Holloway (12A)
Directed by Sophie ComptonDaisy and May Hudson
★★★★

HOLLOWAY women’s prison, once the largest in Europe, is today an abandoned ruin. In a collaborative undertaking, directors Sophie Compton and Daisy-May Hudson persuaded six  former inmates to revisit and recount their experiences. They explore the vacant cells and corridors, recalling traumatic memories from their time inside. Today they are all leading regular lives in society, but their prison experience remains deeply embedded within them.

A moving, uncomfortable film. It takes an unusual format, in the form of a group therapy session which helps the women become more relaxed, less suspicious and more vocal about their experiences. It has no gimmicks or aesthetic pretensions, and simply lets the women relate their own stories in the bare, unadorned ruins of the prison.

It is a risky strategy. Conversation is faltering, interrupted by nervousness, suspicion about the directors’ intentions, and the film includes all this uncertainty.

On entering her former cell, one of the woman says: “I can’t ever forget the screams; this was my first ever hell!” Another says: “I’m angry that some kids are born into certain circumstances, and what chance do they have?” On the other hand, it was the first place many experienced sisterhood for the first time.

While these women do not blame the staff for what they went through nor for the lack of help they were given inside, they articulate clearly that such incarceration of – in the main – vulnerable and abused women is not a useful or effective way of dealing with what are, in essence, social problems.

Compton says: “It’s not about Holloway; other films can tell a historical story or show the realities of being in prison.”

A powerful indictment of our justice system.
JG
In cinemas June 20

The Last Journey (PG)
Directed by Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson
★★★★

POIGNANT, funny and thought provoking, this road movie documentary is an honest and surprisingly humorous reflection on the loss of agency and dignity in old age.

Retired teacher Lars is frail, depressed and withdrawn. His son Filip, the film’s co-director, decides that revisiting a much-loved holiday destination might restore Lar’s joie de vivre.

Hoping to trigger happy memories, the directors drive Lars from his home in Sweden to the south of France in a clapped-out Renault 4. En route they stage manage the repetition of incidents from his past.  

The film’s confrontation with aging – marred only by some unsubtle incidental music – is unflinching. Parent-child roles are reversed. Lars struggles to remember the past and cope with the present.

The closing sequence, a montage of messages from former students, reveals Lars’s everyday heroism in his time as a cherished and inspirational teacher. I tried not to shed a tear but failed.   
AH
In cinemas June 20

Red Path (15)
Directed by Lotfi Achour
★★★★

THIS film is based on the real-life horrific killing of Mabrouk Soltani, a 16-year-old shepherd in Tunisia in 2015. He was beheaded by jihadists who ordered a 14-year-old who was working with him to take his head back to his family.

This is a powerful and heart wrenching directorial debut feature by prolific playwright Lofti Achour who also co-wrote it. The shocking opening isn’t for the faint hearted and makes for a disturbing watch as cousins Nizar (Yassine Samouni) and Achraf’s (Ali Helali) joyous and carefree trip to the mountains with their sheep turns to brutal tragedy.

Helali, in his first ever acting role, carries the film effortlessly and with ease giving a natural and realistic performance as a 14-year-old shepherd whose innocence is shattered instantly, and who is haunted by his cousin’s apparition.

The film examines the collective grief experienced by his family and a community devastated by their horrendous loss, and the authorities’ reluctance to help them. It ends with the revelation that 18 months later Mabrouk’s brother was killed in the same place and in the same way.
MD
In cinemas June 20

Elio (PG)
Directed by Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi
★★★

LONELINESS, not fitting in, and feeling unwanted are all explored in Pixar’s latest animated feature about an orphan boy obsessed with being abducted by aliens.

Eleven-year-old Elio Solis (Yonas Kibreab) does not feel his aunt Olga (Zoe Saldana), a brilliant major in the air force, understands him and she is struggling to cope with him. When he finally makes contact with a group of aliens, he believes his prayers are being answered.

This is a sweet and charming tale full of colourful characters which proves very endearing especially when Elio befriends Glordon (Remy Edgerly), the tender-hearted son of the violent alien warlord Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett). Glordon, like Elio, also feels lonely and misunderstood.

While this isn’t Pixar’s most groundbreaking work it is decent enough and will enthral its target audience.
MD
In cinemas June 20