The Kipos Cinema in Chania has published its programme for the coming summer. Details of the showings are given below. Unless the films are marked as dubbed (i.e. into Greek), it is assumed that they will be shown in their original language, some with Greek subtitles. As some showings may diverge from the timetable shown for the overall programme, visitors are advised to check individual showing times before going to the cinema.
Some of the showings will have already passed by the time of this posting, however they are retained for the sake of completeness, and as is noted below, some are repeated later in in the season.
| Hours of showings 27/05-30/06: 21:00 01/07-15/08: 21:30 16/08-18/09: 21:00 | Tickets General entrance: €5.00 Concessions: €2.00 (students, unemployed, families with 3 children or over, over 65s, disabled) |
The films
| 30/05 Pink Floyd – Live at Pompei Entrance free United Kingdom, France, Belgium, West Germany, 1972 Director: Adrian Maben Cast: Musicians Running time: 90 min (1:30) The historic concert-without-an-audience by Pink Floyd in the Roman amphitheatre at Pompeii. The film was first issued in 1972 with a running time of 60 minutes, but this showing is of the director’s cut with a running time of 90 minutes issued in 2003 with additional material. In collaboration with Rock Under the Clock NB: This showing was cancelled because of bad weather. The film will now be shown at the Mikis Theodorakis Theatre on 21/06/25 at 9.00 pm. | 31/05 The passing of Kostas Karyotakis through Chania Entrance free Greece, 2025 Director: Kostas Dadinakis Cast: Documentary Running time: 45 min (0:45) The seventh in a series of films on the lives of poets by director Kostas Dadinakis, this new documentary covers the adolescent years of Kostas Karyotakis in Chania. Organised by the Historical Archive of Crete in collaboration with the Municipality of Chania and the Cretan Regional Authority’s Regional Unit of Chania. |
| 01/06 Sculpted Souls Entrance free Greece, 2025 Director: Stavros Psyllakis Cast: Documentary Running time: 89 min (1:29) For 26 years (1972-1998) the Swiss dentist Julien Grivel (b 1943) came to Athens twice a year to provide free dental care to the lepers of the Agia Varvara Hospital for Infectious Diseases. In collaboration with the Chania Film Festival. Also showing on 3rd August. | 02/06-03/6 Rebellious United Kingdom, 2024 Director: Alex Tsitsilin Cast: Animation Running time: 94 min (1:34) Dubbed into Greek The spiteful magician Kezabor steals the headstrong princess Mina on the day of her wedding. In desperation her father promises her hand and his kingdom to whoever brings her back. And so, four bold young men, including her fiancé Ronan, set out to save her. |
| 04/06-05/06 Pamfir Director: Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk Cast: Oleksandr Yatsentyuk, Stanislav Potiak Running time: 100 min (1:40) On the eve of the local carnival dedicated to the Virgin, Pamfir returns to Hungary after several months’ absence, to spend some time with his family and friends. When his teenage son sets fire to the village church, Pamfir has to take up smuggling goods from Romania to pay for the repairs, once again becoming embroiled in a net of criminality. | 06/06-08/06 Loveable Norway, 2024 Director: Lilja Ingolfsdottir Cast: Helga Guren, Oddgeir Thune, Kyrre H. Sydness Running time: 101 min (1:41) Maria, divorced with two small children, starts a passionate affair with the unconventional Sigmund. A few years later, now the mother of four children, she is confronted with her choices when this marriage also leads to a dead end. |
| 9/06-10/06 Kayara Peru 2025 Director: Cesar Zelada Cast: Animation Running time: 90 min (1:30) Dubbed into Greek In a world in which only men can become Chasqui – the messengers of the Inca empire – the young Kayara dares to go against the rules. When the emperor Paullu is poisoned and the empire is under threat, she begins a daring mission into the depths of the Amazon to find the antidote. | 11/06 Tres Court 2025 International Documentary Film Festival Showing starts: 21.15 Entrance free Once again this year the Chania Film Festival is hosting for the whole of Greece the competitive International Festival of very short films – the Trés Court International Film Festival. The festival is a competition with the audience voting for the best film. In collaboration with the Chania Film Festival |
