What's on this April at Plymouth Arts Cinema

April kicks off with highly anticipated films such as Arco, La Grazia and Hoppers. Along with this much-loved classics such as Amélie and Romeo + Juliet return to the screen. 

Where to find them

Our venue is located inside Arts University Plymouth’s main campus at Tavistock Place. Go through Arts University Plymouth’s main entrance and turn right, you will face our Box Office and Café-Bar.

Opening Times and How to Book

The Box Office and Café-bar open Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: 5-8.30pm; Wednesday: 1-8.30pm; Saturday: 1-8pm). You can call the Box Office during these times: 01752 206114.

Ticket Prices

Standard £9.50 | Matinees £7.50 | Over 66 £8.50 | 25 & Under, Students, AUP Staff, Budget (unwaged/ low income) £5.00 | Bringing in Baby, Family screenings £5.00 | Friends 10% discount and £6.50 on Tuesdays.

         

Palestine Comedy Club (12A)

Thursday 2 April, 6pm

Dir. Alaa Aliabdallah, Palestine / UK, 2025, 96 mins. In English and Arabic with English subtitles.

Logline: When six Palestinian comedians hit the road to tour a stand-up show across Palestine and Israel, their search for humour amidst the injustice of everyday Palestinian life becomes a plea for humanity in the face of brutal war.

What’s funny about life under occupation? Palestine Comedy Club is a rollercoaster road-movie that follows six Palestinian stand-up comedians from Haifa, Ramallah, Jenin, Hebron and the Golan Heights who devise and tour a stand-up comedy show exploring the unlikely, often dark humour that circles the complex question of Palestinian identity.

There is no tradition of regular comedy clubs in Palestine and communities are divided by walls, fences and checkpoints that create major disparities in culture and quality of life between one town and another. As such, developing a comedy show that can speak to these very different audiences is almost impossible and the comedians face many challenges in earning comic license and connecting with their fellow Palestinians across the divides.

Despite the cultural and security challenges of touring six Palestinian comedians - all with different travel permissions - across checkpoints and borders to six theatres in Palestine and Israel, audiences flock to the shows and the tour gains momentum through increasing public demand. Word spreads internationally and they are invited to London for a series of gigs starting, tragically, on October 7th, 2023. Just as war breaks out at home, the comedians prepare to perform in English for the first time to an increasingly conflicted British public. Suddenly, the mission to connect with audiences with thoughtful humanity becomes an existential imperative.

Palestine Comedy Club is a quest to find joy in the tragedy of Palestinian life, and create connection against the odds through a common love of laughter.

Image credits: Alaa Aliabdallah (Regash). Featuring: Alaa Shehada, Diana Sweity, Khalil Al Batran, Alaa Aliabdallah.

                  

DJ Ahmet (PG)

Friday 3 - Wednesday 8 April

Fri 3, 6pm
Sat 4, 8pm
Wed 8, 8.30pm

Programmer’s Pick

Dir. Georgi M. Unkovski, 2025, North Macedonia, 99 mins. In Turkish and Macedonian with English subtitles. Cast. Arif Jakup, Agush Agushev, Dora Akan Zlatanova.

Sheep hit the dancefloor in Georgi M. Unkovski’s disarming feature debut, a touching, comic and radiantly colourful coming-of-age story, and Sundance award-winner, about the unifying power of music. 15-year-old Ahmet lives in a remote village in North Macedonia, where he struggles to navigate the pressure of traditional values and his father's expectations since his mother's passing. He finds an unlikely refuge in techno music, which brings him closer to Aya, but she's already promised to someone else...

DJ Ahmet casts a crowd-pleasing spell while sensitively exploring the realities of life in patriarchal societies. Uplifted by its young cast and a rich soundtrack that draws on regional as well as English language songs, it dances along the line between modernity and tradition.

Flashing/flickering lights

This work contains flashing images which may affect viewers who are susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy.

                   

Midwinter Break (12A)

F-Rated

Friday 3 - Wednesday 8 April

Fri 3, 8.30pm
Sat 4, 5.30pm
Tue 7, 8.30pm
Wed 8, 2.30pm (Descriptive Subtitles)

Dir. Polly Findlay, UK, 2025, 91 mins. Cast. Lesley Manville, Ciaran Hinds, Niamh Cusack.

