• Friday 5 October for 2 weeks

CONTROL (15)

(UK 2007) dir. Anton Corbijn 122m. Digital.
Sam Riley, Samantha Morton, Alexandra Maria Lara, Toby Kebbell.

The story of Ian Curtis, the enigmatic singer/songwriter of Joy Division whose troubled personal and professional life ended in suicide at the age of 23. Photographer Anton Corbijn's wonderful first feature traces the musician's life from an isolated teenage world of poetry and song lyrics to his obsession for the woman who shared his life and his emergence into the Manchester music scene of the late 1970s. With spellbinding performances from both Sam Riley and Samantha Morton, CONTROL is a riveting, visually arresting portrait of the tormented soul who wrote 'Love Will Tear Us Apart,' his best known song and his epitaph.

N.B. ‘The Heard’, a Bermondsey-based pop choir, will be performing live on stage before the 8.45 screening on Fri 5 Oct.

• Friday 19 October for 1 week

THE COUNTERFEITERS (15)

(Germany 2007) dir. Stefan Ruzowitzky 99m. Subtitles. Digital.
Karl Markovics, August Diehl, David Striesow, Martin Brambach.

The true story of the largest counterfeiting operation in history, set up by the Nazis to undermine the economic foundations of Britain and America. Salomon "Sally" Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics) is Berlin's King of the Counterfeiters, living the good life until his luck runs out and he is thrown into a concentration camp. Salomon's unique talents make him a key figure in a group which enjoys standards of life well above the rest of the camp. But other inmates have their reservations and Salomon is faced with a moral dilemma: to use his counterfeiting skills in the Nazi cause or condemn the rest of the group to certain death. Karl Markovics as Sally superbly brings to life the contradictions, intelligence and complexity of Stefan Ruzowitzky's compelling film.

• Friday 26 October for 2 weeks

EASTERN PROMISES (18)

(UK/Canada 2007) dir. David Cronenberg 101m. Digital.
Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Sinead Cusack.

David Cronenberg's follow-up to A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE reunites him with the superb Viggo Mortensen in a gripping thriller set in a murky London underworld in which morality, family allegiances and loyalties are continually being redefined. The mysterious Nikolai Luzhin (Mortensen) works for one of London's most notorious organised crime families. Nikolai's carefully maintained existence is disrupted when he crosses paths with midwife Anna Khitrova (Naomi Watts). Deeply affected by the death of a young teenager in childbirth, Anna is committed to uncovering the girl's family and identity, which leads her into Nikolai's criminal world, and Nikolai himself into conflict, as a story of murder, deceit and revenge begins to unfold. As much a mesmerising examination of human nature as it is a gripping thriller, EASTERN PROMISES, with superb performances from an extraordinary cast, is Cronenberg at his very best.

ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE (12A)

(UK/France 2007) dir. Shekhar Kapur 115m.
Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Clive Owen, Samantha Morton, Abbie Cornish, Tom Hollander, Rhys Ifans, Jordi Mollà.

A decade after ELIZABETH, Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush and director Shekhar Kapur return to continue the story of the Virgin Queen with an exciting historical thriller laced with treachery and romance. Elizabeth now has to deal with the twin threats of her sister Mary and the Spanish King Philip II, determined to restore England to Catholicism. Preparing to face the Armada, Elizabeth struggles to balance ancient royal duties with an unexpected vulnerability in her love for dashing seafarer Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen). With another outstanding performance by Blanchett, it all adds up to an exciting tale of a woman's crusade to control love, defeat enemies and secure her place in History.

• Friday 16 November for 2 weeks

BRICK LANE (15)

(UK 2007) dir Sarah Gavron 102m. Digital.
Tannishtha Chatterjee, Satish Kaushik, Christopher Simpson

Monica Ali's acclaimed East London set novel is the story of Nazneen, a young Bangladeshi woman who arrives in 1980’s London to begin a new life in an arranged marriage with the middle-aged Chanu. She finds herself trapped while her beloved sister continues to live a comparatively carefree existence in Bangladesh. Seventeen years later, Nazneen, now a mother of two daughters, finally finds her identity, her strength and her voice. Sarah Gavron's film adaptation (script by Abi Morgan and Laura Jones) subtly captures the poignancy and relevance of the original. A vivid ensemble of rich peformances is led by Tannishtha Chatterjee as Nazneen; the comic actor and director Satish Kaushik as her husband and Christopher Simpson as Karim, the man who bursts into Nazneen's life and kick starts her journey towards self-determination.