| 12/06 No Other Land 12/06/2025 Palestine, Norway, 2023 Directors: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham , Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal Cast: Documentary Running time: 95 min (1:35) For more than five years the Palestinian activist Basel Adra, with the unexpected help of an Israeli photographer who has accompanied him in his struggle, has been filming the gradual destruction of the area of Masafer Yatta on the West Bank by the Israeli Army. The resulting film caused a sensation at this year’s Berlin Festival, where it won the award for Best Documentary. In collaboration with the Chania Film Festival. | 13/06-15/06 I’m Still Here Brazil, France, 2024 Director: Walter Salles Cast: Fernanda Torres, Fernanda Montenegro, Selton Mello Running time: 136 min (2:16) A courageous and stoical mother of five children strives to keep her family together when her husband, a former MP, is arrested by her country’s dictatorial regime and promptly disappears. The film starts in 1971 and covers 25 years of the struggle of this admirable woman, who turns her trials into a sensational lesson of love, dogged optimism, and unceasing preservation of memory. |
| 16/06-17/06 The Proud Princess Czech Republic, 2024 Director: Radek Beran, David Lisy Cast: Animation Running time: 83 min (1:23) Dubbed into Greek In this modern version of the classic fairy tale, the young King Benjamin falls in love with the beautiful but proud Princess Carolina. When he travels to the Midnight Kingdom to win her, he discovers that the Princess lives under the influence of treacherous advisers. Together they escape from the castle, beginning a gripping adventure full of traps, pursuits and epic hand-to-hand fights. However, the wily Maximos will not let their love triumph so easily. | 18/06-19/06 The Seed of the Sacred Fig Germany, Iran, France, 2024 Director: Mohammad Rasoulof Cast: Mahsa Rostami, Setareh Maleki, Niousha Akhshi Running time: 168 min (2:48) The members of a middle-class family, ideologically split into two, are led into an extreme confrontation between them. An expression of desperation and anger, a suspenseful thriller, but also a frontal attack on a stifling régime which kills its children. |
| 20/06-22/06 En Fanfare (The Marching Band) Director: Emmanuel Courcol Cast: Benjamin Lavernhe, Pierre Lottin, Sarah Suco Running time: 103 min (1:43) Thibaut (Benjamin Lavernhe of the Comédie Française) is an internationally renowned conductor. When he is faced with a health problem he discovers that he is adopted and has a younger brother, Jimmy, in the provinces who works in a school canteen and plays trombone in the local marching band – the pride and hope of a working community threatened with unemployment. The two do not appear to have much in common apart from their love for music, but when Thibaut realises how gifted his brother is, he decides to correct the injustices of fate and help him to develop his talent. | 23/06-24/06 Sirocco et le royaume des courants d’air (Scirocco and the Kingdom of Winds) Belgium/France, 2023 Director: Benoît Chieux Cast: Animation Running time: 74 min (1:14) Dubbed into Greek Five-year-old Juliet and her 8-year-old sister Carmen – two girls with lively imaginations – have as a neighbour Agnès, who writes children’s books about a fantastic world, the Kingdom of Winds. One day the two girls discover a passage between our dreary world and that spectacular universe, where they take the form of cats. There, however, lurks the all-powerful magician Sirocco, who has power over the winds. |
| 25/06-26/06 Black Dog China, 2024 Director: Guan Hu Cast: Eddie Peng, Liya Tong, Jia Zhang-ke Running time: 110 min (1:50) A gripping combination of the noir and western genres, Black Dog describes the return of a now cynical man to his home on the edges of the Gobi Desert in North-West China, after 10 years’ absence in jail. In a brilliant performance, Eddie Peng conveys the internal struggles of the protagonist as he tries to find his place again in the world. Helping to clear the town of stray dogs in anticipation of the Olympic Games of 2008, the protagonist establishes a special bond with a black dog, through which he rediscovers his lost compassion and begins the journey to his own atonement. | 27/06-29/06 Conclave United Kingdom, USA, 2024 Director: Edward Berger Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow Running time: 120 min (2:00) Based on Robert Harris’ novel of the same name, the new film by Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front) takes us behind the scenes in that most secret and ancient gathering in the world: the conference for the election of a new Pope. However, it is not yet another film about power games within the Catholic Church, but about the struggle waged by the Church itself for its future against the ghosts of its murky past. After the unexpected death of a beloved Pope, Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) takes on the supervision of this secret process, only to find himself party to a secret which could shake the foundations of the Church. |
