MOSTLY BRITISH FILM FESTIVAL RUNS MARCH 10-17 At the Vogue Theater

After a Covid-induced year off, the Mostly British Film Festival is back live and more riveting than ever with 25 new or recent entries from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and India. An early-bird series pass is available for $200 until February 7, offering early access to the theater and reserved seats to all films. It then goes up to $250.

The festival opens on March 10 with the Bay Area premiere of the whimsical comedy The Duke. Critics are comparing this stranger-than-fiction true story to Frank Capra’s best. Oscar winners Jim Broadbent stars as a taxi driver who swipes Goya’s prized portrait of the Duke of Wellington from London’s National Gallery, and Helen Mirren appears as his disapproving wife. First-nighters kick off the evening with a reception at neighboring Laureate Bar and Lounge.

Mostly British is thrilled to announce a new partnership with the BBC’s BritBox, which is providing the closing night documentary The Beatles and India, an historical chronicle of the love affair between the Fab Four and this country that began over 50 years ago and inspired a burst of creative songwriting, particularly from George Harrison.  This will be the only opportunity in the U.S. to watch rapturous location shoots across India on a big screen as George, John, Paul and Ringo journey to a remote Himalayan ashram. A closing night party follows featuring Indian cuisine.

The 2022 festival is replete with love stories, happy and sad. After Love just won Best Film along with five other prizes from the British Independent Film Awards, beating far better known competitors like Belfast.  This intricate drama is sure to draw you in as it spirals off in unanticipated directions. A devout Muslim who is recently widowed discovers her husband’s affair with an independent French woman. What happens after this finding is sure to astonish.

In True Things Ruth Wilson risks her job and the life she’s made to plunge headlong into a carnal relationship with an inappropriate lover played by Tom Burke. The film explores whether sexual gratification is worth the gamble.

In Ammonite two 19^th century women (Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan) find themselves in jeopardy after sparking a love affair. And in the engaging Falling for Figaro an aspiring opera singer falls for a dashing fellow student with whom she competes in a national contest.

Mostly British is thrilled to present the U.S premiere of My Name is Gulpilil a documentary of the life and career of David Gulpilil, Australia’s most acclaimed indigenous actor and star of Walkabout and Crocodile Dundee. The film won Best Documentary from the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts.

The always popular Irish Spotlight expands to four films on February 13, kicking off with the black comedy Deadly Cuts where Dublin hair stylists become accidental vigilantes. It is followed by End of Sentence about an estranged father and son’s journey to Ireland and Herself, the story of a battered wife who finds the grit to leave her marriage and rebuild her life. The day concludes with Wildfire about sisters who grow apart only to have their intense bond re-ignited.

The Mostly British Film Festival is presented by the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation. Individual tickets are $15/$12.50. Opening Night including a cocktail reception is $30/$25 and Closing Night with an after party is $25/$20. Discounted tickets go to members of SFFILM, the Fromm Institute, San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation, Calvary Presbyterian Church and individuals 65 and over.  Tickets can be purchased at mostlybritish.org and at the Vogue theater box-office, 3290 Sacramento Street.