Longtime retired couple Stella and Gerry realize that their relationship has reached a crossroads while on holiday in Amsterdam. After so much time and so many memories, long-held promises and deeply concealed wounds threaten to come to light and force them to confront their future. Based on the acclaimed novel by Bernard McLaverty, Midwinter Break touchingly colours in how it might be possible for two people to know each other too well and also not well enough.

                

Exhibition on Screen: Turner & Constable (PG)

Saturday 4 - Thursday 9 April

Sat 4, 2.30pm
Thu 9, 6pm

Dir. David Bickerstaff, UK, 2025, 93 mins.

Celebrating the 250th anniversary of their births, this unmissable new documentary explores Turner and Constable’s intertwined lives and legacies alongside the groundbreaking Tate exhibition.

Two of Britain’s greatest painters, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable were also the greatest of rivals. Born within a year of each other, both used landscape painting to reflect the changing world around them. Constable represents the very best of the old school of realism and pastoral nostalgia; Turner, an exciting new way of depicting emotion and dreamlike impressions. Critics compared their starkly different styles to a clash of ‘fire and water’.

Exhibition on Screen once again has exclusive and privileged access to bring their extraordinary art to the big screen. Discover unexpected sides to both artists with intimate views of sketchbooks and personal items and insights from leading experts.

Don’t miss this opportunity to see these greats side-by-side, as they so often were in life, on the big screen for the first time.

                          

Arco (PG)

Family Friendly

Saturday 4 - Thursday 9 April

Sat 4, 11am (English Dubbed)
Wed 8, 11am (English Dubbed)
Thu 9, 2.30pm (French with English Subtitles)

Dir. Ugo Bienvenu, Gilles Cazaux, 2025, France, 88 mins. Partially subtitled. Cast. Natalie Portman, Mark Ruffalo, Will Ferrell.

For Easter, imagine if rainbows were time travellers… hand-painted animation Arco sees its hero crash land in a near future impacted by climate change. Arco, a 10-year-old boy from a peaceful, distant future, accidentally travels back to the year 2075 and discovers a world in peril. As he develops a friendship with a young girl named Iris, they band together and, along with her trusted robot caretaker Mikki, set out on a quest to get Arco home.

A remarkable journey through time, Arco is a dazzling animated adventure full of hope, friendship and magic.

Flashing/flickering lights

This work contains flashing images which may affect viewers who are susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy.

French voice cast: Swann Arlaud, Alma Jodorowsky, Margot Ringard Oldra, Oscar Tresanini, Vincent Macaigne, Louis Garrel, William Lebghil, and Oxmo Puccino.

                   

Underland (12A)

Tuesday 7 - Thursday 9 April

Tue 7, 6pm + Director’s Q&A with Rob Petit
Wed 8, 6pm
Thu 9, 8.30pm

GREEN SCREEN | DOCUMENTARY | Programmer’s Pick

Dir. Rob Petit, UK, 2025, 79 mins.

We know so little of the world beneath our feet. To most it is a place only of fear and darkness, though to a brave few it is one of knowledge and wonder to be found nowhere else. Based on the bestselling book by Robert Macfarlane, UNDERLAND is a cinematic documentary that voyages into worlds rarely glimpsed by human eyes. Beginning in the shallow soils beneath an old ash tree, the film follows several ‘astronauts of the underworld’ as they travel into ancient sacred caves, flooded storm drains, melting glaciers, underwater burial chambers and a deep underground laboratory built to solve the mysteries of the Universe. Narrated by Oscar-nominated Sandra Hüller, and with a uniquely poetic approach, UNDERLAND is a deep dive into the Earth that ultimately presents a groundbreaking vision for rethinking our lives on this fragile surface.

Robert Petit is a London-based writer and director working to collide the disciplines of geography and filmmaking to tell stories that challenge narratives of identity, landscape, and belonging. A graduate in Directing from the National Film and Television School he is also co-director of the creative studio Milkwood as well as being a long-time collaborator of the writer Robert Macfarlane (author of “Underland”). Together they made the critically acclaimed experimental film Upstream, a film shot entirely from the air that follows a Scottish river to its source high up in the Cairngorm mountains

                 

Orwell 2+2=5 (15)

Friday 10 - Thursday 16 April

Fri 10, 5.45pm
Sat 11, 8pm
Wed 15, 8.30pm
Thu 16, 6pm

Dir. Raoul Peck, 2025, US, 119 mins. English, Burmese, Russian, French, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles. Cast.Damian Lewis, George Orwell, U Win Khine.

