This posits the idea that a seemingly devastating change in your life can be in fact, the opportunity for a new beginning. In the case of Ruben, the drummer in a punk metal band, it's losing his hearing and the possibility of losing not just his career but also his relationship with Lou, his romantic and musical partner. The journey taken by Ruben is one that he has experienced before, having been a heroin addict but is now clean. Yet…

This film is right in my wheelhouse but I can understand how some might be put off by seeing the angst galore of a bourgeois English family played out in the Isles of Scilly. I've recently read about how much Joanna Hogg is a fan of Ozu and this is clearly depicted in the way she shoots both the interiors and the exteriors of the holiday house in which the family reunion takes place. There's a depth of field in…

I've not seen nearly enoough of the great Abbas Kiarostami's work, and especially not his earlier films, that first brought him to the attention of the world outside of Iran. This is the first of the so-called Koker Trilogy, and it's an absolute stunner of a film - weaving a realist film with almost Kafkaesque dark humour and showing the world of the child is compeltely different to that of adults and rarely is there a middle ground. And one…