August screening

3.30 pm Russian Ark Dir: Alexander Sokurov ( Russia/2002/96 mins) Filmed inside the Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg, through the ambling of a French Marquis – witnessing scenes of Peter the Great thrashing his general, Empress Catherine during a rehearsal of her play trying to relieve herself, the last Tsar at dinner oblivious of the revolution and the last great Ball before the Bolshevik revolution. We see three hundred years of Russian history staged inside the Museum - a time machine. The film is a technical achievement in terms of the complexity of its production and scope of narration. The film was in competition for the Palm D’or at Cannes in 2002. 5.40 pm The Wild Pear Tree Dir: Nuri Bilge Ceylan ( Turkey/2018/188 mins) Sinan is passionate about literature and harbours an ambition to be a writer. Returning to his ancestral village, he struggles to get published, but his father’s debts catch up with him. This is the eighth feature…