We want to get to know you more to help improve our service. Please take 2 minutes to fill out our survey here. Thank you! test2

This film is part of Rentals

This film is certified

upsetting scenes, references to suicide and self-harm

I confirm I am over 12

Title of error

See Help

Title of error

See Help

Title of error

See Help

Island of the Hungry Ghosts

A therapist helps traumatised refugees detained on a remote island where powerful natural and tribal rituals prevail, in this extraordinary mix of fact and fiction.

Documentary 2018 98 mins

Director: Gabrielle Brady

CC AD

Kermode introduces Watch trailer Rent for £3.50

Overview

Poh Lin is a trauma counsellor living on the remote Christmas Island with her young family. Poh Lin’s job is to work with people trying to seek asylum to Australia who have been detained in a high security detention facility, deep within the island's jungle. The island is one of the last discovered places on earth, with humans having migrated to its shores less than a century ago. The original inhabitants are the forty million land crabs. Pulled by the force of the full moon they begin their epic odyssey from the island’s jungle to its rugged coastline.

As Poh Lin and her family explore the island’s powerful and threatening landscape, a disquieting sensation grows. Local islanders carry out their ‘hungry ghost’ rituals for the spirits of those who died on the island without a proper burial. They make offerings to appease the lost souls, who are said to be wandering the jungles at night without a home. In the intimacy of her therapy sessions, Poh Lin feels the oncoming dystopia, as the mental state of her clients begin to unravel.

Director

Gabrielle Brady

Featuring

Poh Lin Lee

Genres

Documentary

Certificate

upsetting scenes, references to suicide and self-harm

Country

Germany

Language

English

Accessibility

CC AD

Rent for £4.50

2073 2073

Documentary 2024 83 mins Director: Asif Kapadia

Oscar-winning director Asif Kapadia's unsettling drama-documentary delivers a powerful commentary on the state of the world today… and tomorrow.

Rent for £4.50

The Taste of Mango The Taste of Mango

Documentary 2023 75 mins Director: Chloe Abrahams

Sleepwalking into submerged depths of memory, a mother’s dream and a daughter’s beckoning, this fascinating film tenderly untangles the knots of the past.

Rent for £4.50

A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things

Biopic 2024 88 mins Director: Mark Cousins

A striking portrait of an artist deserving of greater recognition, directed by Mark Cousins (A Story of Film).

Rent for £4.50

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat

Documentary 2024 150 mins Director: Johan Grimonprez

Johan Grimonprez’s involving film essay, anchored by the rhythm of American jazz, reveals disturbing truths about the decolonial struggle between global political powers.

Rent for £4.50

No Other Land No Other Land

Documentary 2024 92 mins Director: Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal and Yuval Abraham

This powerful documentary from a Palestinian-Israeli collective might be one of the most important films of this year.

Rent for £3.50

South: Sir Ernest Shackleton's Glorious Epic of the Antarctic South: Sir Ernest Shackleton's Glorious Epic of the Antarctic

Documentary 1919 81 mins Silent Director: Frank Hurley

An extraordinary story of survival in the wastes of Antarctica.

Currently unavailable

The Immigrant The Immigrant

Comedy 1917 24 mins Silent Director: Charles Chaplin

One of Chaplin’s most famous early shorts finds the Little Tramp aboard a ship bound for America, mistakenly accused of being a pickpocket.

Currently unavailable

Lucky Lucky

Comedy 2016 88 mins Director: John Carroll Lynch

Harry Dean Stanton gives the performance of a lifetime as an irascible nonagenarian maverick grappling with his mortality.

Rent for £3.50

Snowpiercer 3 Snowpiercer 3

Science Fiction 2013 126 mins Director: Bong Joon-ho

After a global catastrophe launches the world into a new ice age, the last of humanity are trapped on a high-speed train that circles the globe infinitely.