BENEDICTION (2021)
Acclaimed British filmmaker Terence Davies' (DISTANT VOICES, A QUIET PASSION, STILL LIVES) sumptuous and decade-spanning portrait of 20th-century English war poet Siegfried Sassoon explores his experience of the First World War in layers of heroism (he was decorated for bravery on the Western Front), loss and unfathomable trauma. Davies tracks Sassoon's life after the war as a chain of fraught romances — most notably with actor and homme fatale Ivor Novello (Jeremy Irvine, COGNITION, WAR HORSE) — along with ongoing questions of sexual identity, social mores and artistic and personal integrity lead to Sassoon's late conversion to Catholicism and struggle to connect with his son. Up-and-coming talent Jack Lowden (DUNKIRK, SLOW HORSES) and veteran actor Peter Capaldi (DOCTOR WHO, THE THICK OF IT) star as the younger and older Sassoon, respectively, both giving astonishing performances that are at once delicate and brimming with unruly emotion. (Note adapted from Toronto International Film Festival.) Winner, Jury Prize, Best Screenplay, 2021 San Sebastián International Film Festival. DIR/SCR Terence Davies; PROD Michael Elliott. UK/U.S., 2021, color, 137 min. RATED PG-13
AFI Member passes accepted.
Run Time: 137 Minutes
Opening Date: Saturday, April 15, 2023
Genre: Historical drama
