This film is part of Rentals
This film is certified
- infrequent strong language, moderate threat, gory images
The Sky Trembles and the Earth Is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers
Britain’s brilliant experimental filmmaker Ben Rivers (Two Years at Sea) presents this haunting desert parable which follows a filmmaker’s abduction and ritual humiliation.
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2015 95 mins
Director: Ben Rivers
Overview
With its enigmatic title coming from a whispered warning overheard by Paul Bowles in a Tangier café in the 1940s, Ben Rivers’ new film is the feature element of his Artangel installation at BBC White City. It is inspired by ‘A Distant Episode’, a shocking short story by Bowles in which a European man is abducted by bandits and forced to wear a costume made from old tin lids and dance for the entertainment of his captors.
Rivers’ interpretation, which is shot in stunning 16mm Cinemascope, blurs the line between fiction and documentary to delve into the different levels of reality created during the filmmaking process itself (not least because it shares footage with Oliver Laxe’s simultaneously shot 2016 feature, Mimosas). It creates a new vision out of the cultural and physical debris left behind by Western film crews who themselves have been using the Morocco landscape and people to create fictional worlds.
infrequent strong language, moderate threat, gory imagesRelated
Animation & Artists Moving Image
Flee Flee
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2021 83 mins Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen
Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at Sundance Film Festival, Flee is a testament to friendship, family and acceptance.
Behindert Behindert
Documentary 1974 98 mins Director: Stephen Dwoskin
The account of a close, personal relationship as experienced by a disabled man.
Trying to Kiss the Moon Trying to Kiss the Moon
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1994 96 mins Director: Stephen Dwoskin
Autobiographical film by the veteran disabled experimental filmmaker, Steve Dwoskin.
Tehran Taboo Tehran Taboo
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2016 96 mins Director: Ali Soozandeh
In this gorgeously animated drama, the lives of several strong-willed women and a young musician intersect in contemporary Iran.
Early Man Early Man
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2018 89 mins Director: Nick Park
In Aardman’s latest animated adventure, Caveman Dug and his pet hog, Hognog, must unite their tribe if they're are to survive the threat of pompous tyrant Lord Nooth.
This Unnameable Little Broom This Unnameable Little Broom
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1985 11 mins Director: Brothers Quay
The Brothers Quay take on the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh, presenting the character as a childlike figure who sets a series of vicious traps to catch Enkidu, the guileless forest creature.
Discoveries
A Woman's Life A Woman's Life
Drama 2016 119 mins Director: Stéphane Brizé
Judith Chemla shines in this Guy de Maupassant adaptation, a tale spanning 20 years of a woman’s life.
Journeyman Journeyman
Drama 2016 92 mins Director: Paddy Considine
Paddy Considine directs and stars with Jodie Whittaker in this emotional knockout - the story of a boxer rebuilding his life after a near-fatal injury.
Custody Custody
Drama 2016 94 mins Director: Xavier Legrand
Myriam (Drucker) has recently left husband Antoine (Ménochet). She doesn’t want her youngest, Julien (Gioria), to see a father she claims is violent. But the judge rules otherwise, and the boy becomes a pawn in a bitter parental conflict…
Reinventing Marvin Reinventing Marvin
Drama 2017 114 mins Director: Anne Fontaine
A young gay man (Finnegan Oldfield ) flourishes under the tutelage of Isabelle Huppert's drama teacher, in this stirring drama from director Anne Fontaine (The Innocents).
Mandy Mandy
Horror 2017 121 mins Director: Panos Cosmatos
Nicolas Cage wreaks revenge at the fiery gates of hell in Panos Cosmatos’ follow-up to Beyond the Black Rainbow.
Nancy Nancy
Drama 2017 86 mins Director: Christina Choe
Andrea Riseborough is extraordinary in this disquieting drama about a woman convinced that she was kidnapped as a child and might have found her real parents.
Directed by Ben Rivers
Krabi, 2562 Krabi, 2562
Drama-documentary 2019 90 mins Director: Ben Rivers
Observing locals and visitors creates a highly original portrait of the Thai tourist town of Krabi in this collaboration between award-winning directors Anocha Suwichakornpong and Ben Rivers.
A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2013 98 mins Director: Ben Rivers
Visual artists Ben Rivers and Ben Russell’s mesmerising film follows an unnamed character through three phases of alternative existence, from rural commune to a black metal rock concert.
Two Years at Sea Two Years at Sea
Documentary 2011 90 mins Director: Ben Rivers
The unconventional life of Jake Williams who lives in isolation in the Cairngorms, Aberdeenshire.
New
Ali & Ava Ali & Ava
Drama 2020 94 mins Director: Clio Barnard
Clio Barnard’s latest film is a tremendously warm and tenderly written love story.
Parallel Mothers Parallel Mothers
Drama 2021 123 mins Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Almodóvar at his very best, presenting a riveting drama about two mothers from very different backgrounds whose lives become intertwined.
Wake Up Punk Wake Up Punk
Documentary 2022 84 mins Director: Nigel Askew
Nigel Askew's documentary explores the punk movement, featuring revealing insights from designer and punk icon Vivienne Westwood.
We're All Going to the World's Fair We're All Going to the World's Fair
Horror 2021 86 mins Director: Jane Schoenbrun
This remarkable debut from Jane Schoenbrun is destined to be a cult classic.
Murina Murina
Drama 2021 96 mins Director: Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic
Tensions rise between restless teenager Julija and her oppressive father Ante when an old family friend arrives at their Croatian island home.
Compartment No. 6 Compartment No. 6
Drama 2021 107 mins Director: Juho Kuosmanen
Juho Kuosmanen’s grungy train journey to Siberia, in a Finnish student’s shared sleeper carriage with a volatile Russian labourer, won the 2021 Cannes Grand Prix.
