This film is part of Rentals
Testament of Youth
Alicia Vikander brings to life the extraordinary life of Vera Brittain, whose affair with a dashing friend (Kit Harington) is cruelly cut short by the onset of war.
Drama 2014 130 mins
Director: James Kent
Overview
Alicia Vikander brings to life the extraordinary life of Vera Brittain in this exquisitely realised adaptation of her beloved and moving WWI memoir. Intelligent and free-spirited Vera overcomes the narrow-mindedness of her conservative parents, winning a scholarship to Oxford. Entranced by her brother’s dashing friend Roland (Kit Harington), who shares her literary aspirations, she plunges into an intoxicating romance.
Blooming, in love and on the cusp of fulfilling her ambitions, Vera’s dreams are brutally shattered by the onset of war. When Roland and her brother ship out to the front, she abandons the cloistered environs of university life and volunteers as a nurse. Immediately confronted with the pitiless reality of the war’s victims, her life is irrevocably changed as she loses, one-by-one, the young men she held so dear. Director James Kent makes an assured transition from television drama to feature film, effortlessly rendering the dramatic shift from the first flush of lyricism in the idyllic English countryside, to the stark verisimilitude of the battleground. Mingling innocent charm with dogged persistence, Alicia Vikander (A Royal Affair, The Danish Girl) is marvellous as the sharply perceptive Vera. Shining brightly, and lingering long in the mind afterwards, are the performances of three rising British stars – Kit Harington, Taron Egerton and Colin Morgan – who do collective justice to the memory of the ordinary heroes they portray.
scenes of bloody injuryRelated
Drama
Outcasts
Drama 2008 25 mins Director: Ian Clark
A girl in love, a pop star in peril and a gang on the run - watch it play out!
Walter
Drama 1982 73 mins Director: Stephen Frears
Ian McKellen stars in Stephen Frears' TV play as Walter, a man with learning difficulties who's put in an institution after the death of his mother.
Walter and June
Drama 1983 65 mins Director: Stephen Frears
Ian McKellen and Stephen Frears reunite for Walter and June, the sequel to their earlier TV play Walter. The titular character (McKellen) meets a young mother (Sarah Miles) who is suicidally depressed; the two begin to support one another to cope with life in a closed institution.
Footsteps
Drama 1974 33 mins Director: Alan Parker
Mollie has been left with highly sensitive hearing after an attack. In her boarding house room she "witnesses" a murder by hearing strange footsteps.
Pili
Drama 2018 81 mins Director: Leanne Welham
An HIV+ mother has a chance to turn her life around when she's offered a market stall, in Leanne Welham's extraordinary drama.
The Outsider
Medical drama 1939 91 mins Director: Paul L. Stein
Paul L. Stein's gripping and romantic The Outsider features a famed osteopath (George Sanders) who treats a young disabled woman (Mary Maguire) with his unconventional methods - only to fall in love with her.
Festival Favourites
Another Year
Drama 2010 124 mins Director: Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh's drama about contented couple (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen) who play host to various friends, each struggling to find happiness.
The Falling
Drama 2014 102 mins Director: Carol Morley
Amid the seething hormones and turbulent emotions of an all-girl school, a mysterious fainting sickness takes hold.
Winter Sleep
Drama 2014 197 mins Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Modern master filmmaker Nuri Bilge Celyan’s Palme d’Or winner: an extraordinary, epic drama.
Mommy
Drama 2014 138 mins Director: Xavier Dolan-Tadros
With stylish and charged intensity, Xavier Dolan charts the fractious relationship between an uncontrollable teen and his fun-loving mother.
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
Documentary 2014 106 mins Director: Mark Hartley
A documentary love letter to the golden of exploitation cinema and the output of Cannon Films, the cut-price studio that challenged Hollywood.
The Invisible Woman
Biopic 2012 111 mins Director: Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Fiennes directs and stars in this adaptation of Claire Tomalin’s book about the long-standing affair between Charles Dickens and Nelly Ternan.
Featuring Alicia Vikander
Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words
Documentary 2015 114 mins Director: Stig Björkman
An illuminating portrait of the pioneering actress, crafted from her unique personal archive of home-movie footage, letters and diary extracts.
The Light between Oceans
Drama 2016 132 mins Director: Derek Cianfrance
Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander star in Derek Cianfrance’s sweeping romance about a lighthouse keeper, his wife, and the baby they rescue from a drifting boat.
Featuring Kit Harington
Brimstone
Western 2016 148 mins Director: Martin Koolhoven
Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning, Kit Harington star in a brutal revenge tale about a mute midwife in the old American west.
New
Outcasts
Drama 2008 25 mins Director: Ian Clark
A girl in love, a pop star in peril and a gang on the run - watch it play out!
Walter
Drama 1982 73 mins Director: Stephen Frears
Ian McKellen stars in Stephen Frears' TV play as Walter, a man with learning difficulties who's put in an institution after the death of his mother.
Polio
Documentary 1958 13 mins Director: Rollo Gamble
Daniel Farson meets people affected by polio in a series of studio interviews and a filmed report with a man paralysed after contracting the disease.
Behindert
Documentary 1974 98 mins Director: Stephen Dwoskin
The account of a close, personal relationship as experienced by a disabled man.
Walter and June
Drama 1983 65 mins Director: Stephen Frears
Ian McKellen and Stephen Frears reunite for Walter and June, the sequel to their earlier TV play Walter. The titular character (McKellen) meets a young mother (Sarah Miles) who is suicidally depressed; the two begin to support one another to cope with life in a closed institution.
No Future
Documentary 1958 13 mins Director: Rollo Gamble
Despite the bleak title, there is some hope in this film about disabled schoolchildren.
Extras
BFI Presents Testament of Youth Panel Discussion
Testament of Youth Introduction and Featurette
Testament of Youth Stars Hit the Red Carpet
Testament of Youth Centrepiece Gala (Press conference)
