Hamilton Film Group

THE WILD PEAR TREE

(M) TURKEY 188 mins, with Subtitles

Thursday 21 March, 7.30pm
Friday 22 March, 2pm

"Sinan is passionate about literature and has always wanted to be a writer. Returning to the village where he was born, he pours his heart and soul into scraping together the money he needs to be published, but his father’s debts catch up with him."

This film attempts to tell the story of a young man who senses with a feeling of guilt that he is different in a way that he cannot come to accept, that he is being dragged towards a destiny that he cannot embrace, as well as the rich mosaic of people surrounding him, without favoring or being unfair to anybody. As the saying goes, “what a father keeps hidden is revealed in the son”. One cannot help but inherit certain traits from one’s father: weaknesses, habits, tics, among other things. The film tells the story of a boy being inevitably dragged into the same destiny as his father, in a plot loaded with painful experiences.

Sneak peek here

CAPHARNAUM

(M) LEBANON 122 mins, with Subtitles

Thursday 25 April, 7.30pm
Friday 26 April, 2pm

Oscar nominee: Best Foreign Language Film

Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes and the Audience Award at the 2018 Melbourne International Film Festival, Nadine Labaki's epic drama of the travails of a young Lebanese boy traversing the underclass of Beirut is bravura filmmaking of the highest order.

Twelve year old Zain stands up in a court room and declares to the judge that he wishes to sue his parents for the crime of giving him life. What initially seems to be an extraordinary charge slowly begins to make all too much sense as the film takes us on a journey through the myriad struggles of Zain's young life. Born into poverty, suffering abuse, seeing his beloved sister sold into marriage, and eventually winding up on the streets taking care of an abandoned toddler, Zain's angry cry for justice reverberates with the righteousness of the powerless.

With extraordinary performances from its cast of non-professional actors from similar backgrounds as their characters, Labaki's film is a grand achievement.

“Nothing in Labaki’s previous two films — 2007’s Caramel and 2010’s Where Do We Go Now? — have prepared us for this: it’s tough and unflinching, but drenched in buckets of empathy.” ★★★★1/2 Ian Freer EMPIRE

Sneak peek here

Evening and Matinee screenings

Film Group movies are monthly, usually every third Thursday of the month at 7:30pm. If the evening screening doesn't suit, you can catch the movie the next day at 2pm.