| 30/06-01/07 Wicked Director: Jon M. Chu Cast: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jeff Goldblum Running time: 160 min (2:40) Subtitled, dubbed into Greek Elphaba, a misunderstood young woman with a green skin, who has yet to reveal her real powers, meets Galinda, a popular young woman soaked in privilege and ambition, who has not yet discovered her true self. The two of them, as pupils at Shiz University in the fictional country of Oz, cultivate an unusual but deep friendship. After they meet the Wizard of Oz, their friendship reaches a critical point and their lives take different paths. (Suitable for all the family) | 02/07-03/07 Crossing Sweden, Georgia, Denmark, France, Turkey, 2024 Director: Levan Akin Cast: Mzia Arabuli, Lucas Kankava, Deniz Dumanli Running time: 106 min (1:46) Lia has promised to find out what has happened to her lost niece Tekla. When she learns from a neighbour, Atsi, that Tekla may have left her home in Georgia to live in Istanbul, Lia sets out with him on a journey to the city to find her. There, they meet a lawyer who is fighting for trans rights, and they begin to feel that Tekla is closer than ever. |
| 04/07-06/07 Nosferatu USA, 2024 Director: Robert Eggers Cast: Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgård Running time: 132 min (2:12) A remake of F.W. Murnau’s Expressionist classic Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922), which was inspired by Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. Estate agent Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) travels to Transylvania for an important meeting with Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård), a vampire and potential client. While Hutter is away, his young wife Ellen stays at home under the protection of their friends Friedrich and Anna Harting. Tortured by visions and by an ever more intense feeling of terror, Ellen encounters a force which is beyond her control. | 07/07-08/07 The Wild Robot USA, 2024 Director: Chris Sanders Cast: Animation, voices: Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor Running time: 102 min (1:42) Dubbed into Greek In the near future, high-tech robots will be programmed to serve and to carry out all kinds of work. Such a device, Rozzum no. 7134, is being sent to its new owner when the package unexpectedly slips off the deck of the ship carrying it and is washed up on a wild and unhospitable island. Programmed to find solutions, Rozzum no. 7134 tries to adapt to the environment and to help the wild animals in their everyday lives. (The name of the product line, Rozzum, and its manufacturer are references to Rossum’s Universal Robots, or R.U.R., the 1920 science fiction play by the Czech writer Karel Čapek which introduced the term robot to the English language.) |
| 09/07-10/07 Hoard Georgia, USA, United Kingdom, 2023 Director: Luna Carmoon Cast: Hayley Squires, Lily-Beau Leach, Deba Hekmat Running time: 126 min (2:06) Hoard is a 2023 British coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Luna Carmoon in her feature directorial debut. Ten-year-old Maria lives in London in 1984 with her mother Cynthia, who is a compulsive hoarder, in a house which is filthy and rat-infested and full of rubbish. Despite the psychosis which rules their lives, Cynthia is devoted to her daughter, describing her hoarded items as her and Maria’s ‘catalogue of love’. One day Maria is violently uprooted from her childhood among the stacks of rubbish and delivered into the hands of a tender-hearted foster mother and a more natural process of growing up. However, when an old acquaintance appears from the past, hidden wounds once more come to the surface. | 11/07-13/07 The opera Italy, 2024 Director: Paolo Gep Cucco, Davide Livermore Cast: Vincent Cassel, Caterina Murino, Rossy de Palma Running time: 106 min (1:46) In this modern retelling of the Ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice by two leading opera directors, a sudden shooting destroys the dream of two lovers on the day of their wedding. The fate of Orpheus and Eurydice is harsh: the day on which they intended to seal their love, Eurydice’s soul takes the road to the underworld. Inconsolable, Orpheus starts on a dangerous journey to bring his beloved back from Hades. |
