Happy Easter! I hope you’ve had a lovely break and a lot of all things chocolate! I’ve been eating the odd egg since they appeared in the supermarket early this year, and have had my fair share in the last few days. After watching Fork over Knives, one of my selected highlights this week, I’m feeling a little guilty about my overindulgence so needless to say a few salads will be eaten this week.

 Here are my highlights for the week:

Happy Easter! I hope you’ve had a lovely break and a lot of all things chocolate! I’ve been eating the odd egg since they appeared in the supermarket early this year, and have had my fair share in the last few days. After watching Fork over Knives, one of my selected highlights this week, I’m feeling a little guilty about my overindulgence so needless to say a few salads will be eaten this week.

 Here are my highlights for the week:

FORKS OVER KNIVES

Starring: Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn

Directed by: Lee Fulkerson

Screening: Thursday 4^th April, 8.30pm

 This documentary examines the claim that most degenerative diseases can be controlled, and even reversed, by rejecting animal-based and processed foods and instead eating a whole-foods and plant based diet. This documentary highlights the work of pioneering researchers Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn who independently discovered many diseases were virtually unknown in parts of the world where animal-based foods were rarely consumed. Throughout the documentary we see the proof of their work and ideas in “reality patients” who have chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes and have adopted the whole foods, plant based diet. Even the director Lee Fulkerson gives it a go. It’s not the most visually adventurous documentary, the graphics are simple and its structure is conventional, but there’s plenty to make you think about what you’re going to eat next.

WAR OF THE ARROWS

Starring: Park Hae il, Yu Seung Ryoung, Moon Chae-won

Directed by: Kim Han-min

Screening: Friday 5^th April, 8.30pm

Throughout April, Rialto Channel is playing a collection of the very best action films from South Korea and China. Get ready for non-stop bloody action as great warriors and badass bandits expertly wield swords and bend arrows in these epic historical war stories. Kicking off the series is Korean film War of the Arrows, about a talented archer who must fight the entire Manchurian army to rescue a sister who was taken hostage during the Manchu invasion of Korea in 1636. Director/writer Han-min Kim’s film is an intense, beautifully shot and well-edited epic, and while Park Hae il is stellar in the lead role, it’s the masterful filming of the bow and arrow that’s most impressive.

ANTON CHEKHOV'S THE DUEL

Starring: Andrew Scott, Fiona Glascott, Tobias Menzies

Directed by: Dover Kosashvili

Screening: Saturday 6^th April, 8.30pm

Don’t get distracted that English actors take on the role of Russians in Georgian-born Israeli Dover Koshashvili’s take on iconic playwright Anton Chekhov’s 1891 novella. It might appear a little unusual at first, hearing English spoken in a Russian setting (the film was actually shot in Croatia) but the cast do an admirable job of bringing Chekhov’s characters to life. It’s the story of Laevsky (Scott), an aristocrat who has lured Nadya (Glascott) away from her husband to live in the Caucasus. When he learns his mistress’s husband has died, panic sets in as he realises he no longer loves her but will be expected to marry. His self-obsessed desperation to be rid of her, alienates his few friends and of course Nadya, leading him to fight for his honour in a duel. Kosashvili takes his time with the pacing, which reflects life in the suffocating heat of the Caucasus and the listlessness of the lead character.