This film is part of Rentals
Sunset Song
Agyness Deyn stars in Terence Davies’ moving drama about a strong young woman facing many adversities in the run up to WWI.
Director: Terence Davies
Overview
Agyness Deyn stars in Terence Davies’ moving drama about a strong young woman facing many adversities in the run up to WWI. Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s novel gives Terence Davies a broad canvas of rain-lashed farmland on which to apply his knack for literary adaptation.
It’s the early 20th-century in rural Scotland and Chris Guthrie (Deyn) is a young woman with ambition, but family life has its own pull and her religious father exerts a formidable force on his brood. As the constellation of her family shifts around her and romance comes calling, WWI begins. Deyn's tremendous performance as Chris commands attention in every scene of Davies' epic, supplemented by Peter Mullan and Kevin Guthrie as the two equally troublesome men in her lives; her volcanically tempered father and a husband traumatised from his stint in the trenches. Davies originally aimed to adapt Gibbon’s novel in 2000, following House of Mirth, but was unable to raise financing. His disillusionment with the process led to an 11-year hiatus from narrative filmmaking, only punctuated by the documentary Of Time and the City in 2008. Thankfully Sunset Song offers ample rewards to offset its protracted gestation and a reminder of Davies’ pertinent value to British cinema.
Related
Girls Will Be Girls Girls Will Be Girls
Drama 2024 119 mins Director: Shuchi Talati
Teenage romance simmers in a strict Himalayan boarding school in this sublime coming-of-age tale. Winner of the 2024 Sundance audience prize.
The Goldman Case The Goldman Case
Drama 2023 116 mins Director: Cédric Kahn
Gripping courtroom drama based on the explosive 1976 murder trial of French political activist, Pierre Goldman.
In Camera In Camera
Drama 2024 95 mins Director: Naqqash Khalid
A struggling actor faces relentless knockbacks in Naqqash Khalid’s sharp-witted comment on race and identity in the film industry.
Kneecap Kneecap
Drama 2024 105 mins Director: Rich Peppiatt
Fantastically outlandish biopic about the anarchic Belfast rap trio and their fight to save the Irish language.
The Post The Post
Drama 2017 116 mins Director: Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg’s acclaimed, gripping and timely drama about the publishing of the Pentagon Papers, featuring Tom Hanks and an Oscar-nominated performance from Meryl Streep.
Denial Denial
Drama 2017 110 mins Director: Mick Jackson
Powerful, aggressively relevant courtroom drama restaging the trial that questioned the events of the Holocaust. Rachel Weisz and Timothy Spall star.
Son of Saul Son of Saul
Drama 2015 107 mins Director: László Nemes
A devastating portrait of life in a concentration camp from the perspective of a Sonderkommando; winner of Cannes Film Festival’s Grand Prix.
Brimstone Brimstone
Western 2017 148 mins Director: Martin Koolhoven
Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning, Kit Harington star in a brutal revenge tale about a mute midwife in the old American west.
Lean on Pete Lean on Pete
Drama 2018 122 mins Director: Andrew Haigh
The ravishing fourth feature from Andrew Haigh (45 Years, Weekend) sees a boy and a horse embark on a Huckleberry Finn-esque journey across America in search of home.
Loveless Loveless
Drama 2017 127 mins Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev
Andrey Zvyagintsev (Elena, Leviathan) delivers a masterpiece in this caustic look at contemporary Russian society, a failed marriage and the disappearance of a child. A major prize winner at both Cannes and BFI London Film Festival.
Sweet Country Sweet Country
Period drama 2017 113 mins Director: Warwick Thornton
Australian director Warwick Thornton (Samson and Delilah) brings a vital Indigenous perspective and great cinematic vision to this powerful, revisionist Western, with Sam Neill and Bryan Brown.
Wajib Wajib
Drama 2018 93 mins Director: Annemarie Jacir
An estranged father-son relationship in the vibrant city of Nazareth makes for an immensely entertaining drama by Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir (When I Saw You).
Electricity Electricity
Drama 2014 96 mins Director: Bryn Higgins
Agyness Deyn stars in a powerful story seen through the eyes of a young woman whose epilepsy brings extraordinary hallucinations.
Trainspotting Trainspotting
Drama 1996 90 mins Director: Danny Boyle
Danny Boyle's exhilarating, narcotic trip follows a group of heroin-addicted friends as they navigate their way through Glasgow's seedy 1990s drug culture.
Shallow Grave Shallow Grave
Comedy 1995 89 mins Director: Danny Boyle
Ewan McGregor and Danny Boyle burst onto the scene with this dark crime caper about three friends and their rich, dead flatmate.
My Name Is Joe My Name Is Joe
Drama 1998 105 mins Director: Ken Loach
Ken Loach's intense drama boasts a majestic performance from Peter Mullan as a recovering alcoholic in Glasgow, struggling with his feelings for a local health worker.
Tyrannosaur Tyrannosaur
Drama 2011 92 mins Director: Paddy Considine
Paddy Considine’s powerful feature debut, featuring astonishingly strong performances from Olivia Colman and Peter Mullan.
... Long Distance Information ... Long Distance Information
Drama 2011 8 mins Director: Douglas Hart
Our parents always told us 'never talk to strangers'. But, surely, we all have to phone home sometimes? Award-winning short film starring Peter Mullan.
Benediction Benediction
Drama 2020 137 mins Director: Terence Davies
Terence Davies’ moving and lyrical portrait of the life of celebrated war poet Siegfried Sassoon.
A Quiet Passion A Quiet Passion
Biopic 2017 125 mins Director: Terence Davies
Terence Davies' elegant and deeply moving biopic of poet Emily Dickinson, played with sensitivity and rebellious spirit by Cynthia Nixon.
The Deep Blue Sea The Deep Blue Sea
Drama 2011 99 mins Director: Terence Davies
Buried passions boil over in a buttoned-up postwar Britain in Terence Davies acclaimed adaptation of Rattigan's play, starring Rachel Weisz.
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.
Night Courier (Mandoob) Night Courier (Mandoob)
Comedy 2023 112 mins Director: Ali Kalthami
A desperate delivery driver gets caught up in the dark underworld of Riyadh in Ali Kalthami’s gripping, pitch-black satire.
The Ballymurphy Precedent The Ballymurphy Precedent
Documentary 2018 108 mins Director: Callum Macrae
John Pilger's film on the conflict in Northern Ireland is a skilful mix of investigative journalism, documentary storytelling and reflections on contemporary history.
Utopia Utopia
Documentary 2013 111 mins Director: John Pilger and Alan Lowery
John Pilger's portrayal of the oldest continuous human culture is also an investigation into a suppressed colonial past, and rapacious present.
The Coming War on China The Coming War on China
Documentary 2016 113 mins Director: John Pilger
John Pilger’s prescient 60th film for ITV is both a warning and an inspiring story of resistance.
Girls Will Be Girls Girls Will Be Girls
Drama 2024 119 mins Director: Shuchi Talati
Teenage romance simmers in a strict Himalayan boarding school in this sublime coming-of-age tale. Winner of the 2024 Sundance audience prize.