George Orwell was one of the most visionary authors of the 20th Century, whose novels 1984 and Animal Farm foretold a chilling, all-too-believable authoritarian future.

Acclaimed director Raoul Peck, working in collaboration with the Orwell Estate, seamlessly interweaves historical clips, readings from Orwell's diary, cinematic references, and dynamic modern day footage to craft not only a definitive portrait of the writer himself, but an entirely fresh take on how remarkably relevant and prophetic his work has become. Peck doesn't just present the information but shows new ways of seeing it, drawing patterns and connections we might not otherwise realise, championing Orwell as a man from the past who just might hold the key to the world's future.

“The boldest documentary anyone could make right now." - Time

                  

La Grazia (12A)

Friday 10 - Wednesday 15 April

Fri 10, 8.15pm
Sat 11, 5.15pm
Tue 14, 8.15pm
Wed 15, 2.30pm
Wed 15, 5.45pm

Dir. Paolo Sorrentino, 2025, Italy, 133 mins. In Italian with English subtitles. Cast. Toni Servillo, Anna Ferzetti, Orlando Cinque.

From Oscar and BAFTA award-winning director Paolo Sorrentino, La Grazia is a sweeping exploration of love, duty, and personal freedom. Featuring a virtuoso performance by Toni Servillo, winner of the Best Actor Award at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, this heartfelt masterwork is a profound meditation on the choices that define a life.

Love. Doubt. Responsibility. Fatherhood. Ethics. These are the forces that shape Mariano De Santis, the outgoing President of Italy. As his tenure nears its end, De Santis faces wrenching decisions, both political and deeply personal. Amid these moral quandaries, he must confront his own conscience and seek guidance from those closest to him. An intimate reflection on identity and memory, La Grazia traces the indelible imprint one leaves behind through family and actions. Shot with Sorrentino’s signature poetic eye and enriched by an evocative, immersive soundtrack, it is a cinematic experience as visually sumptuous as it is emotionally resonant.

               

Amélie - 25th Anniversary (15)

Saturday 11 - Thursday 16 April

Sat 11, 2.30pm
Tue 14, 5.45pm
Thu 16, 8.30pm

Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001, France/Germany, 123 mins. In French with English subtitles. Cast. Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Yolande Moreau.

The beautiful, magical Amélie returns to cinemas, celebrating 25 years of pure cinematic spectacle; the film that broke the barrier between arthouse and mainstream. This perfect film is ripe for discovery by younger audiences and indeed rediscovery by those of us that were there the first time in 2001.

23-year-old Amélie is lonely. After an isolating childhood, she moves to Paris and becomes a waitress at the Café des Deux Moulins. One night, she happens across a box of treasures hidden in her apartment, left by a little boy in the fifties, that changes the course of her life.   While completing her good deeds, Amélie crosses paths with Nino, a photobooth collagist who shares her oddball sensibilities. She quickly falls in love with him as we all fall in love with her. Don’t miss the chance to see this on the big screen.

                         

Hoppers (U)

Family Friendly

Saturday 11 - Thursday 16 April

Sat 11, 11am
Wed 15, 11am
Thu 16, 2.30pm

Dir. Daniel Chong, 2025, US, 104 mins. Cast. Piper Curda, Jon Hamm, Eduardo Franco, Bobby Moynihan.

The latest hilariously imaginative animated treat from Disney PIXAR follows the journey of wildlife loving Mabel as she enters the animal kingdom through 'hop' technology - in the guise of a robotic beaver and finds she can communicate directly with animals.

As she uncovers mysteries in the animal world beyond anything she could have imagined, Mabel befriends charismatic beaver King George and must rally the entire animal kingdom to face a major, imminent human-threat: smooth-talking local mayor Jerry Generazzo.

               

A Pale View of Hills (12A)

Friday 17 - Thu 23 April

Fri 17, 5.45pm
Sat 18, 2.30pm
Sat 18, 8pm
Tue 21, 5.45pm
Wed 22, 8.30pm
Thu 23, 5.45pm

Dir. Kei Ishikawa, 2025, Japan/UK/Poland, 123 mins. Japanese, English, with English subtitles. Cast. Suzu Hirose, Fumi Nikaido, Yoh Yoshida.

