Diana Quick

The Discovery of Heaven

Disappointed with humanity, God wants to revoke his contract with humanity and wants to take back the stone tablets containing the ten commandments. To this end an angel is sent out to affect the personal lives of three humans so an appropriate child may be conceived.

A Christmas Carol

Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.

The Leading Man

Successful playwright Felix Webb has a new play, 'The Hit Man', in rehearsal. Directed by his old friend Humphrey, it is already being hailed as a masterpiece; but Felix can't enjoy his success. He has fallen passionately in love with Hilary, a beautiful, fiesty young actress, and is preparing to desert his perfect family, his wife Elena and three lively children. His intolerable situation is further complicated when Humphrey casts Hilary as one of the leads in 'The Hit Man'. Enter Robin Grange, a charismatic young Hollywood actor making his London theatre debut. Robin is attractive, charming and dangerous, and soon inveigles his way into everyone's life. He ingratiates himself with the cast and, quickly grasping Felix's dilemma, sets about weaving his web of mischief. He suggests that if he were to seduce Elena, she would be distracted from Felix's affair, regain her self respect, and perhaps even willingly part from the unfaithful husband to whom she clings...

The Duellists

In 1800, as Napoleon Bonaparte rises to power in France, a rivalry erupts between Armand and Gabriel, two lieutenants in the French Army, over a perceived insult. For over a decade, they engage in a series of duels amidst larger conflicts, including the failed French invasion of Russia in 1812, and shifts in the political and social systems of Europe.

The Odd Job

Arthur Harris is a happily married man who returns from his job to discover that his wife, Fiona, is leaving him. Devastated he gets really drunk and tries to commit suicide. After a few setbacks and while he is trying to electrocute himself with a lamp, the door bell rings. An odd man in a leather coat asks if there are any odd jobs that he can perform. Arthur hires the man to kill him. The next day his wife returns, but the man he hired is still trying to kill him...

Trent 2 Rent

Trent splits up with his girlfriend Helen. With nowhere to go he moves in with his friend Joey. It does not take long however before Trent figures out how Joey is managing to make a living - this is especially important to Trent as he is not only loveless and homeless but jobless as well. Growing more and more disillusioned at being broke Trent is forced to make a choice, and so he is drawn into the mysterious world of the male sex trade.

Side by Side

Lauren and her younger brother Harvey risk being taken into care when their grandmother, who is their legal guardian, becomes ill. Lauren accepts the offer of a scholarship to a prestigious sports academy on the understanding that she and Harvey stay together while living with Janice, her duplicitous and ambitious agent. It soon becomes clear that there are plans to split the pair up; when Harvey runs away to find their long-lost grandfather, who hasn’t been heard from for years, Lauren follows. En route the pair discover that, despite all their differences, when they are side by side they are strong enough to deal with anything. This beautifully shot British debut is part family drama, part coming of age story and a road trip that nods towards some of the greats of children’s literature. The young leads give compelling and moving performances that make for an emphatically British family film that’s refreshingly free of even the hint of a franchise. (Source: LFF programme)

Vroom

Two young men and a sultry divorcee flee their drab hometown existence, taking to the road in a bubblegum pink chevrolet.

A Private Enterprise

An ambitious Indian university graduate has to struggle to live his entrepreneurial dreams against both the British social structure and his own family's stubborn traditional values.

Forever Young

An aging woman is given the chance to be young again and right her past but is faced with a dilemma when her husband declines to join her.

Revisiting Brideshead

Documentary with an affectionate look back at the classic Granada TV dramatisation of Evelyn Waugh's famous novel "Brideshead Revisited".

Tikkun Olam

Steve Alexander is preparing to stand as a labour MP for the Westminster constituency. As part of his campaign he is backing the building of a holocaust memorial near parliament square, to help the campaign gain traction Steve and his campaign manager Dan invite social influencer Leah on board as a one woman focus group. As Dan, Steve and Leah try and persuade the divided community to back the memorial their own motivations are challenged as the political and personal ties between them are tested to the very limit. A powerful, funny, intelligent political drama, that looks at the stark contrast in views and voices in and around our capital, the ever-growing divisions between the generations, and the challenging task of mending and learning to ensure we do and are better.

Cariani and the Courtesans

When Cariani the painter falls in love with the beautiful girl who receives mysterious visitors in the rooms below, he is drawn into a web of danger and deceit.

Catwalk Dogs

The story of Sally (Georgia MacKenzie) and Michael (Kris Marshall) a couple who are attempting to cope with the trauma of miscarriage. The day Michael brings home pedigree puppy Archie it changes their lives forever. With their relationship wavering under the emotional stress, Sally decides to leave Michael. As a bolt hole she moves in next door to her new-found doggie friend, Guy (Dominic Rowan) and his formidable mother, dog show judge and Rottweiler breeder, Mrs Jessop (Diana Quick). Michael goes to pieces when Sally leaves, losing his job and self-respect. He turns to Archie for solace and man's best friend leads him to the disparate but caring members of a local dog club who just might be able to help him win back Sally.