| 14/07-15/07 Yuku et la fleur de l’Himalaya (Yuku and the Himalayan Flower) France, 2022 Director: Arnaud Demuynck, Remi Durin Cast: Animation Running time: 65 min (1:05) Dubbed into Greek Yuku is a small mouse who lives with her family in the basement of a large castle. Her favourite pastime is playing her ukelele, but the likeable little mouse does not hesitate, when needed, to leave the safety of her nest to take a long and daring quest to the heights of the Himalayas. There, at the highest point on Earth, there grows a unique flower which emits the Eternal Light, the legendary flower of the Himalayas. To get the flower, which is needed by her sick grandmother, Yuku will encounter a host of obstacles, dangers and hardships However nothing can stop her since, with a bit of song and politeness, everything is possible. | 16/07-17/07 Bird United Kingdom, USA., France, Germany, 2024 Director: Andrea Arnold Cast: Nykiya Adams, Franz Rogowski, Barry Keoghan Running time: 119 min (1:59) Twelve-year-old Bailey lives with her father and her brother in a run-down apartment block in northern Kent. The father does not have much time for this children and Bailey, who is approaching adolescence, looks for attention and care elsewhere. She gets to know a mysterious man who calls himself Bird and suddenly everything in this family’s life starts to change. |
| 18/07-20/07 About Dry Grasses Türkiye, France, Germany, 2023 Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan Cast: Deniz Celiloğlu, Merve Dizdar and Musab Ekici Running time: 197 minutes. Samet is a teacher who used to live in Istanbul but has been assigned to a post at a remote village in Eastern Anatolia for years. When he comes back from holidays for the winter term. he and his co-worker and roommate Kenan are accused of inappropriate behaviour by two female pupils. To Samet’s dismay, one of them is Sevim, who has so far been a protégée of his. | 21/07-22/07 Flow Latvia, Belgium, France Director: Gints Zilbalodis Cast: Animation Running time: 84 min (1:24) No dialogue The film follows a cat trying to survive along with other animals in a seemingly post-apocalyptic world as the water level dramatically rises. The Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis has said of his film: “You could call Flow an ecological allegory, which children will maybe understand on an emotional level. It is a world without humans but we don’t know where they have gone. Are there still humans out there? Was it their bad management which caused this flood? Did they die in some pandemic? The film invites you to use your imagination, it doesn’t give you ready-made answers.” |
| 24/07 Maria United Kingdom, USA, France, Germany, 2024 Director: Pablo Larraín Cast: Angelina Jolie, Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher Running time: 124 min (2:04) 1977: Maria Callas, once the greatest opera diva in the world lives in isolation in Paris with her staff and her two poodles. Her health is getting steadily worse. Then she accepts an offer to go on tour again. Will La Divina sing again and if so, for whom? | 25/07-27/07 Emilia Perez France, 2024 Director: Jacques Audiard Cast: Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez Jacques Audiard’s new film, Emilia Perez, won the Best Actress prize for the ensemble performance of Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofia Gascón, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz at the 2024 Cannes Festival. Mexico, today. Rita (Zoe Saldaña) is an exceptionally talented lawyer who instead of serving justice, wastes her capacities as an employee in a big law firm where she is the best at “whitewashing” major criminals. An unexpected opportunity arises, the kind you can’t turn down, when she is approached by “Manitas”, a big cartel boss who asks her help in a plan he has been trying to carry out for years… |
| 29/07 – 03/08 CHANIA FILM FESTIVAL | 29/07 Zorba the Greek USA, 1964 Director: Michael Cacoyannis Cast: Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates, Irene Papas Music: Mikis Theodorakis Running time: 142 min (2:22) A young British author comes to Crete to revive a lignite mine which he has inherited. There he gets to know and work with Alexis Zorba, a hard-bitten, instinctive man who will reveal to him another side of life. Zorba, an impulsive and opportunistic character who knows how to embrace every moment of life, assumes the role of his mentor. Although their plans for the mine founder, while the writer’s relationship with a beautiful widow ends in tragedy, Zorba maintains his optimistic belief in life. |
