8 d. ago Starmer insists he will lead Labour into Scottish elections amid speculation

The Prime Minister also denied he had ruined Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s chances of becoming first minister.

Politics

9 d. ago I Swear: How to get free tickets for 'powerful' new film about Scottish Tourette's campaigner John Davidson

Independent cinemas across Scotland will host free advance screenings of new drama I Swear, which follows the real story of Scottish Tourette's campaigner John Davidson MBE.

Politics

9 d. ago Sex attack victim banned from watching her rapist’s parole hearing to be “fair” on vile thug

Rape victim denied chance parole hearing as it would not be 'fair' on predator

Events

1 week ago UK nurse jailed for killing four patients is denied chance to appeal

Three judges block Colin Campbell’s attempt to overturn his murder convictions at the supreme courtA nurse convicted of murdering four patients and trying to kill a fifth will not be allowed to appeal to the supreme court, judges have ruled.Colin Campbell, 49, was jailed for life in 2008 for killing Doris Ludlam, Bridget Bourke, Irene Crookes and Ethel Hall on orthopaedic wards in hospitals in Leeds. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Dreamers review – powerful film about immigrant kids in the US, denied their chance of citizenship

Study of the fate of undocumented children brought to the US, now grown up and paying taxes, yet under constant threat of deportation and removalFor undocumented immigrants, life is a state of perpetual limbo; the present is fraught with unexpected dangers, while the future is as ephemeral as a mirage. Shot in lyrical black and white, Stéphanie Barbey and Luc Peter’s documentary astutely conveys these feelings of anxiety and isolation. The film centres on the so-called Dreamers, migrants who were brought to the US as children without papers. Carlos, the main subject, is one such case: originally from Mexico, he crossed the border at the age of nine with his three brothers and his parents. Now in his late 30s, Carlos has spent all of his adult life in America, yet there is no legal pathway for him to citizenship.A tragedy looms large. Jorge, one of Carlos’s siblings, was deported to Mexico after a minor driving offence, leaving behind his partner and his son. The enforced separation ...

Events

2 w. ago Trump’s family separation is back and ‘unprecedented’ with 400 kids in federal custody, lawyers warn

Immigrant families targeted for removal are forced to leave with their kids or face separation from them

Events

2 w. ago ‘He should be known as a film music revolutionary’: revitalising the legacy of Czech composer Zdeněk Liška

The electroacoustic pioneer scored dozens of pictures – and communist propaganda. Too successful to be persecuted by the politburo but largely forgotten when he died, his music is being revived by a new archival seriesZdeněk Liška became one of the eastern bloc’s pioneers of electroacoustic music by accident. After breaking through making music for ads and animations, the revolutionary film-makers of the 1960s Czechoslovak new wave asked him to soundtrack their movies, which he took as his greatest inspirations. With the help of radio engineering enthusiasts at Czechoslovakia’s film powerhouse, Barrandov Studios, he could imitate the whoosh of a spaceship or birds chirping. He composed underwater electroacoustic symphonies and music to be played on typewriters. Despite his innovations, he famously proclaimed: “I only write music under the pictures.”Liška was as productive as he was innovative: from the late 1950s to the late 1970s, he would score eight feature films a year, as well ...

Culture

2 w. ago American independent cinema owes much to Sundance king Robert Redford | Adrian Horton

With his Sundance film festival and institute, Robert Redford used his considerable power to bring generations of talented film-makers to a bigger audienceRobert Redford, who died at the age of 89 on Tuesday, will rightly be remembered as one of Hollywood’s finest leading men, a true-blue movie star and assured actor who was, to quote my mother and surely many others, “very, very handsome”. His many iconic performances – in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President’s Men, The Way We Were, The Sting and more – certainly left an indelible mark on American movies. But he should perhaps be remembered more for his work behind the camera, as the country’s greatest benefactor of independent cinema.Through his Sundance film festival and non-profit institute, Redford lent his considerable star power and funds to American independent film, and created what is still its most secure and enduring pillar of support. He provided maverick, cutting-edge film-making with a freewheeling ma...