AKA

In 1970s Britain, 18-year old Dean feels hampered by his working-class background and his family. In order to make something of himself, he assumes another identity and manages to enter high society. Uses a unique projection technique that displays three side-by-side frames of nearly simultaneous action, giving the impression of simultaneous events, rather than a multi-camera recording. This innovative "three-camera" or triple-image effect was an "almost innovation" for the time, offering a novel cinematic experience alongside the film's compelling story and strong direction.

Love/Loss

A chance meeting reunites Mary and Joe, childhood sweethearts from the 1940s. But after 60 years apart, is there still love between them? How have their separate experiences shaped their lives over this long period apart, and is there still time for them to share the happiness that has so long been denied? As Mary and Joe confront the mistakes of their past and share memories of a previously unspoken love, their reunion appears to take them on a path to happiness. But the gentle narrative hides a twist that will challenge any preconceptions of love and loss.

Compassion

An elderly woman confronts a man that has just broken into her home. Sitting down to discuss their stories, it turns out that they have more in common than either would suspect.

Brighton Storeys

In Brighton on the South coast of England, sharpened by the sting of sea spray, and mellowed by numinous light, a tight-knit community of oddballs and heart-felts live together in a tatty old mansion, the Fletcher Apartments. When a golden feather, the priceless antique mascot of the building, unexpectedly disappears, the residents have a mystery to solve. Will they find the talisman that previously bound them together, or will their community, now divided against itself, irrevocably unravel?

The Three Hostages

Retired British solider Richard Hannay is recruited by British intelligence in an attempt to recover three hostages taken prisoner by a shadowy criminal organisation

Rasputin

Into an era seething with war and revolution, a man comes with an incredible power to heal a nation...or destroy it. Based on the true story of one of the most powerful and mysterious figures in Russian history.

Wilt

Henry Wilt is a more or less failed teacher who fantasizes about murdering his dominant, non-attentive wife Eva. At a party who gets stuck in an inflatable doll and makes a complete fool of himself. Eventually, he dumps the doll in a hole at a building site. However, he has been witnessed getting rid of the doll and when his wife disappears on the night after the party, the police and Inspector Flint have strong suspicions on Mr Wilt.

The Phantom of the Opera

The Budapest Opera House's diva commits suicide after the owner ruins her career for having rejected his advances but her conductor-husband, believed killed in a fire, plans his revenge on all those he deems responsible for her suicide.

Saving Grace

Unexpectedly widowed, prim and proper housewife Grace Trevethyn finds herself in dire financial straits when she inherits massive debts her late husband had been accruing for years. Faced with losing her house, she decides to use her talent for horticulture and hatches a plan to grow potent marijuana which can be sold at an astronomical price, thus solving her financial crisis.

Revengers Tragedy

A film adaptation of the 1606 satirical tragedy by Thomas Middleton, relocated to a post-apocalyptic Liverpool. Christopher Eccleston plays the revenge-obsessed Vindice, who has sworn to kill the evil Duke (Derek Jacobi) who murdered his one true love.

Nineteen Nineteen

Two former patients of Sigmund Freud meet again and discuss their psychiatric treatment 65 years earlier.

Max My Love

The wife of a British diplomat in Paris takes a chimpanzee as her lover.

The Death of Stalin

When dictator Joseph Stalin dies, his parasitic cronies square off in a frantic power struggle to become the next Soviet leader. As they bumble, brawl and back-stab their way to the top, the question remains — just who is running the government?

The Price of the Bride

After a KGB agent defects to the US, the CIA has the job of not only taking from him his dowry of information (ie. the price of the bride), but also making sure he isn't a 'plant' to uncover secrets from us. All of this is complicated when it is suspected that another man is the real agent, and the defector but a decoy.

The Big Sleep

Private eye Philip Marlowe investigates a case of blackmail involving the two wild daughters of a rich general, a pornographer and a gangster.

Vigo

Based on the life of a classic french cineast Jean Vigo, the story follows his daily struggle with sanity, normal life and uncompromising filmmaking. Story also focuses on his relationship with his supporting wife whom he met in sanatorium.

Nicholas and Alexandra

Tsar Nicholas II, the inept last monarch of Russia, insensitive to the needs of his people, is overthrown and exiled to Siberia with his family.

Nostradamus

A dramatic retelling of the life of Michel de Nostredame, from his early work as a plague doctor to his time at the court of Catherine de Medici, after he became famed for his prophetic almanacs. Stars Rutger Hauer and Julia Ormond.

Ordeal by Innocence

Dr. Arthur Calgary visits the Argyle family to return an address book lost some time ago by Jack Argyle, only to find out that Jack has been executed for the murder of his mother. Calgary can prove that Jack was innocent. In spite of opposition from a hostile family, he is determined to solve the crime.

Mother's Milk

An English family is forced to come to terms with the imminent loss of their beloved holiday house in Provence.

The Affair of the Necklace

In pre-Revolutionary France, a young aristocratic woman left penniless by the political unrest in the country, must avenge her family's fall from grace by scheming to steal a priceless necklace.

The Curse of Kirrin Island

George and her new friend Timmy the Dog are joined for the holidays by her cousins Julian, Dick and Anne. The Five set out to investigate a long-ago curse involving Kirrin Island, but it soon transpires they are not alone in their quest.

Mr. Garrick and Mrs. Woffington

Peg Woffington and David Garrick have an affair while appearing in stage in Drury Lane.