| 29/07 – 03/08 CHANIA FILM FESTIVAL | 30/07 Never on Sunday Greece, 1960 Director: Jules Dassin Cast: Melina Mercouri, Jules Dassin, Giorgos Fountas Music: Manos Hadjidakis Running time: 91 min (1:31) Ilia is a prostitute at the port of Piraeus who seems to have little awareness of the social and economic crisis around her. When Homer, an American tourist in Greece, meets the freewheeling Ilia, he decides that she needs more education, notably by schooling in Ancient Greek culture. In order for him to teach her, Ilia is prepared to quit her profession, but just for two weeks. The question is, what will happened once the two weeks are over, and how much can be changed in such a short space of time? |
| 29/07 – 03/08 CHANIA FILM FESTIVAL | 31/07 Lost Highway USA, France, 1997 Director: David Lynch Cast: Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, John Roselius A tribute to the director David Lynch, considered by many as one of the greatest film makers of all time, and noted for the surrealist and experimental quality of his films. Lynch died in January 2025 in the aftermath of the Southern California wildfires. A saxophonist is accused under mysterious circumstances of murdering his wife and is sent to jail. He then disappears from the prison and is transformed into someone else, an engineer who lives a completely different life. |
| 29/07 – 03/08 CHANIA FILM FESTIVAL | 01/08 (showing starts at 9.00 pm) Brides Greece, USA, France, 2004 Director: Pantelis Voulgaris Cast: Damian Lewis, Victoria Haralabidou, Andréa Ferréol Running time: 128 min (2:08) In 1922, Niki, a dressmaker from Samothraki, sets sail for America together with 700 other “mail order brides”. On the ship she falls in love with an American photographer and is torn between her feelings and her obligations towards her family to go through with the marriage. |
| 29/07 – 03/08 CHANIA FILM FESTIVAL | 01/08 (midnight showing at 23:59) Annie Hall USA, 1977 Director: Woody Allen Cast: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts Running time: 93 min (1:33) The classic Woody Allen comedy which won four Academy Awards and four BAFTAs and is considered one of his best films. The film stars Allen as Alvy Singer, who tries to figure out the reasons for the failure of his relationship with the eponymous female lead, played by Diane Keaton in a role written specifically for her. |
| 29/07 – 03/08 CHANIA FILM FESTIVAL | 02/08 Underground Serbia, 1995 Director: Emir Kusturica Cast: Miki Manojlovic, Lazar Ristovski, Mirjana Jokovic Running time: 170 min (2:50) The workers in an underground weapons factory in Yugoslavia decide to remain there to shelter from the effects of the 2nd World War. Their only contact with the outside world is a black-market trader who forgets to tell them that the war has ended, with the result that they stay there for 50 years. It is only then that they realise that something is not right, and they venture outside, to find themselves in the middle of the civil war. |
| 29/07 – 03/08 CHANIA FILM FESTIVAL | 03/08 (showing starts at 9:00 pm) Sculpted Souls Entrance free Greece, 2025 Director: Stavros Psyllakis Cast: Documentary Running time: 89 min (1:29) For 26 years (1972-1998) the Swiss dentist Julien Grivel (b 1943) came to Athens twice a year to provide free dental care to the lepers of the Agia Varvara Hospital for Infectious Diseases. |
| 29/07 – 03/08 CHANIA FILM FESTIVAL | 03/09 Eternal You Germany, USA, 2024 Director: Hans Block, Moritz Riesewieck Cast: Documentary Running time: 87 min (1:27) “Who among you deserves eternal life?” asked Michel Houllebecq in his futuristic novel The Possibility of an Island. Perhaps we are living in the era where this question ceases to be purely philosophical. In this documentary we see how the visionary insights of science fiction are beginning to become a reality, as people from all over the world are using the the most advanced forms of Artificial Intelligence to connect with relatives who have died. Will technology manage to realise what religion has been promising for millennia: the immortality of the spirit? Eternal You takes the pulse of what may prove to be a critical moment in history, which brings us face to face to face with the dream of immortality, albeit a digital one. |