Culture

2 w. ago Home Office advertises for a religious adviser to help detained migrants get married

The vacancy for the religious affairs manager post is at Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre (pictured), near the village of Kidlington, Oxfordshire.

Society

3 w. ago Pépé le Moko review – mysterious and passionately despairing French noir with a luminous Jean Gabin

Powerful French film that inspired Casablanca stars Gabin as a holed-up gangster in Algiers lured to his doom by infatuationJulien Duvivier’s mysterious and passionately despairing 1937 movie is rereleased, with its luminous lead performance from Jean Gabin as a charismatic Parisian criminal hiding out in the labyrinthine Casbah of Algiers; he is protected there by the dense polyglot population of Indigenous locals that the French colonial authorities consider it imprudent to provoke. He is effectively given sanctuary, but also imprisoned in the unpoliceable, unknowable quarter that, like Polanski’s Chinatown, is a place that baffles and thwarts the imperial powers-that-be.It was a film remade by Hollywood in 1938 as Algiers, which was the debut of Hedy Lamarr and made a huge star of its French lead Charles Boyer, who is much sleeker and more conventionally photogenic than Gabin (but forever stuck with the misquoted line: “Come with me to the Casbah !” always being purred by nightcl...

Politics

3 w. ago Holding Liat review – powerful study of a family torn apart by Hamas’ 7 October attacks

Brandon Kramer’s documentary complicates any simple view of the Israel-Gaza war in its portrait of one family’s agonising divisionsAt the present moment, for pro-Palestinian campaigners, mention of the hostages and victims of Hamas’s 7 October attacks tends to be greeted with indifference, or even contempt. And yet this powerful and complex documentary, directed by Brandon Kramer (a distant relative of some of the people involved) and co-produced by Darren Aronofsky, is a reminder that the situation now can’t be understood without remembering the Hamas massacre – how it was calculated to provoke a rage-filled reaction that would discredit Israel internationally, what it meant and continues to mean within Israel and how the political and ideological connotations of the hostages have themselves evolved.At first, the hostages’ images were widely seen as a focus for outrage and a casus belli. Posters put up in cities showing the hostages were ripped down - to the fury of their families....

Events

3 w. ago Tommy Fleetwood reacts to touching Tiger Woods message and reveals why his stepson missed PGA triumph

English star recounts the reaction to his US victory and the hospital scenario which denied his boy the chance to see it

Politics

3 w. ago 'Thrilling' police drama with a 'powerful punch' perfect for Line of Duty fans

Line of Duty fans have been urged to watch a "timeless masterpiece" that is coming to BBC iPlayer.

Events

3 w. ago Kemi Badenoch warns debt crisis could force UK to seek 1970s

The Tory leader said she was 'really worried' the UK was risking a repeat of 1976, when chancellor Denis Healey was humiliatingly forced to seek help to keep the UK going.

Events

3 w. ago Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle review – battle anime brings the visual flair

In the first of a film trilogy, teenage Tanjiro seeks vengeance for his murdered family in what is a great taste of things to comeThe first part of a trilogy that will conclude the massively popular anime series Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, this latest smash hit from Ufotable, directed by Haruo Sotozaki, is a spectacular treat. For those new to the franchise, the story is set during a mythical imagining of the Taisho era, where hordes of carnivorous demons descend on innocent civilians. Fighting in the name of his massacred family and a sister infected with demon blood, teenage protagonist Tanjiro Kamado joins the Demon Slayer Corps, determined to wipe these ruthless beasts off the Earth. The film picks up from a thrilling cliffhanger of the fourth season, where Tanjiro and his fellow comrades are thrust into the lair of the demon-in-chief, the cunning and all-powerful Muzan Kibutsuji.Much of the film is structured around various battles between the series regulars and their swor...

Events