Based on Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro’s first novel and set in 1980s England and post-war Japan, A Pale View of Hills follows Niki, a young journalist desperate to understand her family’s history in Japan before her birth, questioning her mother about her time in Nagasaki. Spanning two timelines, and lightly excavating the author’s own family history and cultural heritage, this is a moving and hopeful account of the generational impact of war. Camilla Aiko gives a compelling performance as the truth seeker, who is our guide through the past.

               

Two Prosecutors (12A)

Friday 17 - Thursday 23rd April

Fri 17, 8.30pm
Sat 18, 5.30pm
Tue 21, 8.30pm
Wed 22, 2.30pm
Wed 22, 6pm
Thu 23, 8.30pm

Dir. Sergey Loznitsa, 2025, Ukraine, 118 mins. In Ukrainian and Russian with English subtitles. Cast. Alexander Kuznetsov, Anatoliy Beliy, Aleksandr Filippenko.

Soviet Union, 1937. Thousands of letters from detainees falsely accused by the regime are burned in a prison cell. Against all odds, one of them reaches its destination, upon the desk of the newly appointed local prosecutor, Alexander Kornyev.

Kornyev does his utmost to meet the prisoner, a victim of agents of the secret police, the NKVD. A dedicated Bolshevik of integrity, the young prosecutor suspects foul play. His quest for justice will take him all the way to the office of the Attorney General in Moscow. In the age of the great Stalinist purges, this is the plunge of a man into the corridors of a totalitarian regime that does not bear said name.

              

The Stranger (15)

Programmer’s Pick

Friday 24 - Wednesday 29 April

Fri 24, 5.45pm
Sat 25, 8pm
Tue 28, 8.30pm
Wed 29, 5.45pm

Dir. François Ozon, 2025, France, 122 mins. In French with English subtitles. Cast. Benjamin Voisin, Rebecca Marder, Pierre Lottin.

François Ozon has adapted a monumental work of literature for the screen, The Stranger by Albert Camus.

In 1930s Algeria, the apathetic Meursault shows total indifference to life. His emotional detachment leads to a murder, followed by a trial that scrutinises both the crime and his character. Ozon has said: ‘‘The themes in the book could hardly be more topical: an emotionally absent hero detached from the world, confronting our mortality, the individual’s quest for meaning in an increasingly alienating world.” Shot with a muted palette and featuring understated performances, Ozon superbly captures Meursault’s stillness, passivity and lack of compassion, making us witnesses to his sociopathy.

               

Father Mother Sister Brother (TBC)

Friday 24- Thursday 30 April

Fri 24, 8.30pm
Sat 25, 5.30pm
Tue 28, 6pm
Wed 29, 2.30pm (Descriptive Subtitles)
Thu 30, 8.30pm

Dir. Jim Jarmusch, 2025, US, 110 mins. Cast. Adam Driver, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps.

Winner of the Golden Lion for Best Film at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, this is the eagerly awaited new film by Jim Jarmusch, featuring a tremendous cast. Funny, tender and astute, it’s an intimate study of the universal intricacies of family dynamics. A triptych divided into chapters set in New Jersey, Dublin and Paris, each story concerns the relationships between adult children, their somewhat distant parent (or parents), and each other. Blending remarkable performances with Jarmusch’s wry and idiosyncratic observations of everyday life, Father Mother Sister Brother serves as a timely reminder that you can choose your friends and your lovers, but you can’t choose your family.

                

Romeo + Juliet (12A) - 30th Anniversary

Saturday 25 - Thu 30 April

Sat 25, 3pm (Knitflix)
Wed 29, 8.30pm
Thu 30, 6pm

Dir. Baz Luhrmann, 1996, US/Australia, 120 mins. Cast. Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, Brian Dennehy, John Leguizamo.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary (yes, we are that old) of the film that spawned a generation of angel-wing-wearing teenagers we are very excited to be screening Baz Luhrmann’s iconic retelling of Romeo and Juliet. Against the urban backdrop of Verona Beach, California, the Montague and Capulet families are embroiled in a long-running feud. When Romeo, a Montague, attends a Capulet ball in disguise, he falls in love with the beautiful Juliet. Although already engaged to Dave Paris, whom she does not love, Juliet vows to marry Romeo. They ask the kindly Father Laurence to perform the ceremony in secret, but bloodshed and tragedy threaten the couple's future together. Have Clare Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio ever been as good again. Iconic!
                     

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