Stafford Gatehouse TheatreStafford Gatehouse Theatre
Get eleven top class films from as little as £5.50 each with this great ticket offer.
Covers all films in the Stafford Film Theatre Spring Programme:
The Choral, March 3
H is for Hawk, March 10
No Other Choice, March 17
Sentimental Value, March 24
Sorry Baby, March 31
Islands, April 7
Hamnet, April 14
The President’s Cake, April 21
I Swear, May 5
A Pale View of Hills, May 12
Dead of Winter, May 19
Get six top class films from as little as £5.50 each with this great ticket offer.
Covers the first six films in the Stafford Film Theatre Spring Programme:
The Choral, March 3
H is for Hawk, March 10
No Other Choice, March 17
Sentimental Value, March 24
Sorry Baby, March 31
Islands, April 7
Kei Ishikawa / Japan/UK 2025 / 123min, cert 12A / Partly subtitled
In this atmospheric adaptation of Nobel Prize-winner Kazuo Ishiguro’s debut novel, A Pale View of Hills drifts between memory and imagination as Etsuko, now living in England, reflects on her strained relationship with daughter Niki and the shadow of her older daughter Keiko.
Her recollections return to post-war Nagasaki and her enigmatic friend Sachiko, whose presence becomes increasingly unsettling.
Lush, meditative, and quietly gripping, the film blends psychological mystery with lyrical visuals, drawing us into a world where the past is never quite what it seems and remembering becomes its own act of reckoning.
“Drifting through the uncertain space between memory and history – a beautifully restrained film” The Upcoming
Brian Kirk / UK 2025 / 98 min /Cert 15
This action thriller stars Emma Thompson as widow Barb and is set in northern, snowy Minnesota.
Barb wants to scatter the ashes of her husband by the lake where they first met so she sets off by herself.
She loses her way in a snowstorm and stops at a remote cabin where she notices blood on the snow and sees a young woman trying to escape from an armed man.
Barb is hours from the nearest town and there is no phone service. She returns to the cabin and hears the man plotting with his wife. She is the young woman’s only hope and what ensues is a desperate fight for survival.
Kirk Jones / UK 2025 / 120 min / 15 Cert
This funny, heartfelt and emphatically moving film dramatises the true story of Tourette syndrome campaigner John Davidson. It chronicles his quest to live normally in a world that insisted on calling him different. Diagnosed at aged 15, John’s Tourette’s made him the target of bullying and violence. He subsequently became one of the UK’s most passionate advocates for greater awareness of this syndrome for which he received an MBE.
Featuring a committed central performance from Robert Aramayo supported by Maxine Peake, Shirley Henderson and Peter Mullan. I Swear is a powerful look at an astonishing life. It takes in the frustration and fatigue of being persistently misunderstood and the wit, grit and resolve that saw Davidson seek to define himself on his own terms.
Chloe Zhao / UK / 2025 / 125 mins / Cert 12A
This is a powerful story of love and loss, staring Jess Buckley and Paul Mescal who both give stellar performances as Agnes and Shakespeare in this adaptation of Maggie O’ Farrell’s novel, Hamnet.
The story is set against the background of a small village in sixteenth century England, with luscious scenery, where Agnes hones her skills at making herbal medicines.
The film follows the relationship between Agnes and William and the impact of the tragic death of their eleven year old son, Hamnet , which inspired Shakespeare’s play, ‘Hamlet’.
Hasan Hadi / Iraq 2025 / 105 min / Cert 12A / Subtitles
A tragicomic portrait of life under dictatorship and winner of the Camera d’Or at Cannes.
Iraq, 1991: 9-year-old Lamia lives in poverty with her grandmother, in a marshland village of rush-built homes on stilts and everyday journeys by canoe.
Disaster strikes when she is selected by her school to make a cake for Saddam Hussein’s birthday.
Against the odds, she sets out on a determined journey through the big city in search of ingredients, with her friend Saaed and her pet rooster.
This compassionate, tragicomic film balances light and dark in its child’s eye view of the moral collapse resulting from poverty and authoritarianism.
Jan-Ole Gerster / Germany/USA/UK 2025 / 120 min / Cert 15 /
Some subtitles Tom (Sam Riley), a washed-up tennis pro, coaches tourists in a middling resort on Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands.
Drawn to the mother of one of his students, Tom agrees to show the family the island, but the father, Dave, disappears after a night of heavy drinking, suspicion falls on Tom and Dave’s wife, Anne (Stacy Martin).
With subtle, convincing performance, Sam Riley’s Tom begins to discover a new world whilst the mystery deepens.
Posing a growing, unanswered question, with shades of Hitchcock and sly humour, this is film noir in blazing sunlight – thoroughly entertaining and engaging.
Joachin Trier / Norway 2025 / 133 min / Cert 15 / Subtitles
Having been estranged from his daughters, Nora and Agnes, once renowned film director Gustav re-enters their lives after the death of their mother. He considers that a new script is the best that he has written and asks Nora to play the lead role.
After she declines, Nora soon discovers that the part has been given to an eager Hollywood star. Focussing on the problematic relationship between the sisters and their father, the film explores emotional conflicts and the challenges of healing and forgiveness within a family. “An intimate exploration of family, memories and the reconciling power of art” Pat Mullen POV Magazine NZ
Eva Victor / USA 2025 / 103 min / Cert 15
A directing debut from comedian Eva Victor. She plays Agnes, who has a great career as the new English professor at a Massachusetts university, but is struggling to process a traumatic event from her time as a postgrad.
When a beloved friend on the brink of a major milestone visits, Agnes starts to realise just how stuck she’s been and begins to work through how to move forward.
With deadpan delivery emphasising the humour and the pain and recalling Kenneth Lonergan’s dramas with piercing honesty and confident tread, this is a tale of self-compassion and companionship. With a cute kitten.