Lord of the Ants

Based on true events of the late 60s in Italy, poet, playwright and myrmecologist Aldo Braibanti is prosecuted and sentenced to prison for the love he shares with his barely-of-age pupil and friend, Ettore. Amidst a chorus of voices of accusers, supporters and a largely hypocritical public, a single committed journalist takes on the task of piecing together the truth, between secrecy and desire, facing suspicion and censorship in the process.

Finding Forrester

Gus Van Sant tells the story of a young African American man named Jamal who confronts his talents while living on the streets of the Bronx. He accidentally runs into an old writer named Forrester who discovers his passion for writing. With help from his new mentor Jamal receives a scholarship to a private school.

Nobody

Half blind and half deaf, ostraziced Cuban writer Rafael Alcides tries to finish his unpublished novels to discover that after several decades, the home made ink from the typewriter he used to write them has faded. The Cuban revolution as a love story and eventual deception is seen through the eyes of a man who is living an inner exile.

Braveheart

Enraged at the slaughter of Murron, his new bride and childhood love, Scottish warrior William Wallace slays a platoon of the local English lord's soldiers. This leads the village to revolt and, eventually, the entire country to rise up against English rule.

Chariots of Fire

In the class-obsessed and religiously divided UK of the early 1920s, two determined young runners train for the 1924 Paris Olympics. Eric Liddell, a devout Christian born to Scottish missionaries in China, sees running as part of his worship of God's glory and refuses to train or compete on the Sabbath. Harold Abrahams overcomes anti-Semitism and class bias, but neglects his beloved sweetheart in his single-minded quest.

A Farra do Circo

This documentary highlights the evolution of Brazil's Circo Voador venue from homespun artists' performance space to national cultural institution.

Text Messages from the Universe

A film that immerses its audience in subjective states of consciousness they might experience when they die, imagining what they can see and think and hear in a seamless but fragmentary flow of poetic images, words and music. The viewer undertakes a journey into their own interior world of dreams and projections in which time and space, and cause and effect logic, are turned on their heads. Text Messages from the Universe is inspired by The Tibetan Book of the Dead, a text which guides souls on their journey of 49 days through the 'Bardo', or intermediate state, between dying and rebirth.

A Fanatic Heart: Geldof On Yeats

A biography of the poet W. B. Yeats and his contribution to the Irish independence movement as a Protestant nationalist.

I Will Dance

Follows the young people of Selma, Alabama's RATCo (Random Acts of Theatre Company) as they journey to New York City to share their story of hope, resilience, and overcoming.

Between Pudukkottai & Singapore

This short documentary features poet N Rengarajan, a migrant worker from Pudukkottai, India who sustains a practice of poetry as a way of life while working in the construction sector in Singapore. The film, structured around three of his poems, seeks to visually mirror the rhythm and tone of his writing. Together, verse and visuals strive to draw attention to the poet's acute illuminations of the realities of migrant life.

E11

The story of the first ascent of Rhapsody at Dumbarton Rock, the world's first E11 and hardest traditional rock climb. Huge falls, injuries, tears and eventually success!

Sophia, In Her Own Words

Using the author's personal estate, current images of places where she lived or were dear to her, and archival images of television and film; using parts of her prose and poetry always with first-person testimonies; from Porto to Lisbon, from Granja to Lagos, from the Atlantic Sea to the Mediterranean, from Greece to 25 April: the passions and disappointments of a life and work dedicated to the search for the real, freedom and justice.

Leopardi

In 19th-century Italy, Giacomo Leopardi channels his debilitating illness and isolation into poetry.

She

She is a full-length documentary about writer Aimée Baker and her award-winning poetry collection Doe. Doe is her quest to give voice to the missing and unidentified women of the United States.

Fernanda Pivano: A Farewell to Beat

Merhaba Güzel Vatanım

Biopic of the Turkish poet Nâzim Hikmet and Ahmet Ümit, who followed in his footsteps. Based on the real-life stories of the two writers, the film explores the impact of Nâzım Hikmet's journey to Moscow on Ahmet Ümit's turbulent life and his move to Moscow in the 1980s. The film, which also features important segments of Turkish history, highlights the most dramatic aspects of the writers' challenging journeys while emphasizing the redemptive power of art and literature. Embracing the slogan "Life is short, art is long," the film explores how two young people were transformed into writers by the influence of their era.

Mes indésirables

"Before I left today, I almost forgot to answer a lot of e-mails."

Three Letters: La Mamma Morta

'La Mamma Morta’ is an aria from the opera Andrea Chenier that is also well-known for its use in a memorable sequence in the Oscar award-winning Philadelphia. Thirty years on, this new short film from WNO includes a brand-new recording of the aria featured alongside recreated scenes that better encapsulate the perspectives of people living with HIV today. To mark World AIDS Day 2023, the Welsh National Orchestra released a special new version of La mamma morta, featuring WNO Orchestra, soprano Camilla Roberts and Nathaniel Hall from Channel 4’s It’s a Sin. Released as part of the last rendition in the Three Letters project, this film aims to tackle societal stigma around HIV.

Prometey

The life was cruel with Ivas. The landlord sent him at war, and his girlfriend – in the house of ill fame. In the troops an ordinary peasant gets acquainted with an ideological revolutionary and becomes inspired with the feeling of inequity to the existing social structure. And when the time comes to return to the native village, he will make the sir pays by his blood for all wrong-doings against the peasants. A film based on works and biography of the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko (1814 - 1861).

Mirror

A dying man in his forties recalls his childhood, his mother, the war and personal moments that tell of and juxtapose pivotal moments in Soviet history with daily life.