Cinema

We’re celebrating the end of the Easter holidays in style at Ilkley Cinema. Our last weekend hurrah includes the Beatrix Potter classic Peter Rabbit and sci-fi fantasy A Wrinkle in Time, so bring the kids on down when those inevitable April Showers hit hard.

Also joining us from April 13 to 19 is British comedy Walk Like a Panther, created by the geniuses behind The Full Monty and filmed in our very own idyllic county of Yorkshire, featuring a stellar British cast. The Panthers were once the champions of wrestling and loved by Brits across the country. But this was over thirty years ago, and the pies and pints have taken their toll on the group and the middle-aged has-beens now spend their days at their favourite pub The Half Nelson.

One day, they are dealt the most devastating of news: their beloved Public House is threatened with closure. The retired wrestlers do the impossible and pull out all the stops to put on the show of a lifetime to save the pub they so dearly cherish.

Australian thrilling western drama Sweet Country rounds off our schedule of films this week, set in the Northern Territory frontier in the 1920’s. Director Warwick Thornton brings this tale of racial tension and rough justice to life, centred around Indigenous farm worker Sam.

When Harry, a bitter war veteran, moves into a neighbouring outpost, Sam and his family is sent to help Harry renovate his cattle yards. But Sam’s relationship with the cruel and ill-tempered Harry quickly deteriorates, culminating in a violent shootout in which Sam kills Harry in self-defence. As a result, Sam becomes a wanted criminal for the murder of a white man, and is forced to flee with his wife across the deadly outback, through glorious but harsh desert country. A hunting party led by the local lawman Sergeant Fletcher is formed to track Sam down. But as the true details of the killing start to surface, the community begins to question whether justice is really being served.

by Evie Myers