| 04/08-05/08 Robot Dreams France, Spain, 2023 Director: Pablo Berger Cast: Animation Running time: 103 min (1:43) No dialogue The hero is a lonely dog who lives in Manhattan and is bored with living alone. One day he decides to acquire a friend for himself, Robot. Their friendship grows until they become inseparable, and their life takes on the pace of New York in the 80s. One summer night, however, the dog is obliged with great sadness to abandon the robot on the beach. Will they meet again? A moving ode to friendship by the Spanish director Pablo Berger. based on the comic Robot Dreams by Sara Varon, one of the best known graphic artists in America. | 06/08-07/08 Waves Czech Republic, Slovakia, 2024 Director: Jirí Mádl Cast: Vojtech Vodochodský, Ondrej Stupka, Tatiana Pauhofová Running time: 131 min (2:11) In Czechoslovakia at the end of the 60s, when the air is filled with rock and roll and student uprisings, a young technician joins one of the most distinguished editorial offices of public radio. Very quickly he finds himself at the centre of a dangerous confrontation between the journalists and the secret service. As events gather pace, his life and that of those around him will be put in immediate danger. Based on real events during the Prague Spring. |
| 09/08-10/08 The New Year That Never Came Romania, 2024 Director: Bogdan Muresanu Cast: Adrian Vancica, Nicoleta Hâncu, Emilia Dobrin Running time: 138 min (2:18) On 20th December 1989, Romania is on the brink of a revolution. Six apparently unrelated lives cross one another in unexpected ways. As events come to a head, an explosive moment unites them, culminating in the dramatic fall of Ceaușescu and the communist regime. | 11/08-12/08 Giants of La Mancha Argentina, Germany, 2024 Director: Gonzalo Gutierrez Cast: Animation Running time: 88 min (1:28) Dubbed into Greek Alfonso Quixote is an 11-year-old boy with an enormous imagination. As a descendant and the legal heir to Don Quixote, who was his great-great-great-great grandfather, he is constantly battling monsters – which no-one else can see see – to save his village of La Mancha. His only friend is Pancho Panza, who lives in the house next door. When an ominous rainstorm approaches La Mancha, a mysterious businessman named Carasco visits all the houses in the village trying to persuade the inhabitants to sell their properties and move to a luxurious housing development. The only person who thinks that there is something fishy behind this Alfonso. He recruits Pancho and their mutual friend Victoria to go into the forest of La Mancha and catch the monster which Alfonso believes is responsible for the storm. |
| 13/08-14/08 All We Imagine As Light France, India, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, 2024 Director: Payal Kapadia Cast: Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam Running time: 118 min (1:58) “The light and subtleties of the everyday life of Mumbai’s working class are thoroughly examined and commended with warmth, zest, and compassion through the lens of a young Indian filmmaker, a Grand Prix award winner at [the 2024] Cannes Film Festival for her captivating fiction debut. Honing in on two roommates, both working at a hospital in town (one as a novice nurse, the other as her supervisor), as well as on a recently retired colleague of theirs, this incredibly nuanced film revolves around the mundane moments of connection and distress, hope and disillusionment. … “ – Thessaloniki Film Festival | 15/08-17/08 Bad Actor Mexico, 2023 Director: Jorge Cuchi Cast: Alfonso Dosal, Fiona Palomo, Gerardo Trejoluna Running time: 124 min (2:04) Sandra and Daniel, two actors and friends, are hired in the same thriller to portray a pair of illicit lovers. However, their personal relationship founders when Daniel oversteps the mark during an erotic scene. Shocked, Sandra shortly after accuses him of rape, leaving the producers scrambling to avoid a scandal. An unexpected reaction from within their circle upsets the atmosphere even further with the result that events take a dangerous turn … |
