To save paper, cut costs and give us flexibility in selecting films at short notice, we no longer produce printed programmes. All of our films are listed on the Buxton Opera House Cinema website as well as our own. If you’d like to receive a weekly alert for our Monday film please subscribe to our newsletter.
Here is our diary – we update it as soon as new films are confirmed. You won’t find a more varied and interesting programme anywhere!
| Monday 15th April | Monster (12A) | In Kore-eda's latest film we have an intricate story touching on many of modern-day challenges from bullying to social media rumour-mongering. A building, on the site of a sleazy hostess-bar burns to the ground and rumours spread that the local schoolteacher was a customer. One day a fight breaks out at school and a single mother demands answers from the teacher when her beloved son starts to act strangely. A saga ensues and it gradually develops into a big deal involving society and the media. Then, one morning, the children disappear. "A film created with a great moral intelligence and humanity." The Guardian |
| Monday 22nd April | If Only We Could Hibernate (tbc) | In the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, Ulzii, an impoverished 15-year-old boy, finds himself torn between his loyalty to his family and dreams of a better future for himself. This assured feature debut and the first Mongolian film to make it to Cannes sees these personal experiences become a microcosm of the tensions felt throughout this developing country, where traditions are being abandoned in the march for progress. Ulzii shares the family’s small space with his mother and three younger siblings, his late father having moved the family from the countryside in search of work. For the teenager, that means balancing the pursuit of his dreams with caring for his brother and sister after his illiterate mother returns to agricultural work in the country. There’s a genuine tenderness between these siblings that brings moments of laughter and warmth; the only kind to be found in the freezing Mongolian winter, which soon infiltrates the yurt. |
| Monday 29th April | Io Capitano (15) | From Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah, Dogman, Tale of Tales) comes this searing tale of two young boys’ migration from Africa to Europe. Nominated for Best International Feature at the upcoming Academy Awards, it’s an odyssey traversing city, desert and ocean, from West Africa to the Mediterranean Sea. Two Senegalese teenagers, Seydou (the captivating, award-winning Seydou Sarr, who also contributed several songs to the film’s soundtrack) and Moussa (Moustapha Fall) leave Dakar for Italy. On a journey neither of the boys could have anticipated, they experience the dangers and the beauty of the desert, the shock of detention centres in Libya, and the perils of the sea in their pursuit of a better life. |
| Monday 6th May | The Teachers' Lounge | A spate of thefts at a secondary school has led to suspicion and accusations among staff and students. When teacher Carla Nowak captures the culprit on video, the tension escalates. As a mutiny builds in her class, her colleagues turn on her and parents accuse her of losing control, Carla fights to re-establish a balance. Official submission of Germany and nominated for the 'Best International Feature Film' category of the 2024 Oscars. “A chalk-snappingly tense watch” The Telegraph |
| Monday 13th May | Opponent | In the aftermath of a devastating rumour, Iman and his family have been forced to flee Iran. As refugees, they end up in a run-down hotel in northern Sweden. Despite feeling powerless, Iman tries to maintain his role as the family patriarch. To increase their chances of asylum, he breaks a promise to his wife and joins the local wrestling club. As the rumours start to resurface, Iman’s fear and desperation begin to take a hold. |
| Monday 20th May | That They May Face The Rising Sun | Capturing a year in the life of a rural, lakeside community in 1980s Ireland, in a sensitive and beautifully realised adaptation of the last novel by John McGahern. Joe and Kate have returned from London to live and work in a small, close-knit community in rural Ireland, close to where Joe grew up. He’s a writer, she’s an artist and photographer who retains part ownership of a London gallery. Now embedded in a remote lakeside setting, the drama of a year in their lives and those of their neighbours unfolds through the rituals of work, play and the passing seasons. A quietly stunning adaptation of a book by a writer concerned with the ways Irish lives were changing and modernising in the 20th century, it features gorgeous scenery filmed on the shore of Loch Na Fooey in County Galway. |