Dir: Joanna Hogg 2019 UK 120 mins 15A Not subtitled
1980’s London. Julie (a breakout performance from Honor Swinton Byrne) is a shy film student from a privileged background, who wants to use her work to better understand the realities of the world. When she meets the older and mysterious Anthony, Julie finds herself caught up in her first serious love affair. While her mother (Tilda Swinton) and friends are concerned about the relationship, Julie remains naively devoted to her new love, even when she unearths an unthinkable secret.
Director Joanna Hogg (Unrelated, Exhibition) reimagines some of her own real-life experiences, resulting in a film that explores many subjects including art and memory, alongside those of romance and love. Keenly observed, The Souvenir is refreshingly honest and beautifully devastating.
★★★★★ A cinematic memoir of once-in-a-decade emotional precision and ambition, Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir does many things so exquisitely, it’s hard to know where to begin. Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out
Festivals:
Sundance Film Festival 2019
Berlin International Film Festival 2019
Sydney Film Festival 2019
Edinburgh International Film Festival 2019
Awards
Winner – World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
★★★★★ … mysterious, seductive, thrillingly controlled… Robbie Collin, The Daily Telegraph
Joanna Hogg’s collaboration with Martin Scorsese is exceptional…it is a very dark romance that is all the more devastating because of the very British restraint with which its story is told. Geoffrey Macnab, The Observer