| 18/08-19/08 Dogs at the Opera Russia, 2023 Director: Vasiliy Rovenskiy Cast: Animation Running time: 75 min (1:15) Dubbed into Greek A street dog called Samson, trying to hide from hunters of strays, finds himself unexpectedly inside the building of the Metropolitan Opera in New York. There, he meets and is attracted to Margo, the well-bred lap dog of Anastasia, the theatre’s prima ballerina. Their meeting has dramatic consequences however, as an expensive tiara, which Anastasia has to wear in the fourth act of the ballet and which Margot was supposed to be guarding, mysteriously vanishes from the ballerina’s box. Without the tiara, the production cannot go ahead and Anastasia will lose the big opportunity of her career – something that Margot is not going to allow! | 20/08-21/08 Return to the Dust China, 2022 Director: Ruijun Li Cast: Renlin Wu, Hai-Qing, Guangrui Yang Running time: 131 min (2:11) The story of Ma and Kao, two middle-aged people who live on their own, and whose families arrange for them to get married. The couple lead a simple life, farming with their donkey. There are many empty properties in their village, and they move into one of them, later building a house with their own hands. As they try to understand the cycles of the earth and to find harmony amidst the multiple challenges of farming, the couple gradually develop an emotional closeness and tenderness. |
| 22/08-24/08 Anora USA, 2024 Director: Sean Baker Cast: Mikey Madison, Paul Weissman, Yura Borisov Running time: 139 min (2:19) Anora “Ani” Mikheeva, a 23-year-old stripper, works in a large club in a Russian-American neighbourhood in Brooklyn. Anonymous outside the club, she works hard to maintain her profile within that milieu. One evening her boss introduces her to Vanya, the 21-year-old son of a Russian oligarch, who has requested someone fluent in Russian. Though Vanya is in the US. to study, he spends most of his time partying. After hiring Ani for several sexual encounters, he invites her to a New Year’s Eve party at his parents’ lavish Brooklyn mansion and the following day offers her $15,000 to be his girlfriend for a week. At the end of an extravagant trip to Las Vegas with Vanya’s friends, he impulsively offers her marriage and they are married in a chapel in Las Vegas, Vanya buying her a large wedding ring and an expensive fur coat. Ani resigns from her job and moves into Vanya’s mansion, but when news of their marriage reaches Russia, Vanya’s mother Galina orders his Armenian godfather Toros to find them and arrange an annulment while she and his father fly to the US. | 25/08-26/08 Memoir of a Snail Australia, 2024 Director: Adam Elliot Cast: Animation Running time: 95 min (1:35) Subtitled Grace Pudel is a lonely, socially isolated girl, with a weakness for collecting decorative snails and a deep love of books. When Grace is separated at an early age from her short-tempered twin brother Gilbert, she sinks into a state of anxiety. Despite her continuing difficulties, inspiration and hope come to the surface through the long-term friendship which develops with an eccentric elderly woman named Pinky, who is full of vigour and lust for life. |
| 27/08-28/08 Drive my car Japan, 2021 Director: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi Cast: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tôko Miura, Reika Kirishima Running time: 179 min (2:59) Two years after the sudden death of his wife, Yusuke Kafuku, a celebrated actor and director, receives a proposal to direct a production of Uncle Vanya at a festival theatre in Hiroshima. There he gets to know Misaki Watari, a taciturn young women who is seconded to him by the theatre as chauffeur for his beloved red Saab 900. As the premiere of the production approaches, tensions start to rise among the cast and the crew, chiefly between Yusuke and Koshi Takatsuji, a handsome TV star who was in an illicit relationship with Yusuke’s late wife. Obliged to uncover painful truths derived from his past, Yusuke begins – with the help of his driver – to confront the basic mystery which his wife left behind her. | 30/08-31/08 The Brutalist USA, 2024 Director: Brady Corbet Cast: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce Running time: 215 min (3:35) Having been saved from a concentration camp, leading architect László Toth (Adrien Brody) has left post-war Europe behind and arrives in America to build his life and career from scratch, waiting or his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) who had to leave their country during the war. Alone in a strange land, László settles in Pennsylvania, where an industrial magnate (Guy Pierce) recognises his talent and embarks on a vast project. However, what looks like a golden opportunity for László comes at a great price. |
