Press room

Seasons and Special Events:

• Screening the Sahara – 3 Sep – 17 Sep 
• Black Arsenal Book Launch: Club, Culture and Identity – Thu 5 Sep 
• Silent Film & Live Music: The Blood of a Poet – Sun 22 Sep 
• Slike iz života udarnika (Life of a Shock Force Worker) + ScreenTalk with Esther Kinsky – Tue 24 Sep 
• House: Amos Gitaï’s Documentary Trilogy – Wed 25 Sep – Sat 28 Sep 

Regular Programme strands:

• Experiments in Film: The Poetic Lens of Margaret Tait + Introduction – Mon 23 Sep 
• Family Film Club: Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia – Sat 21 Sep + The Exploits of Moominpappa – Sat 28 Sep 
• Senior Community Screenings: Four Daughters – Mon 2 Sep, Nezouh + ScreenTalk with director Soudade Kaadan – Mon 16 Sep + The Teachers' Lounge – Mon 30 Sep 
• Relaxed Screenings: Hit Man – Mon 16 Sep + Inside Out 2 – Fri 27 Sep 
• Pay What You Can Screenings – Every Fri

Event Cinema:

• NT LIVE: Prima Facie – Tue 16 Sep 
   

This September the Barbican presents a bold programme of international and thought-provoking cinema which begins with Screening the Sahara (3 Sep – 17 Sep), a season that counters the representation of the Sahara as empty and isolating, with compelling stories from Algeria, Mali, Mauritania, Sudan and Tunisia. 

House: Amos Gitaï’s Documentary Trilogy (Wed 25 Sep – Sat 28 Sep) which screens alongside Barbican Theatre’s production House, was made over twenty five years and focuses on the multiple narratives which cross ways under the same house in West Jerusalem. Stories of displacement, migration and the longing for home make these films a poignant account of memory, identity and reveal the long-lasting impact of the Israeli Palestinian conflict on people’s lives and livelihoods. The programme includes a ScreenTalk with and introductions by Amos Gitai.

Special event screenings this month include the Yugoslavian Slike iz života udarnika (Life of a Shock Force Worker) + ScreenTalk (Tue 24 Sep), this compelling film delves into the lives of the devoted workers who were at the forefront of the socialist labour movement and is a poignant tribute to the men and women who worked tirelessly to build a new future.

Silent Film & Live Music presents Jean Cocteau’s ground-breaking first film The Blood of a Poet (Le Sang d’un poète) (Sun 22 Sep) in which an artist steps through a mirror into another realm, with a score by Paul Robinson performed live.

Further September highlights include: Experiments in Film: The Poetic Lens of Margaret Tait + Introduction, (Mon 23 Sep) a special programme presenting a selection of her evocative films, all screened in their original 16mm format. 

The ever-popular Family Film Club returns in September with screenings of Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia (Sat 21 Sep) and The Exploits of Moominpappa (Sat 28 Sep), with a pre-film workshop.

Also taking place in the Cinema as part of Barbican’s Creative Collaboration programme is the book launch for Black Arsenal: Club, Culture and Identity (Thu 5 Sep), written by Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka and Matthew Harle, which includes a discussion with Dr Clive Nwonka and former Arsenal midfielder Paul Davis and Clive Palmer, contributor to ArsenalVision podcast.  

Seasons and Special Events 

Screening the Sahara

Tue 3 – Tue 17 Sep
Cinema 3 

Curated by Emma Bouraba and Abiba Coulibaly, this season challenges the perception of the Sahara as a place of emptiness and isolation, looking to the regions’ storytellers who recognise it as a plentiful site of rich cultural diversity in the African continent.

Across three screenings in September, the desert is depicted as central to contemporary geopolitics and environmental shifts, unifying the West and East of the continent. In the face of its political and artistic marginalisation, this season shares compelling and topical stories, from the Maghreb to the Horn of Africa.

Screening the Sahara rejects a romanticised or Orientalist imagining of the desert. It leans into its indigenous mythology and folklore, as well as its sometimes austere realities, sharing rare narrative, documentary and docu-fiction work from across four decades. The first screening, Ballade aux sources + Life on Earth (12A*) + introduction, featuring films by Med Hondo and Abderahmane Sissako, the regions’ most prominent filmmakers, establishes geographies and histories of the region interrupted by colonialism and expanded by diaspora. 

The second screening Al Mahatta (The Station) + 143 Sahara Street + introduction turns to sites of encounter and transit, capturing the endless highways and bustling crossroads, with a film centring a female perspective alongside a hidden gem from the Sudan Film Unit. The third and final film El Haimoune (Wanderers of the Desert), weaves ancient Islamic folklore with Andalusian inflections, producing a fable of haunting resonance regarding contemporary migration and a restless generation’s coming of age. 

Emma Bouraba and Abiba Coulibaly previously participated in the Barbican Emerging Film Curators Lab.

Black Arsenal Book Launch: Club, Culture and Identity

Thu 5 Sep, 7pm

Cinema 1 

Arsenal Football Club has come to be understood as the home (or venue)  of everyday Black identification through its historic association not just with Black London, but Black identities globally. 

