Buy tickets: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/thamecinema
Thanks to all who donated to our charity screening on Saturday. We raised £856 from ticket sales plus a futher £82 from our collection at the door. This will be given to the Mayor for his charities: Thame Youth Projects and the Red Kite Family Centre.
Future films:
Fri 13th Feb, 8pm: My Favourite Cake (cert 12)
Iran 2024, 97 minutes, 12 certificate
Directed by Maryam Moghadam, Behtash Sanaeeha, Starring Lili Farhadpour, Esmaeel Mehrabi, Mohammad Heidari
This is a film that might not have been seen had there not been a copy of it stored outside Iran. The Iranian authorities had raided the production company offices, confiscating computers and storage devices. The directors were refused an exit visa, so were unable to attend its premier at the Berlin Film Festival in 2024. In the wake of civil unrest and widespread protest about brutal policing of women’s ‘modesty’, and deaths of young women in custody, the authorities presumably took issue with the film’s representation of unveiled women, and its depiction of women being intimidated and bullied on the streets of Tehran.
Mahin is a 70 year old widow, living in her comfortable apartment in the centre of the city, enjoying her beautiful garden and its produce. Her daughter and grandchildren live abroad, and Mahin fills her time with a bit of shopping, walking the streets that now feel fraught with surveillance, rescuing the odd young woman being chastened by the authorities for immodesty. She hosts lunches where she gossips with her female friends, trading jokes about men, ageing bodies and their ailments, and being single. Is it possible to meet someone this late in life? Perhaps. One day, after a period of going out in search of romantic opportunity, she meets Faramarz, a taxi driver and former military veteran who shares her world view. In a risky and transgressive move for a single woman, she invites him home to eat, dance and reminisce about the Iran of their youth. This is a funny, yearning, quirky tale with something of the fable about it, about the joy and the power of connection with strangers and shared histories, flavours and music. It is also a story of feminine resistance and the endurance of hope, romance and desire in later life.
Fortunately for us, the film had its premiere and was able to enjoy a celebrated cinematic release, bringing its story of quiet resistance to a repressive regime, and wistful longing for Iran’s more liberal recent past, to a global audience. A real joy, and on many lists of the best films released in 2025. Watch the trailer here.