| 01/09-02/09 The Lost Tiger Australia, 2024 Director: Chantelle Murray Cast: Animation Running time: 90 min (1:30) Dubbed into Greek Adopted by a big, lively and spirited kangaroo family of traveling wrestlers, Teo’s life is pretty great. But when mysterious visions lead him to a faraway land, Teo is forced to rediscover his roots and embark on an epic journey to save his homeland from impending destruction. The first Australian animated feature to be written and directed by an Indigenous woman, Bardi film-maker Chantelle Murray. | 03/09-04/09 Young Hearts Belgium, Holland, 2024 Director: Anthony Schatteman Cast: Lou Goossens, Marius De Saeger, Geert Van Rampelberg Running time: 97 min (1:37) Thirteen-year-old Elias begins to develop feelings for his 14-year-old neighbour Alexander, and soon realises that his is really in love for the first time. Subsequent interactions with his friends and family raise more questions than they provide answers. Confused by his intensifying feelings, he tries to put his internal chaos in order, to show that he is worthy of Alexander’s heart. |
| 05/09-07/09 The Promised Land Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, 2023 Director: Nikolaj Arcel Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Amanda Collin, Simon Bennebjerg Running time: 127 min (2:07) Mads Mikkelsen, in this Danish period super-production, portrays a real person, Ludvig Kahlen, a solitary army captain of humble birth, the fruit of an illicit relationship between a noble and a servant girl, who his determined to pursue his dream whatever the cost. Thus in 1751 he seeks permission from the King to cultivate the barren Jutland moorland and to create a royal settlement, in exchange for receiving a noble title. But he will find find many obstacles on the way, chiefly the the strong man of the area, the half-crazy and sadistic landowner Frederick de Schinkel, whose sees his power under threat. However, Kahlen, an ethical but unbelievably stubborn man, won’t give up. | 08/09-09/09 The Super Elfkins Germany, 2024 Director: Ute von Münchow-Pohl Cast: Animation Running time: 76 min (1:16) Dubbed into Greek The adventurous Elfkin girl Elfie longs for a more exciting life, but her world is turned upside down when she discovers the existence of a technically advanced Elfkin gang that, in stark contrast to Elfie’s own clan, is second to none when it comes to fun and thrill-seeking. Can Elfie’s friendship with Bo, the youngest gang member, reconcile the two Elfkin clans after more than 250 years? Based on the feature film The Elfkins – Baking a Difference and inspired by the famous German saga and poem by August Kopisch. Kopisch was born on 26 May 1799 in Breslau, Prussia (now Wrocław, Poland). In 1815 he began studying painting at the Prague academy, but an injury to his hand damaged his prospects of success as an artist, and he turned to literature. Kopisch produced some original poetry, light in language and in form. He specialised in retelling legends and popular subjects. (Wikipedia) |
| 10/09-11/09 Four Daughters Tunisia, France, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Cyprus, 2023 Director: Kaouther Ben Hania Cast: Olfa Hamrouni, Eya Chikhaoui, Tayssir Chikhaoui Running time: 107 min (1:47) Olfa is the mother of four daughters in Tunisia. Her two older daughters, after becoming radicalised, leave the family to join Daesh fighters in Libya – first one, then the other. Director Kaouther Ben Hania uses professional actors to bring the viewer closer to the life stories of Olfa and her daughters. The film features Olfa and her two remaining daughters, who retell the story along with the actors standing in for the sisters and the various men in their lives. The film received several awards following its release in 2023, including L’Oeil d’Or for Best Documentary at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. | 12/09-14/09 Chaniacartoon 2025 Friday 12th September Animated films for children Showing of selected animated films for children on a variety of themes, from countries all over the world. Saturday 13th September Best films – Audience Award (for adults) Showing of the best animation films from this year’s Chania Cartoon Festival, with the audience able to vote for their best film. The award will be announced at the end of the evening, along with the main awards for the festival. Sunday 14th September Art Spiegelman – Disaster is my Muse (for adults) A documentary on the work and life of the cartoonist Art Spiegelman, whose work Maus was the first graphic novel to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. The book depicts Spiegelman interviewing his father about his experiences as a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor, employing postmodern techniques, and representing Jews as mice and other Germans and Poles as cats and pigs respectively. |