Cassandro15

Directed by Roger Ross Williams | Mexico/USA | 2023 | 1h 47m | Spanish w/ English subtitles | Starring Gael García Bernal, Roberta Colindrez, Perla De La Rosa, Joaquín Cosio, Raúl Castillo

In the lucha libre wrestling scene of Juárez, Mexico, gay luchador Saúl is tired of playing a nondescript underdog who always loses his matches. His trainer suggests he develop an exótico character — a stereotypically effeminate role that never win their bouts and that audiences love to hate. But Saúl longs to be a star and is desperate to win. Starring a fabulous lead performance by Gael García Bernal, award–winning documentary filmmaker Roger Ross Williams (Life, Animated) makes his fiction directorial debut with the real-life tale of Cassandro, the “Liberace of lucha libre”.

Reviews

‘As a portrait of a man finding himself in his profession and celebrating his true self, ‘Cassandro’ is extraordinary.’
★★★★
Gregory Ellwood, The Playlist

‘A triumph for Bernal and for Williams and all his collaborators, a film that takes on very fresh territory and suffuses all of its frames with love for all of the people in it.’
Dan Callahan, TheWrap

Sorry - you missed it!

We showed Cassandro between September 22, 2023 and September 27, 2023.

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What else is on?

Today (Tuesday 31st March)

17:45

The President's Cake 12A
£6 for Members
1h 45m | Arabic w/ English subtitles
During 1990s Iraq, schoolgirl Lamia is chosen by her class to bake a birthday cake for Saddam Hussein. With her pet rooster beside her she searches the town for ingredients in an award-winning debut about childhood resilience and life under dictatorship.

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20:15

Sound of Falling 18
£6 for Members
2h 35m | German w/ English subtitles
Across the twentieth century four teenage girls spend their youth in the same farmhouse decades apart, yet their lives echo each other. German director Mascha Schilinski interweaves generations of girlhood, revealing loneliness and lost innocence across a turbulent century.

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Tomorrow (Wednesday 1st April)

15:00

Sinners 15
2h 18m
Twin brothers seek a fresh start in their 1930s Southern hometown but uncover an evil lurking beneath the surface. Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan reunite for this chilling supernatural thriller set against the backdrop of the Jim Crow-era South.

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18:00

Safe 15
1h 58m
In 1980s Los Angeles, a suburban housewife develops a mysterious illness that doctors cannot explain. As she becomes convinced she has severe environmental allergies, Todd Haynes’s Safe unfolds as a chilling meditation on illness and isolation. All tickets £6 each.

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21:00

The President's Cake 12A
1h 45m | Arabic w/ English subtitles
During 1990s Iraq, schoolgirl Lamia is chosen by her class to bake a birthday cake for Saddam Hussein. With her pet rooster beside her she searches the town for ingredients in an award-winning debut about childhood resilience and life under dictatorship.

Book here


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Our beautiful art deco inspired auditorium can be found just off East Oxford's Cowley Road.We are open 7 days a week. We open the cinema and box office 30 minutes before the scheduled start time of each film, and the Box Office then closes 10 minutes after the film starts. We only show a few adverts – less than most cinemas – and we only play a couple of trailers, so please don’t be late as the film itself starts very close to the advertised time!