Join us at the 17:30 screening of Benediction on Thu 26 May which will feature Descriptive Subtitles and an introduction from our guest speaker, Rebecca Ballard, Queer Vision Producer and Programmer. This will be followed at 20:00 by a post screening discussion in the Café & Bar with audience members and Rebecca. The evening will be hosted by Deaf artist, performer and filmmaker David Ellington and will feature BSL interpretation throughout.

Terence Davies (A Quiet Passion, The Deep Blue Sea) evocatively explores the turbulent life of Siegfried Sassoon, known for his poetry on the horrors of the Great War, and also his love affairs with other notable men.

Starring Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi as the younger and older Sassoon respectively, Sassoon’s experience of the First World War on the Western Front is crafted in layers of heroism, loss, and unfathomable trauma, which inspired his poetry. His attempt at conscientious objection to the war leads to him being committed to a Scottish hospital, where he meets and mentors fellow poet and soldier Wilfred Owen.

Davies’ first film about an openly gay man employs a collage-style narrative that intercuts dramatic scenes of key moments in Sassoon’s life – his relationships with Ivor Novello and the aristocrat Stephen Tennant, as well as his later marriage to a woman – with beautiful readings of his poetry over montages of real images of soldiers in wartime.

Please join us in the Café & Bar for an informal discussion after the screening, which will include BSL interpretation. You’ll receive 10% off drinks with your cinema ticket – so grab a glass and let us know your thoughts about Benediction.

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