This discussion will draw on a range of voices and perspectives connected to the club, from its former players, its fanbases, and from the world of music and entertainment, to reflect on Arsenal’s relationship with Black Britain and beyond through the club’s representation of Black footballers, the creation of Black iconographies, and a cross generational Black fanbase and spectatorship.

Speakers at the event will be Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka, Paul Davis, Clive Palmer. Additional panel members will be confirmed nearer the time.

Silent Film & Live Music

The Blood of a Poet (Le Sang d’un poète) (PG) 
France 1930, Dir Jean Cocteau, 55 min

Sun 22 Sep, 3pm

Cinema 1 

Directing his first film, artist and poet Jean Cocteau approached the movie screen as ‘the true mirror reflecting the flesh and blood of [his] dreams’. Told in four parts, The Blood of a Poet begins with an artist in his studio speaking to a living statue, then stepping through a mirror into another realm.  

While its images and set pieces are dense with interpretive possibilities, broadly the film is understood as a kind of subversive autobiography and an exploration of the relationship between creator and creation. It is also a fascinating souvenir of a vanished avant-garde, featuring the only on-screen performance by photographer Lee Miller.  

With a score by Paul Robinson performed live by HarmonieBand. The ensemble members are Dai Pritchard (Saxophone), Tim Massa (Counter Tenor), Kim Mackrell (Cello) and Paul Robinson (Accordion).

Slike iz života udarnika (Life of a Shock Force Worker) + ScreenTalk with Esther Kinsky

Yugoslavia 1972, Dir Bahrudin Bato Čengić, 79min

Tue 24 Sep, 7pm, 

Cinema 3 

The latest event in Cinema’s ongoing collaboration with Fitzcarraldo Editions centres around the publication of Seeing Further by Esther Kinsky. Her latest novel explores her love of cinema and the importance of collective spectatorship. For this event, Esther has selected Slike iz života udarnika (Life of a Shock Force Worker) a once banned, important piece of Yugoslavian cinema, and will be in conversation following the screening in relation to both the film and her novel.

Slike iz života udarnika (Life of a Shock Force Worker) is a compelling film that delves into the lives of the devoted workers who were at the forefront of the socialist labour movement. Set in the post-World War II period in Yugoslavia, the film explores the relentless spirit and determination of these "udarnici" as they contribute to the reconstruction and industrialization of their country. Through vivid storytelling and powerful performances, the movie portrays the personal sacrifices, camaraderie, and ideological fervour that defined this era.

Digital restoration by the Slovenian Cinematheque in cooperation with the Sarajevo Film Center, the Croatian State Archives and the Austrian Film Museum.

House: Amos Gitaï’s Documentary Trilogy  

Wed 25 Sep – Sat 28 Sep
Cinema 2 

Barbican Cinema presents Amos Gitai’s House trilogy – an archaeological excavation on the multiple narratives which cross ways under the same roof of a West Jerusalem house –

in a three-part programme of the documentaries made in 1980, 1998 and 2005, alongside the UK-premiere of a new, large-scale stage adaptation House (Barbican Theatre, 26-28 Sep). 

The original trilogy in the Barbican Cinemas, together with the verbatim stage production from one of France’s most prestigious national organisations, La Colline - théâtre national, enable insights into some of the complexities of the narratives of Palestinians and Israelis in a non-polemic way, voicing multiple experiences and perspectives. 

Screenings

House + ScreenTalk with Film Director Amos Gitai (12A*) 

Israel 1980, Dir Amos Gitai, 60min, In Arabic, Hebrew, English with English subtitles 

Wed 25 Sep, 6:30pm 

Cinema 2 

House, the director’s debut full-length documentary, made over 40 years ago and originally commissioned by Israeli television and subsequently banned, chronicles the story of a house in West-Jerusalem: firstly owned by a Palestinian Doctor who was forced to leave during the 1948 war; appropriated by the Israeli government as "vacant'; rented to Jewish Algerian immigrants in 1956; and then purchased by an Israeli university professor who turned it into an affluent multi story property. 

House is both a literal and a metaphorical manifestation of the multiple narratives at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, existing under the same “roof” and a depiction of the way they have been embodied in the life of the multiple residents of a single Jerusalem house.  

House in Jerusalem + Intro by Amos Gitai (12A*) 

France / Israel 1998, Dir Amos Gitai, 87min, Arabic, Hebrew, French, English with English subtitles 

Thu 26 Sep, 6:30pm 

Cinema 2 

Eighteen years after filming House, Amos Gitai returns to the setting of his first film to observe the changes in the new residents as well as in the neighbourhood. Here, Gitai works like an archaeologist, revealing, under multiple layers, a complex labyrinth of destinies through interviews with the current residents of a well-to-do neighbourhood in West Jerusalem, the Palestinian family who lived there in the past, an archaeologist and more. 

