdrop, Radha Mitchell (appearing in person at Mostly British) plays the nervy diva with resplendent theatricality, mourning the death of her husband ten years earlier and finding comfort from drink and her friend/producer Grace, she prepares for the show. Enter her estranged stepson Jack (Thomas Cocquerel), no longer a teenager, but now described so eloquently by the Hollywood Reporter as “a virile slab of wayward young manhood.” Indeed, he is and tension mounts.  Enigmatic and at times mysterious, this film is always engaging, offering stunning location shots to bask in.

Australia 2018 (105 minutes)

GUEST OF HONOR: RADHA MITCHELL
Australian actress Radha Mitchell will join us at the festival with two of her new films, which she will introduce and participate in a Q & A following the screenings. She stars in “Flammable Children,” as a parent trying to raise children in the wild 1970s in Sydney. In “Celeste” she gives a touching and vulnerable performance as a renowned opera diva who gives up her career for the man she loves and moves to a rainforest. Her films “Looking for Grace” and “The Waiting City” played in the Australian Spotlight section of the Mostly British festival. The critical success of “High Art,” one of her early Hollywood movies, gained her a wider audience. She has also worked in Hollywood on “Neverland” and “Melinda and Melinda.” Woody Allen hired her as the lead character Melinda without an audition on the strength of seeing one of her movies.

GUEST OF HONOR: BEN HACKWORTH
The director of “Celeste” had an auspicious beginning as a filmmaker. His short film, “Martin Four,” made while he was in film school, was selected to show at the Cannes Film Festival. His debut feature “Corroboree” was chosen for the Toronto International by Noah Cowan, now executive director of SFFILM. Hackworth is one of three Australian directors to be awarded a prestigious Cannes Film Festival Residence to develop a screenplay. “Celeste” opened the Brisbane International Film Festival in the city where Hackworth makes his home.

Introduction to “Celeste” by Mitchell and Hackworth. Both will be interviewed following the screening by SFFILM Executive Director Noah Cowan.

Ralph Fiennes’ ambitious directing effort centers on Russian ballet legend Rudolf Nureyev from his humble beginnings in Siberia to his life-changing visit to France as part of the Kirov Ballet, culminating in his dramatic defection to the West in 1961. Scripted by Britain’s legendary screenwriter David Hare (“The Hours,” “The Reader”), this dance-heavy biopic features acclaimed Ukrainian dancer Oleg Ivenko as Nureyev, showing a fierce physicality in his first film role. Fiennes plays an understated role as Pushkin, St. Petersburg’s most respected dance instructor, who sees something in Nureyev’s passion, prizing it above pure technical skill.  Fiennes plays the role in Russian, which he learned just enough of to sound convincing. Adele Exarchopoulous (“Blue is the Warmest Color”) acts against type as the reserved Chilean heiress who opens Nureyev’s eyes to the West’s liberated attitudes to art and sexuality. The film, which Variety calls “lovely and elegant” ends with a gripping scene at Paris’ Le Bourget Airport which– even though we know the outcome– leaves us breathless. UK 2018 (117 minutes)

Opening Night
5:00 PM Reception Laureate Bar and Lounge
444 Presidio Avenue
Sponsored by British Heritage Travel Magazine

Purchase your Mostly British Film Festival Series Passes and get priority seating for all films. Individual movie tickets go on sale on January 15. Discounts go to members of the San Francisco Film Society, the Fromm Institute, the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation and people 65 and over.

The story of “Una” could be ripped from today’s headlines: A seemingly helpful neighbor, Ray, well into his 30s has sexual relations with a pretty 13-year-old girl next door. Based on the scorching Broadway play “Blackbird,” this psychological thriller unfolds as the victim, now a damaged young woman played by Rooney Mara (“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”) seeks out her predator (Ben Mendelsohn, King George in “Darkest Hour”) in an attempt to understand his impact on her. To illustrate how damaged she is the film opens with Una engaging in rough, anonymous sex in a club restroom. Frequent flashbacks to her as a girl show her heartbreaking vulnerability. The grown Una is still confused but shrewd enough to overwhelm Ray with guilt. Veteran Australian stage director Benedict Andrews translates the play to the screen with cinematic bravado. UK 2016 (94 minutes)