This comedic drama is directed by Michael Powell, based on Norman Lindsay’s novel. A disheveled and disillusioned Australian painter, Bradley Morahan, played by James Mason, decides to retreat from New York City to his homeland to find inspiration and revive his waning creativity. Settling on the shore of a small island on the Great Barrier Reef, the elderly artist has a fortuitous encounter with bombshell young islander, Cora, a nubile Helen Mirren in her first major role. As a gorgeous beach babe, she becomes his model and muse. Helen Mirren as a hot young thing does indeed recharge Bradley’s creative batteries!

Australia 1969 (106 mins)

Sponsor: Australian Consulate General San Francisco

This film was apparently inspired by a true story, adding to the delight of Valerie Buhagiar’s latest somewhat quirky film. But who needs plot logic? Set in Malta in the 1980s, a sparkling backdrop, Natascha McElhone (The Crown) gives a wonderful performance as a 50-yearold woman who escapes her dreary life looking after her older brother when he enters the priesthood – the tradition in Malta. When the autocratic priest dies, abandoned by the church with no home or means of support, she manages to secretly masquerade as the village’s new priest, giving somewhat wayward advice from the confession booth. Things take off from there as she begins a new life. Enjoy!

Canada/Malta 2021 (87 minutes)

In this honest and affecting film, a retired sea captain and his daughter must reassess their strained relationship after he begins a new romance with a widowed housekeeper. With painstaking care and an extraordinary amount of empathy, Finnish director Klaus Härö catches the tiny fluctuations in the relationship between father and daughter that prove to be of seismic, heartbreaking proportions. A story told with profound compassion and a clear eye, My Sailor, My Love is both the beautiful, moving story of true love found in late years, and the ensuing devastating family drama.

Finland/ Ireland 2022 (103 minutes)

Grief-stricken Róise lost her husband, Frank, two years ago and is still struggling to get out of bed each morning. One day, an eager stray terrier (a star-making performance by Barley the Dog) turns up on her doorstep. And just won’t leave. This mysterious dog brings happiness to her life once more, curiously seeming to know things about her late husband – his favorite chair and the route of his morning walk. Róise comes to believe that the dog is Frank reincarnated. A warm-hearted, witty and hugely entertaining film from directors Peter Murphy and Rose Moriarty, it may bring a tear or two to the eyes of dog lovers. In Irish Gaelic with subtitles.

Ireland 2022 (88 minutes)

Born into a farming family in rural Northern Ireland, Seamus Heaney became the finest poet of his generation and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. Not inconsequentially, his career coincided with one of the bloodiest political upheavals of the 20th century, the Troubles in Northern Ireland. In this absorbing documentary, Heaney’s wife, Marie, and their children gather six years after his death in 2013 to reflect on their family life by reading some of the poems he wrote for them. The voice of Heaney himself, pulled from voluminous recordings, joins them in this tour of his life, his art, and his beloved Irish landscapes. Director Adam Low’s film is resonant with grace and awe for the words one man left behind.

Ireland 2019 (88 minutes)

This is a breakout role for James Norton, a mainstay of British detective series like Happy Valley and Grantchester. He plays a real-life conman who recruits vulnerable women by posing as an undercover M15 agent, supplying this diligently crafted thriller with a romantic and vengeful twist. The lines between rakish spy and dashing lover are blurred in his early entreaties to his victims as he presents an airtight cover story, an almost too-perfect alibi. Gemma Arterton is at her gleaming best as Alice– a would-be recruit who catches herself before stumbling down the rabbit hole.

UK 2022 (115 minutes)

Sponsor: Gerry and Fran Schall

What is British cinema? Cinema made in Britain, that takes place in Britain, produced by British companies or rooted in British culture? Celebrated British filmmakers ponder this question, launching the impressive new Brit Box series Reel Britannia – an informative, rich four-part series on five decades of British cinema starting with the Swinging 60s. Comedian Nick Helm narrates (from writer/director Jon Spira’s script), guiding us through commentaries from filmmakers, Stephen Frears, Ken Loach, Richard Attenborough, Terence Davies, Mike Leigh, etc with wonderful humor and acerbic quips. Set against societal shifts, we are treated to film clips capturing those faces we have known and loved over the years and who have made British cinema shine. Cinephiles are in for a treat!

UK 2022 (120 minutes)

This meditative and heartfelt documentary expresses the yearning felt for the Isle of Berneray in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides by those born there who eventually moved away. Interwoven with found footage of the island from the 1950s and ‘60s are interviews with locals who left. “Berneray has been part of me all my life, it’s where my heart is,” one expat confides. The focus on small town life is sweet and charming, capturing a bygone way of life. In Gaelic with English subtitles.

UK/ Screen Scotland 2022 (88 minutes)

Sponsor: Bruce Lymburn