News from Home, News from House + Intro by Amos Gitai (12A*)  

France / Israel 2005, Dir Amos Gitai, 97min, in Arabic, Hebrew, French and English with English subtitles 

Sat 28 Sep 3.30pm  

Cinema 2 

Twenty-five years after his first film, Amos Gitai goes back again to the House in News from Home News from House. The stonecutter from the first film is now 70 years old and lives in a new village, while some members of the Dajani family, the original Palestinian owners, live in Jordan. 

The house is no longer the common space that united the first film with the second. The juxtaposition of stories and memories have replaced the site. The House has become a mental space for those preparing for exile, whether internal or external. 

This film completes the trilogy which began with 1980's House and continued in 1998's A House in Jerusalem. Forming a sort of human archaeology, exploring the relationships between the house's inhabitants, past and present, between Israelis and Palestinians. 

Regular Programme Strands

Experiments in Film 

The Poetic Lens of Margaret Tait (12A) + Introduction by Sarah Neely

Mon 23 Sep, 6.30pm
Cinema 1 

This collection showcases Tait’s distinctive blend of visual poetry and documentary realism, inviting viewers to experience the delicate interplay of light, colour, and rhythm that defines her work. 

From the tranquil beauty of Garden Pieces to the lyrical interpretation of Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem in The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo, each film captures Tait's unique vision and her ability to find the extraordinary in the everyday. This retrospective offers a rare opportunity to immerse oneself in the cinematic world of one of Scotland's most visionary filmmakers.

Family Film Club
11am every Saturday
Cinema 2

Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia 
France 2022, Dirs Julien Chhen & Jean-Christophe Roger, 71min

Sat 21 Sep, 11am
Cinema 2 
The charming sequel that follows the adventures of gruff violinist bear Ernest and his best friend, the feisty mouse Celestine.
Age recommendation: 4+ 

The Exploits of Moominpappa (U*) + free pre-film workshop
Poland/Finland 2023, Dir Ira Carpelan, 74min
Sat 28 Sep, 11am

Cinema 2 
Moominpappa is the star of this story as he regales the audience with tales of his adventurous youth – escaping an orphanage, meeting with an inventor, finding a ghost and sailing a boat out on the ocean.

Age recommendation: 4+

Senior Community Screenings 
Welcoming 60+ cinema goers to watch the latest new releases every other Monday morning:

Four Daughters (15)

Tunisia 2023, Dir Kaouther Ben Hania, 108min
Mon 2 Sep, 11am

Cinema 2 

Between light and darkness stands Olfa, a Tunisian woman and the mother of four daughters. One day, her two older daughters disappear. Filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania creates this powerful film, working with a family to tell their story.

Free Senior Community Screening

Nezouh (12A) + ScreenTalk with director Soudade Kaadan + Mark Macdonald

Syria/UK 2024, Dir Soudade Kaadan, 104min

Mon 16 Sep, 11am 
Cinema 2 
In collaboration with UK for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency's national charity partner and  Barbican Cinema are hosting a screening of Soudade Kaadan's film following the story of a family living in war-torn Damascus.

Delicately weaving lightness and magical realism among heart-breaking desolation, Soudade Kaadan’s drama delivers a powerful and moving perspective on the Syrian conflict.

The Teachers' Lounge (12A)

Germany 2023, Dir Ilker Çatak, 99min
Mon 30 Sep, 11am
Cinema 2 

Nominated for Best International Feature, this German classroom drama centres on a teacher trying to solve a theft issue amongst the students. Ilker Çatak's drama follows a woman who finds herself trapped between her ideals and the school system, and the consequences of her actions threaten to break her.

Relaxed Screenings
Relaxed screenings take place in an environment that is specially tailored for a neurodiverse audience, as well as those who find a more informal setting beneficial:

Hit Man (15) (AD)

USA 2024, Dir Richard Linklater, 115min
Mon 16 Sep, 6.15pm 
Cinema 3 
Richard Linklater of Dazed and Confused fame tells the almost-true story of a nerdy professor's transformation into a slick undercover agent, played adeptly by co-writer Glen Powell. An amusing yet thrilling telling of an outrageous 2001 news story, Hit Man is a high adrenaline ride into love, crime and justice, posing significant questions about when the law is fighting for justice, and when against it. 

Inside Out 2 (U)

2024 USA, Dir Kelsey Mann, 96 min

Fri 27 Sep, 12pm
Cinema 3
From Pixar, the follow up to the progressive Inside Out film from 2015. The sequel follows Riley as she hits puberty, and a whole new gang of adult emotions are added to her mind. Surprising for its progressiveness and ability to help both children and adults communicate about difficult experiences, Inside Out 2 is a laugh out loud, emotionally deep roar. 

Pay What You Can Screenings
Every Friday one of the new release film screenings is priced Pay What You Can. 
This is for customers where ticket price may be a barrier, or for those who want to help others enjoy a visit to the cinema; audience members are invited to pay between £3-£15.

Event Cinema 

National Theatre Live:
Prima Facie (15)
Thu 12 Sep, 6.10pm 
Cinema 3 

Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) makes her West End debut in the UK premiere of Suzie Miller’s award-winning play. Justin Martin directs this solo tour de force, captured live from the intimate Harold Pinter Theatre in London’s West End.